A Thrill of Hope - Week 3: Day 5
Christmas Choices
One of the privileges of living in America is that we are free to make many choices regarding our well-being, and the paths of our lives. We are given a great deal of freedom in comparison to other countries. And let’s be honest, even with many of our freedoms being challenged by progressives, we still live in a pretty great country. We have had some pretty great days.
Over the course of my lifetime, like some of you, I have made some pretty good decisions, and I have made some pretty bad ones. Some very costly in one way or the other, some just bad in nature and resulted in a negative outcome. Both types hurt, not the same maybe, but they hurt.
One of the greatest choices that we have before us this year is how much of Jesus we will celebrate. How Christ centered our lives will be, and how far we are willing to go not only to meet Jesus in the manger, but even to protect who He is in this day and time, not to mention who He will be in our lives in the future. These are our Christmas choices.
The Wise Men had a Christmas choice to make. Herod had sent them to confirm prophecy so that he could bring harm to the little big King, but the Wise Men chose Jesus. The bible says,
As we discussed earlier, this could have been a fatal decision made by the Wise Men, but after meeting little Jesus, and knowing scripture, they could not deny Him.
From this day forward and continuing, there are going to be times when we have difficult, challenging, and costly decisions to make. There are only two ways that we can choose. We can stand for Christ, preserve His truths and His Word, or we can succumb to the worldly influences that will seek to pressure us into doing the wrong things. As the end times draw near, we learn in scripture that some of these decisions can even cost us our lives.
There will always be choices. But the flip side of that is that there will always be provision and grace. Even in persecution. Make a plan now, make a choice now to stand firm. Talk about these things with the ones in your family and inner circles that you hold dearest so that they too can understand the importance or significance in future choices that may need to be made.
One thing to consider, regardless of whether your choices have eternal (forever) or temporal (in this world) consequences, they DO have consequences. The only thing that we can do in preparation is embrace God’s Word and plead for wisdom to the Holy Spirit, that He will not only comfort as He does, but just as importantly, He will impress wisdom upon us so that we can make decisions and/or choices that are consistent with our faith and according to His will and His Word.
What made the Wise men wise was that they chose Jesus. Had they not chosen Him; they would just be ordinary sinners with no hope. We have hope, we have peace, and we have a joy that is not of this world…all we need to do is chose it. That will be the best Christmas choice you can ever make.
One of the privileges of living in America is that we are free to make many choices regarding our well-being, and the paths of our lives. We are given a great deal of freedom in comparison to other countries. And let’s be honest, even with many of our freedoms being challenged by progressives, we still live in a pretty great country. We have had some pretty great days.
Over the course of my lifetime, like some of you, I have made some pretty good decisions, and I have made some pretty bad ones. Some very costly in one way or the other, some just bad in nature and resulted in a negative outcome. Both types hurt, not the same maybe, but they hurt.
One of the greatest choices that we have before us this year is how much of Jesus we will celebrate. How Christ centered our lives will be, and how far we are willing to go not only to meet Jesus in the manger, but even to protect who He is in this day and time, not to mention who He will be in our lives in the future. These are our Christmas choices.
The Wise Men had a Christmas choice to make. Herod had sent them to confirm prophecy so that he could bring harm to the little big King, but the Wise Men chose Jesus. The bible says,
“Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.” - Matthew 2:16
As we discussed earlier, this could have been a fatal decision made by the Wise Men, but after meeting little Jesus, and knowing scripture, they could not deny Him.
From this day forward and continuing, there are going to be times when we have difficult, challenging, and costly decisions to make. There are only two ways that we can choose. We can stand for Christ, preserve His truths and His Word, or we can succumb to the worldly influences that will seek to pressure us into doing the wrong things. As the end times draw near, we learn in scripture that some of these decisions can even cost us our lives.
There will always be choices. But the flip side of that is that there will always be provision and grace. Even in persecution. Make a plan now, make a choice now to stand firm. Talk about these things with the ones in your family and inner circles that you hold dearest so that they too can understand the importance or significance in future choices that may need to be made.
One thing to consider, regardless of whether your choices have eternal (forever) or temporal (in this world) consequences, they DO have consequences. The only thing that we can do in preparation is embrace God’s Word and plead for wisdom to the Holy Spirit, that He will not only comfort as He does, but just as importantly, He will impress wisdom upon us so that we can make decisions and/or choices that are consistent with our faith and according to His will and His Word.
What made the Wise men wise was that they chose Jesus. Had they not chosen Him; they would just be ordinary sinners with no hope. We have hope, we have peace, and we have a joy that is not of this world…all we need to do is chose it. That will be the best Christmas choice you can ever make.
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