What does it really mean for someone to receive a gift?  It means that the gift has had its intended effect in the life of the one to whom it was given.  The gift wasn’t ignored, but rather was worn, admired, eaten, enjoyed, watched, sprayed on, driven, listened to, put to work or played with.  Truly, an unused gift is an unreceived gift.  That’s why some people become believers and some do not. They are either changed by what is offered in Jesus, or they live as if He isn’t even there.  How can we know if we have received the gift of God’s Son?  We obey, share, trust, serve, enjoy, worship and love Jesus.  We do not ignore Him.

Christmas is a broken string of lights for many of us.   It’s there, but it doesn’t seem to do what it’s supposed to do.  It’s bleak, not bright.  It’s melancholy, not merry.  This time of year is disappointing and depressing for a lot of people for a lot of reasons.  We’re a broken people in a broken world where there is much that is not as it ought to be.  But there is hope for us, because Jesus came for the very reason so many struggle in this season … to fix what has been fractured in us and our world.   As we wait for this to happen, let us turn to Him in our present darkness and ask Him to shine His everlasting light in our hearts.

This time of year is not about me.  And it’s not about you.  Yet, it’s easy to make it about us, isn’t it?  We can get caught up in what we enjoy about, what we receive because of, and what we get to do during Christmastime and spend very little time getting caught up with Christ.  It’s the most wonderful time of the year not because of the festive music, favorite movies, familiar decorations or family traditions that can rightly be a part of our holiday experience; it’s a time of celebration and jubilation and exaltation of Jesus.  This year, may everything that is wonderful about Christmas make us full of wonder about Christ.

It is easy to lose hope when we lose a loved one, lose a job, lose a battle, lose control, lose our health or lose our way, but there is a sure and steadfast hope that is ours if we believe. This hope isn’t some self-created positive attitude that things will turn out the way you envision in your head; it is a Spirit-produced confidence in the faithfulness of Immanuel to keep His promises that is settled in your heart.  He has been with you all along.  He is with you even now.  He will be with you always.  Your hope isn’t in your ability to figure out how to make it work out in the end; your hope is confidence that He already has.

God demands we be perfect in order to go to heaven, declares none of us are perfect and therefore are condemned to hell, and then delivers us by sending Jesus to take our imperfections and be our perfection so we can have everlasting life.  Here’s what won’t get you into heaven: your effort at trying to be good enough. Here’s what will get you into heaven: Jesus. Trust Him, and everything changes!  We were… Lost, but now found.  Bankrupt, but now rich.  Condemned, but now pardoned.  Enslaved, but now free.  Dead, but now alive.   Rejoice! God didn’t lower His standards for us; He lowered His Son for us.

Jesus willingly exchanged all the wealth of His deity for the poverty of His humanity when He came to dwell on earth.  Why?  For. Our. Sake. We couldn’t live up to God’s standards, so Jesus lived perfectly for us.  We couldn’t break free from sin, so He set us free.  We couldn’t atone for our transgressions, so He died in our place.  We couldn’t defeat death, so He conquered the grave so we too will rise. We couldn’t earn an eternal retirement, so He paid for our inheritance.  We have become rich through the finished work of Jesus.  And long before it was finished at Calvary, it was started in Bethlehem.  For our sake.

When was the last time you thought about eternity and what it would be like to perish forever?  When was the last time you rejoiced that you have a completely different eternity awaiting because God gave His Son? When was the last time you considered the implications of receiving this gift? Everything bad is turned around and traded in for good when we trust in Jesus!  Because in Jesus we are given a countless list of blessings with each entry having sub-lists of countless more benefits that we enjoy now in part and will enjoy fully throughout eternity. Rejoice today in God’s Son.  He’s the Gift that keeps on giving.

The bad news that is plastered all over the social media and news media stories will leave us disturbed and discouraged if we don’t remind ourselves of the good news of the Greatest Story Ever Told.  Every day we must remember who Jesus is to us and what He does for us.  The more we trust in the message of joy that a Savior and Lord has arrived to rescue us from bad and rule over us for good, the more we will experience real joy in our hearts. Today, don’t fill your mind with the garbage of this world but rather fix your mind on the glorious good news of Jesus.  This will lead to great rejoicing for those who believe.

Advent is a time of hopeful waiting.  The question is:  what are we waiting for?  Life will frequently leave us disappointed and dissatisfied if we are waiting for the right time when the right things have come and made us feel the right way.  So…  We wait.  And we wait.  And we wait our lives away. We will never find lasting satisfaction in the people, pleasures and possessions of earth.  We weren’t mean to.  As we wait for the second coming of Jesus, let us look to Him to be for us and give to us what this world never can:  the gift of real contentedness.  It’s not about what we have in our lives; it’s about Who we have in our hearts.

The sights, sounds and smells of Christmastime should cause us to pause and celebrate Christ.  As we see the glow of lights, let our own hearts be merry and bright because the Light of the world has come.  As we hear holiday music, let us smile because Jesus has put a new song in our hearts.  As we walk past the Salvation Army worker, let us remember Jesus came to work for our salvation.  It’s all there: the CHORUS of praise, the WRAPPING of swaddling clothes, the TREE made into a cross, the GIFT of eternal life. May every fleck of tinsel, note of a carol and morsel of a cookie remind us:  Jesus is the reason for the season.

Our sin prevents nearness to God because it separates us from Him with no possible way from our side to get to Him.  This is why Jesus came to live, die and rise…  So you and I can draw near to God.  We who are trusting in Jesus for forgiveness and freedom from sin are no longer distant from real peace, real hope, real joy, real comfort, real security, real wisdom, and real love because we are no longer distant from God where these things are found. Our Immanuel made a way for us to get forgiven, get real life, get to heaven and get to God.  Rejoice today over this truth: When we could not get to Him, Jesus came to us.

Our thoughts have the power to shape us, for better or for worse, so we must let our minds land most often on Jesus. His Good News message is full of life-changing truths and promises that will guide us into a right perspective on every life issue.  It changes how we see our past so we can know real freedom from guilt and shame.  It changes how we see our present so we can know real purpose and peace in the midst of busyness.  It changes how we see our future so we can know real hope as we joyfully anticipate what lies ahead. The more we think about Jesus, the more it will rewire how we think about everything else.

Even as Christians, one of the human weaknesses that we must continue to seek divine strength to overcome is our bent to be selfish.  We need the mind and heart of Christ:  a mind that regularly thinks of others rather than just ourselves, and a heart that is compassionate enough to serve and support others even at our own expense.  It should be the golden rule, not the exception, to give up what we want so others can get what they need.  That is when we are like Jesus. Today, go out of your way to do for others, joyfully remembering this:  Jesus went out of His way from heaven to earth to the cross to do for you.

There is a three-word description that summarizes what happens from the moment we put our faith in Jesus until the moment we come face-to-face with Him:  grow in grace.  We are not meant to stay the same or stand still, but to progress in our experience of grace for the rest of our lives. There are countless observations, implications and applications that flow from God’s grace to us, and we have the delightful duty of discovery.  Day by day, we are to prize, prioritize and pursue intimacy with Jesus.  Progress does not come from fixing ourselves, but fixing our eyes on Him. This is how we grow: we set out to know.

The goal of grace is to unite us to God so that He is honored in us and we are happy in Him.  Grace makes it possible for us to personally know God and enjoy Him, along with all the good gifts that He purposes to give us now and forever.  He doesn’t give us what we think will make us happy, but rather what He knows will make us happy … Himself.  Because of the grace of God, we get the God of grace! Therefore, the point of grace is to point us to God, so that we will be satisfied by Him, and He will be glorified by us. God gets the eternal praise that He’s always deserved, and we get the eternal pleasure that we’ve always desired.

You will either receive the grace of God or the wrath of God for your sin.  There is no third option.  By nature and choice, we sin against God by preferring things over Him and refusing to obey Him, which condemns us to hell.  The only remedy is personally receiving the free forgiveness available by faith in Jesus, which ushers us into heaven.  You get to choose between continuing in sin and continuing with Jesus. Whether you embrace this as the best news ever or dismiss it as foolishness, this is true:  You need grace, and you can have grace.  To reject it is to perish forever; to receive it is to have pleasure forever.

For all who trust in Jesus, there is a glorious eternity ahead in which bad things will be eliminated, good things will be perfected, and the best things will be unveiled.  We have an eternity with Him that… Never gets stale.  Never gets boring.  Never gets routine.  Never gets unappealing.  Never gets finished.  There will always be more to discover and enjoy from the immeasurable riches of God’s grace towards us in Christ Jesus.  Don’t live for this day; live for that day.  Don’t be discouraged by this day; be encouraged by that day.  Take hope in this every day:  For those who are trusting in Jesus, the best is always yet to come.

There’s only one reason we persevere through trials, troubles and tragedies in this broken world:  grace.  God gives us the strength, encouragement and provision we need to keep going when the going gets tough. He is always graciously working in us, working behind the scenes for us, and working all things out for the good of us.  When He does not give us grace to escape problems, He will give us grace to endure them. We will keep going.  We will get to the other side.  We will make it through.  This is our hope in Jesus… When the time is right, God will bring our hurting to an end and give us happiness without end.

We can be grateful for many things, and we should be.  We can be grateful to many people, and we should be.  We can be grateful on many occasions, and we should be.  But there is One who makes every good thing, every good person and every good occasion in our lives possible by His amazing grace.  God sent Jesus to be perfect for us because we aren’t, absorb wrath for sin so we don’t, and secure the blessings for us that we can’t.  Jesus paid our sin penalty and paid for our special privileges so that we might be forgiven, freed and favored. Today and every day, let us offer thanks for His giving.

The sweetest of all thankfulness isn’t superficial; it goes deep.  It goes past feeling happy that certain things are in our lives.  It goes past naming those things so it is known that we appreciate them.  It goes past even tracing their origin back to God and thanking the Giver for all of our blessings.  There is a delightful, wonderful, beautiful experience when our gratitude is not merely directed toward God for His gifts, but toward God for Himself.  We give thanks that among many things, He is a holy, loving, kind and gracious Father. The way to be best thankful for all that God has given us is to be most thankful for Him.