According to the “Advent Conspiracy” Americans will spend 450 billion dollars on
Jesus’s Birthday.
We live in a society that equates value with love. We see it all the time. When a bride gets engaged we look at how big the rock on her finger is, and that indicated how much she is loved. Kobe Bryant anybody? Our greeting cards are seven bucks a pop if we “care enough to send the very best”. And when was the last time you saw a smart car wrapped up with a big red bow on a car commercial? The truth is you cannot even begin to watch any television most times of the year where the premise isn’t held up as absolute. You love well if you spend well.
This is especially true this time of the year. Christmas.
According to the American Consumer Credit Counsel the average American will spend $935 on Christmas gifts this year. On average. A grand. Man, Woman, and Child.
So how does this culture of excess line up with the culture of the Kingdom?
Let’s look at what our King has to say on the matter.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:19-21
So with this in mind where is our treasure this holiday season? Are we making credit card payments for things that will find their way into the trash heap, or will we make memories with those we love that will last a lifetime?
Are we investing in some CEO’s children’s private education, or will we place our treasure in the hands of those like World Vision who will take it and educate the poorest of the poor, making beggars into workers, while sharing with them the knowledge of Jesus Christ?
Will we eat, drink, and be merry beyond our real need at our 4th Christmas party of the season, or will we feed a starving world that would be thrilled with the stuff we are gonna throw out at the end of the night?
Will our own kids think of Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty before they think of a Child King in a manger, Emmanuel, God with us. The Baby that came to suffer and die, to take on a Father’s wrath, so we wouldn’t have to. Have they truly received the gift of Life in Christ?
Isn’t that more pressing that the latest whatever?
This year change the world… Give Christmas away beautifully.
Seek Jesus. Ask Him how. He promises to tell us, if we don’t really know already.
http://www.adventconspiracy.org/default.aspx?page=3684
Happy Advent! Jesus is coming again!
Pastor Steven Dahl
stevenwdahl@me.com
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