it's December 25th again

sharing a feast with friends [Mav still hates getting his picture taken]

Even still, this year, while first world nations celebrate Christmas I still don't know what to think of it.  Especially as we live into the fourth year amongst millions of men, women and children who will not be baking and feasting until they can stretch their stomachs no more.  Where moms and dads will not be lavishing their children to the kilt with things that will not be newly fascinating when next week comes.  Where streets will still have many children from so heart wrenching young to the troubled teen begging and stealing for food for themselves or for their own destitute family barely sheltered in a rickety shack located above wastes of sorts [or next to it].  Where millions will be washing their dishes for the next meal and bathing in the same stenchy  trash laced river.

I struggle with these things because they are not just part of our immediate geographical reality but they are part of our entire world reality.  I know that on a much more traumatic scale their are fathers heavy laden with stress assisting their wives in giving birth to the baby in a war zone. Many doing so while still trying to protect their other children.  How can we, who live in such comfort, turn this side of reality off long enough to stress over the smallest most insignificant social offenses of inconveniences of sorts?  But year after year that's what we do.  Millions suffer some of the most hellish moments on earth.  Tens of thousands will die never having heard about Jesus.  And we spend another human created celebratory holiday to feast and mingle and yack of things, that will be gone forever when this life is over, amongst ourselves.

We boast of new gadgets and other things and the incredible sale/clearance we found them at.  We show our best place settings and crafty decor while on the other side of the window, wall and boarder a child hunts for a spoiled dish of food.  If they find an unspoiled handful it's a bonus find.  Their toxin burdened bodies get a rare break and absorbs every bit of new found nutrition within because some one else had taken more than they could stuff themselves with.

We fancy our social media friends with MERRY CHRISTmas and pretty photos of ourselves, our families and the well manicured homes and towns we live in or spent extra money to visit.  We wish our fellow "lower class"or "middle class" and "upper class" more of God's blessings for the approaching new year.  We can feel especially good about ourselves if we spent a few hours feeding the homeless at Salvation Army or a homeless shelter. Or because we sent a small contribution we were willing to spare in order to help a family in Africa buy a goat or two that will provide them with sustenance for as long as it lives.  Don't misunderstand me.  I know much of it is actually quite good.

Then we tell ourselves that there's nothing wrong with spending one holiday a year in which we spend all the money we can afford on GIVING gifts to those we love because it's representative of Christ's gift: the gift of Jesus who gave himself to save us all from eternal damnation.  There's surely nothing wrong but everything sacred in it and spending all the time and energy celebrating this Jesus with all our parties in each other's homes and at church.  This is how we celebrate Jesus.

But I struggle with that.  This Jesus came to set all men free from hell's fury and God's wrath... all who desire to be set free.  This gift came with a price.  The price of the life of the greatest being that ever walked the face of the earth and fortunately rose again.  But the price for those accepting such a gift, by making the good confession and repenting...by comparison the price of obedience is actually quite small.  The price of laying down our own lives to share the TRUTH of the gospel in the global effort to help free millions and billions from the bondage of sin and eternal damnation.  

After all, while we "celebrate" tens of thousands die meeting their ETERNAL destiny face-to-face either without Jesus and suffering forever... or with Jesus in ETERNAL glory.  At the same time nations are ushering millions more of new lives. Many of those babies won't make it to their first  birthday.  But many most certainly will and beyond.  Are we equipping our children to spread the gospel truth to those children when they are of age to do so?

Is it really just this one time in the year we are essentially thinking of only ourselves and saying "Happy-something-or-other" to our fellow social and economic class mates?  Is there not also a swift follow up of Valentines, Easter, Independence Day, Veterans' Day, Labor Day....etc?  We live in a world full of distractions of sorts that require busy celebration... and now in a day where we boast of what we did to be busily involved in them. Me included. I often wonder if "Christmas" is the biggest holiday because it's celebrated in the most nations.

This world is withering away as quick as time is screaming by on a day-by-day basis. Thousands will die today.  Thousands will die tomorrow....and the next day...and the next day... and the next....  Many will spend the rest of ETERNITY inside heaven's gates. Many will suffer in hell's fury with unspeakable pain....FOREVER.  After 900 billion years of that pass, they will be no closer to the end of it then from the moment they entered it. Can we grasp .... can we ever exhaustively grasp what such eternity is?

Should we be busy "celebrating"or working out our faith by being part of the great commission?  Should we not ask ourselves if God said to make much merry of His Son in the way we do as a church?  I say yes.  Ask. Search the Scriptures and then act accordingly.  Celebrations are not evil.  God doesn't say they are.  In fact, he encourages celebrations.  For freedom.  for life. But not to elevate ourselves as we often do.  God teaches us to elevate others in a way that GLORIFIES HIM.  What is that really suppose to look like?

I've lived long enough to be able to take a good long and hard look at the American way of celebrating and glorifying God this time of year .... which is to take on battles that practically scream at the world around us that CHRISTmas is all about Christ. We go out of our way to offend the naysayers who are against CHRISTmas carols by blasting them on our car speakers with the windows rolled down and then encourage others to do the same because it's our "right".... for the sake of the gospel. Then we go out of our way to send CHRISTmas cards to those "anti-CHRIST" politicians or significant others of varying national influence. Then we tell the world that they are heathens if our version of CHRISTmas offends them while teaching our children about the sacred recognition of Santa.  

We shame our wealthy non-Christian fellow humans for not sharing their wealth with neighbors and giving back to help our failing economy while stuffing our stockings and the area underneath our CHRISTmas tree with things that we trampled on strangers over so as to beat them to the corporate greed invented Black Friday sale. You know, those "heathens" that hurt like we do in their trials and tribulations.  That hunger for real relationships. Those "heathens" that need to know not only of God's wrath against the sins of mankind but of His GRACE and MERCY and LOVE... and what that's suppose to look like in us.  Those "heathens" who will lose a loved one to a car accident, other accidental deaths, explainable deaths or cancer in the new year.  Those "heathens" who were also created by God in his image.

That's our way of telling the world "Merry CHRISTmas" and "may [the] God [I love] bless you in the New Year."  This is the American CHRISTmas I lived year after year.  After delighting in watching my kids open things I lavished them with and then remind them of children somewhere in the world who are suffering and dying instead of enjoying life as they do... hoping they get it and gain some level of sympathy. 

Oh, how I struggle with this annual holiday. I'm not interest in seeing the devil behind every bush and calling him out.  But nor am I interested in dismissing some serious concerns of the American church's CHRISTmas.   God sees every single one of us [me included] at the very core of who we are.  He knows the heart condition of the American church, the Philippine church and of those around the rest of the world.  I know full well my heart is also far from where it should be.

Maybe, just maybe I'm wrong somewhere in that.  BUT.... but the heart of the American church still needs some major refinement, pruning and reconditioning with all the religion turned holidays.  We are not promised tomorrow on this earth. Thus, should we not be more concerned about reaching the broken, the hurting and the spiritually blind for the sake of God's glory and his kingdom?  Should we not be more busy doing his work as diligently as possible, training up our children to do the same?  The consequences of not doing so are paid by those who are not reached.  They pay for ETERNITY and that's on us.  Where is the heart of the church for the lost?  For the Hungry? For the widow? For the orphan? For the unreached in the most remote places?  Where is the heart of the church for the millions of unborn at the hands of evil?  The unborn are at risk.  Children are brutally abused and/or dying.  The lost are dying.  Work.  We must busy ourselves for God's glory.  Be a part of reaching them all before it's too late for them. Before it's too late for us to obey. There is great reward for churches who are already fulfilling the great commission.  But one church that's not is one church too many. 

I grieve knowing that even I am not doing all that God Almighty has called me to do.  I have wasted so much time and resources that he has been gracious enough to give me stewardship of KNOWING that I would do just that...waste it. I also grieve for the rest of the church that sleeps and takes care not for the widows and orphans as he called the church to do.  I grieve for the church that is not taking an active role in reaching the unreached. I grieve, though not enough.  And I grieve for the church not discipling the parents to disciple their children every day. My grieving does NOT compare to that of Christ's, however.

Work now.  Work and never stop. We have eternity to celebrate.  We have eternity to lift high and praise the Almighty for his work and death at the cross. We have eternity to celebrate his conquering of evil and his resurrection.

I wonder what my eternity will look like. What will your eternity look like?  Will it be full of eternal kingdom treasures of souls you helped find Jesus or empty because of what treasure you stored on earth which burned and withered away with it?  

Sacrifice now. Work NOW for as long as God Almighty allows you to.
Celebrate in ETERNITY....forever.