Monday, December 6, 2010

Dreaming Of A Right Christmas




"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be for all people." (Luke 2:10-11)

I - Right Gift - The right gift for this Christmas is to believe in God by accepting His eternal gift of life and salvation. "...For whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16). Material gifts and worldly possessions are temporary gifts. Priceless jewels, bulging resume, fashionable clothes, accumulated wealth will one day disintegrate into eternal nothingness.

II - Right Invitation To Accept - Jesus' is inviting us always. But oftentimes we resist His invitation to His banquet because it's inconvenient. The time will come when God will stop inviting us, and it will be too late to get into the banquet. The Gospel always speaks of sinners as responsible and accountable beings, the Gospel places an open door before all mankind and no one is excluded from the range of its offers.

III - Right Spirit - Reconciliation and repentance are the lessons we can learn from the story of the Prodigal son. This means re-establishing relationship. Peace with God means we have been reconciled with Him. God whispers us in health and prosperity, but being hard of hearing, we fail to hear God's voice in both, whereupon God turns up the amplifier by means of suffering. Then His voice booms.

IV - Right Celebration - Focusing on God is the right celebration. We must not focus on our own achievements and success but rather focus more on Jesus our Giver of gifts, Creator of creation and Blesser of the blessings we received.

V - Right Response - "....And they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." (Acts 16:31). Believing in God is our right Christmas response. When we say we believe....we say, we're not shouting we're clean living, we're whispering we were lost, now we were found and we were forgiven. We don't speak of this with pride, we were confessing that we stumble, and need Christ to be our guide. We're not trying to be strong, we are professing that we are weak, and need His strength to carry on. We're not holier than thou, we're just a simple sinner, who received God's grace somehow.


Messages By: Rev. Teofilito A. Rufon

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