Christmas Spirit
It's December, which means Christmas is coming. Every time we hit December, it seems as if everyone knows things are different now! It's the end of the year, Christmas is on its way.
I wonder what plans you have this Christmas. I hope that they're going to be special ones and that you'll remember this year's Christmas!
However, I hope that you and I will make sure that this is a Christian Christmas.
Seeking God's Presence
In many circles, Christmas is a godless celebration. Nobody really wants anything to do with God when it comes to Christmas - it's just about the trees and the lights and all of that. But we need to make sure that our Christmas time this year and every year is a Christian Christmas. And I want to suggest some ways to do that. And these sentences come from J. Dean Cameron, the preacher, but I'm sort of filling them in with my own thoughts.
Firstly, we need to make sure that the festive spirit doesn't quench the Holy Spirit. December is a time when a different sort of feeling takes over. Everybody starts to feel all festive because of the lights and the songs in the shops and Christmas trees and Christmas presents and all of that. And we kind of associate that with the feeling of Christmas, the festive spirit.
But friends, let's remember this Christmas that we as Christians are people of the Holy Spirit. Our Christmas should be defined by our Holy Spirit filling, and living the life of a godly person in step with the Holy Spirit.
Embracing Holy Spirit
What are you going to search for most this Christmas? Are you going to thirst for that festive spirit of all the sort of traditional Christian symbols? Or are you going to thirst for the Spirit of God to fill you and to give your life? Are you going to thirst every morning to be made new by the anointing of his Spirit so that you can be like Christ in the world?
In the end, that is the Spirit that counts this Christmas. We can have a very festive Christmas and it can be godless, or we can have a Spirit-filled, a Holy Spirit-filled Christmas and we will remember what it's all about.
And so, as we enter into the season, friends, don't let the festive Spirit quench the Holy Spirit in you, but rely on the Holy Spirit every day and every hour and every minute and every second as you live in step with our God.
