This is the Christmas season. The world is celebrating the coming of the baby Jesus. In the Christian faith, Jesus came as God Incarnate, meaning God in the flesh.
The wonderful life of Jesus showed His love toward all peoples, including social outcasts, dreaded lepers and the mentally ill. Jesus gave sight to the blind and mobility to the paralyzed. Jesus showed the compassionate love of God to all He met. He taught us about finding our joy and peace and the abundant life through Him. Not only that, Jesus blessed the hurting extravagantly. Can you imagine meeting Jesus Christ and having Him heal all your illnesses and all of your stress and insecurities? Can you imagine having Jesus fill your life with high calling, wholesome values and the certain hope for an eternal future with Him? That is actually God’s plan for every person, who loves Him. The astonishing magnitude of the gift from God through His Son, Jesus Christ is almost too much to comprehend. That is how magnificent the love of God is for you and your loved ones.
With the love of God comes our role to be His people. The Bible tells us that we are ambassadors for Christ. The Bible tells us that as new creatures in Christ, our love of Christ transforms us to be more Christ-like. It is up to the believer to intentionally decide to be a person, who seeks a holy life of love.
This Christmas, it is my prayer, that we will read the Word of God daily, and live a life of deep and sincere prayer. I also hope that more people will intentionally decide to undertake the spiritual disciplines of being a person of deep faith. They can become that type of person in Christ by believing He is the Son of God and showing love and compassion for all those around them. We can work more at using Godly speech and having the confidence in our Lord to practice humility, justice, stewardship and truth telling. When we are this kind of person because of our love and gratitude for the coming of the Christ Child, then we become the hands and feet of Jesus.
When we express and demonstrate the true love of God and His compassion toward others, the receiving people can sense there is something special about our self-less demeanor, our love of people, and demonstrated love of God towards them.
I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and pray that you will be blessing to someone else this Christmas. We can be a beautiful legacy of the goodness of God to another person, as we share the riches of His glory and goodness in their lives.
“To whom God will to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27
Let Christ be in you this Christmas!
Dr. Roger Holl is the pastor of Sterling Grace Community Church, which meets at the Sterling Senior Center at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings.
Join us for a Community Christmas Concert with performance by the Community Chorus from many churches on the Kenai Peninsula and also join in with an audience Christmas sing-along. Join us Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Sterling Senior Center.
