Is Your Christmas Worthless?

Wow. December 4th already. That is hard to believe.

As we head into the "home stretch" toward Christmas, I worry that the chaos (why is there chaos at Christmas?) of the season causes us to miss the point. We all get caught up in school Christmas programs, church Christmas programs, shopping, visits with family, parties, and who knows what else. But, what if you're a follower of Christ (the term Christian has become marginalized by it's loose application...IMO)? What are you missing?

Watch this illustration from The Veracity Project hosted by Worship House Media and then I'll finish up.
Christmas without Christ is just that...Worthless.

According to the Princeton online dictionary, worthless is defined as "lacking in usefulness or value". Maybe that's why Christmas begins to feel so empty when Christ is removed. We try to replace the gift of God Himself with gifts or family or parties and wonder why it's so empty.

Many of us are familiar with the Christmas story as written in Luke 2. But I want to point you to another verse.

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

1 John 5:11 (ESV)

Did you catch that? "God GAVE us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." (emphasis added) There is nothing we can do to get this. We can't buy it, make it, bargain for it, shop for it, stand in line for it, show up at church to get it.....nothing.

All we can do is accept it. God gave us this gift starting at Christmas. We cannot be forced to accept a gift, we have to accept it.

The question is....

"Have you accepted God's gift, or is your Christmas still worthless?"