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The comme
rcialism of Christmas is already upon us. Don't be hypnotized.
you "need" this
The shiny things on the shelves in the store aisles, or online, will be carefully wrapped in the package of necessity. "You need this. He needs that. She should have those."
It doesn't take much to numb our senses into the flow of the marketing schemes surrounding Christmas, and the year-round onslaught of worldliness. In no time we can find ourselves floating like dead fish in its current. Don't be carried away.
Don't float. Heaven is real. Hell is real.
giving is godly
Being a good gift-giver to those you love is a good impluse. Enjoy giving. Don't abandon that. Fan the desire to bless into flame. There's a rightness to temporal generosity.
Giving out of delight is an overflow of the image of God in man. God is the Great Giver. But His gifts, unlike ours, are always best.
God has given the best He could have given. In Jesus, God has withheld "no good thing" from His people. The greatest gift God could give (and suffice it to say that He is infinitely well-endowed) has already been granted to the Christian.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing the heavenly places in Christ"(Ephesians 1:3, emphasis mine).
strategize or succumb
This CHRISTmas season will find a response from you. Entrapment in the evil of unbelief, or faith in the God of all grace represent your only two options everyday.
Will you pray, and strategize, and write down ideas, and get creative until you have identified the ways you will join God in giving the best gift? Will you participate in commending Jesus? Go. Pray. Give. Don't let limited resources stand in your way. There are many ways to get involved.
Seek God! Getting your finger on the pulse of God's heartbeat for the nations (and your neighborhood!) will crank up the right channels of the involvement mechanism He has planted within you.
When standing in heaven next to the peoples from the island of 
Papua New Guinea, you will not regret having made a small sacrifice in 2009 to help support the spread of the gospel among the nations.
The trinkets in this year's "must-need" aisle will be long forgotten and replaced with new stuff on next year's shelves. The soul of the man on the isle, though, is forever.
seeing the reality can be self-incriminating
According to today's statistics on Joshua Project, there are 6,639 unreached people groups in the world. Don't tune out the stat.
Hitting home, here's a sobering number to compliment that one: There are over 42,000 Southern Baptist Churches....in the United States alone.
It should'nt be conceivable for both stats to coexist but to our shame they do.
Some will point out that not all SBC churches are faithful. Who can argue? Some have abandoned the gospel. Others are side-tracked with non-essentials. So no, not every church will get involved.
what if
But, what if only 6,000 (14%) of the SBC churches were to repent and seek the face of God in the power of the Holy Spirit with the desire to reach JUST ONE of these groups over the course of the next decade?
What if other churches outside of the SBC, including others inside and outside the U.S., who have held onto the gospel, took a similar approach?
get bothered enough to act
As I've typed this post, someone --- lots of someones --- in each one of those 6,639 people-groups have perished into a Christless eternity. The Christian should not be okay with that.
Jesus is worthy of their praise. That's the motive to go, and pray, and give. The gospel is inherently "good news." And its good news to you because it made it to you in time.
a way
Maybe one less gift for the kids, or one less-expensive gift for the kids? The other strategies? The Lord will lead. Seek out your church's channel of involvement.
Might I suggest an option... click here.
Filed under Grace Church and Jesus