Merry Christmas!

Handel's Messiah (Part 1)



Handel's Messiah (Part 2)



Handel's Messiah (Part 3)



Handel's Messiah (Part 4)



Handel's Messiah (Part 5)



Handel's Messiah (Part 6)



A Sneak Peak of the Christmas Sweater--Glenn Beck











I want to take this time to wish all the blog readers and all Americans a very Merry Christmas.  This is the day in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior.  This is the only day out of the entire year that all retail stores, restaurants, and other places of business are closed to celebrate the holiday.   I'm thankful that places of business still close to celebrate the Christmas holiday so families can spend Christmas together.  How long that will continue is a mystery.  But I'm thankful in the midst of a perverse and ungodly generation our country has enough sense to close places of business to celebrate Christmas.  There are some places that must remain open such as hospitals, nursing homes, and some gasoline stations.  That's understandable.  I'm thankful that all the non-essential businesses are shut down for the holiday.

In Mark 12:28-31, you have one of the scribes asking Jesus which is the first commandment of all.  Here's how the exchange went.  "And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?  And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as theyself.  There is none other commandment greater than these."  I was at the Christmas cantata at church the other evening and there was a young girl singing with the children's choir singing about what kind of present she could present to baby Jesus.  She said the greatest gift one could give Jesus was our hearts.

Of all things we could give Jesus on this Christmas day, there isn't a greater gift to give to Jesus than our hearts.  We can give him our houses, land, possessions, etc. but if we don't give him our heart, what matters if we give him our things.  God doesn't want our possessions--He wants us.  He wants us to love him with all our heart.  If we love him with all our heart, mind, and soul, He has us.  God wants us to sell out to him.  The only way to do that is to give him our heart. 

The greatest gift that a sinner could give Jesus this Christmas is their heart.  If a sinner will bow before the Lord and repent of their sins and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Lord will save him/her.  I will say that if you give God your heart when you repent of your sins, God will change you.  God doesn't want your heart to remain the same following salvation.  God will perform spiritual heart surgery on you, wash you and make you a new creature.  II Corinthians 5:17 says that if any person be in Christ, they will be a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things become new.  God the Father wants to conform you to the image of Christ.  That's the purpose of giving Jesus your heart.  God wants to make you like Jesus.  There's nothing greater than life than to serve Jesus. 

There are some people who are saved and have repented of their sins but they've allowed themselves to drift away from God.  You read in Revelation in the letter to the seven churches where Jesus told the church at Ephesus they had left their first love.  We need to go back to our first love.  We need to recommit ourselves to him and allow God to rekindle the fire down in our hearts once more.  We couldn't begin to repay the debt that Jesus paid at Calvary.  However, we can give him our heart.  We can allow the Lord to use us for His honor and glory.  God loves us and he wants to commune with His children.  If you haven't given your heart to God today would be the greatest day to give your heart and life to Jesus.  Merry Christmas!