A Gift Worth Giving.

It’s that time of the year again, I love the season of Christmas, because I get time off work, try to relax and read, I get to catch up with friends, I get to have a proper Christmas meal!

What I don’t like is the frenzy leading up to Christmas, people buying gifts which they will probably not remember in a years time, because they don’t’ want to be left out. After Christmas, most people are so tired that they can’t even remember what all the fuss was about. Recently, a news reader mentioned, are you dreading Christmas? Because you have to sit in the company of the in-laws and pretend you love your gift when all the time you want to choke them.

Don’t get me wrong I celebrate Christmas and believe in what Christmas stands for which is the Birth of my Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ. What I don’t stand for is the commercialism which has taken over, call the spirit of Christmas.

The Spirit of Christmas to me is the spirit that causes us to be selfless all year round not just at Christmas, the spirit which will look on the cause of others and show compassion on the less fortunate, regardless of the time of the year, the spirit which will love and give and not expect anything in return.
The special thing about Christmas should be the spirit of love we share for others, which should shine through in our gifts giving.

If you are giving gifts this Christmas, here are a few thoughts to ponder:

What is your motive?
Can you afford it?
Are you giving gifts because you don’t want to be the one who didn’t give a gift after receiving one?
Does the person you are buying a gift for really need it?
Are there people outside your circle of friends and family you can reach out to at this time of the year? (locally or internationally).
Have you considered the possibility of not buying gifts but rather donate the money to a charity involved in a worthy cause.
Are there other ways you can show the people in your life how much you care for them.
Have you accepted the greatest gifts of all? This is the person of Jesus Christ whose birth we should be celebrating, but alas, we give gifts to others but fail to give the celebrant the gift of our life and love. If you have not done this I urge you to strongly consider it, because after all, it is his birthday and all he ask from you is the gift of your life. In giving him your life, you are opting to receive from him a life time of priceless gifts.

Have Yourself a Merry Christmas.

Perspectives:

We sometimes have different perspectives on the thing same issues. For instance your analysis on how the economy should be run may be different from mine, we’ve sat and discussed how we think the economy should be tackled, and we’ve become self professed economic analyst.

Regardless of our perspectives, the current government did not seek our opinion before going ahead with the cuts and changes which we are currently experiencing. The government, together with experts in different fields sat down to the reality of the current state of the economy and decided (regardless of the perspectives of the people) to make certain changes. And by God will they hurt?

This got me thinking, it’s the same with God. He does not seek your opinion or perspective on your future. He already determined our end from our beginning, which means that before we were conceived, God already knew what each second, minute, hour, day, week, month and year has in store for us. He did not have a round table discussion with you when you became a teenager to decide how your future will turn out. He already had that figured out.
Does it mean we have no part to play in our daily existence? Not at all, the fact that the government did not seek our point of view before making these changes doesn’t mean that we have no part to play, our part is to find out how the changes will affect us and come into line with it. We may need to re-organise our personal finances to come in line with the governments.

In the same way we too can find out what God’s plans are for our lives are and come into line with them. The bible clearly tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 that his plans for our lives are good not evil. Our perspectives on our lives are irrelevant if we haven’t viewed it in line with God’s perspectives. God’s perspectives is contained in his word, it is loaded with guidance and clues which are certain to bring us into his perfect plan for our lives, but because we are so pre-occupy with our own plans and perspectives we fail to seek and see what his are, we struggle to understand where the problem lies when things aren’t working the way we thought they should.

I encourage you today, if you are struggling to understand the way your life is turning out, go to God in prayer, ask him to show you areas you’ve neglected to involve him and come into line with his plans.

What he shows you may be difficult to implement, he may ask you to change your attitude, change your perspective, change your location, change your character, change, and more change. But whatever he ask of you, be ready to get on board with his purpose for your life, as we wrap up this year and set assail into 2011 a territory unknown us but known to him.

Hope That Saves!

The remarkable story of 33 miner buried 2000 feet below the surface of Chile’s Atacama desert made head news around the world. Even more remarkable was the unbelievable rescue of these men. I'm sure you are familiar with the story so I won't bore you by telling it again.

One thing struck me through it all and that was the resilience of the men, they didn’t give up hope. They kept their hope alive by pulling together, when one was weak, there was one who encouraged, together, with the help those on the surface they kept their hope alive.

Often, we are faced with dire situation, ones which threatens our very existence. Literally we feel buried in those circumstances with no way out. If you recall, there was no way in or out of that mine after it collapsed (talk about a hopeless situation). An emergency rescue plan had to be put together to get them out.

Straight from my heart is this piece to encourage you to have faith in God, in the face of buried dreams and seemingly hopeless situation.
Look up your help comes from the Lord, in a way you could say their hope saved them. Watching them come out, not one of them had an angry or exhausted look, and they kept their hope alive by hooking up with God, those on the surface and encouraging each other.

For some of us, it may look like there’s no way in or out of our situation, but hang in there help is on the way. While waiting for a rescue, reshape your attitude, let go of pain, anger and hatred, have a winning attitude, because you can’t tell your story with all those things written over your expression.
It may require a dramatic effort to bring you out but it will happen.
As Romans 8:24-28 says, we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is no hope at all, who hopes for what he already has? 25: but if we hope for what we do not yet have we wait for it with patience.
Hope in God, have faith that he's working all things out for your good. Be assured it won't be long before he rescues you. Just stay hooked up and connected to him.

Snared, bruised and brushed, still I arise.
Knocked down but not out, kicked but not killed, still I arise
With gaze upward looking,
My hope is rekindled with the vision of victories ahead.
I arise.