Many office and school buildings are full of decorated doors. All part of Christmas door contests. Doors meticulously and carelessly decorated with sentimental stories, traditions of modern Christmas represented in movies, songs, and marketing ads. FUN. ENTERTAINING. CULTURE SHAPING. MEMORY MAKING. HOLIDAY FRAMING. CREATING WARM HEARTS AND FAMILY MEMORIES.
The Incarnation is the key that unlocks the door opening to reveal the substance of the true Christmas message: Emmanuel – God with us! More than a baby in a manger, he is the God/man in the vulnerable yet invincible flesh of a newborn baby. A baby who is announced to shepherds who leave their fields to bring gifts and kneel in worship before the Savior who is Christ the Lord! Upon receiving the message, they came and humbly worshipped and then they rose to make known what they had heard and seen.
What have you heard? What have you seen? What are you worshipping? What are you making known?
All that we know and experience in this Christmas season is a blank and empty canvass to the billions who have never even heard the name of Jesus. Think about that! No Christmas to celebrate! Unaware and absent from all we long for this time of year! And . . . They will never hear, know, see, worship, rejoice, and rise to proclaim, if no one goes to tell them. What about you? Can you really contain the Christmas message and truth of God with us knowing there are so many unreached and unengaged language groups waiting to hear?
God with us? Nobody with them! You can bring God to them! You can give to send others to bring God to them! You must pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send for the laborers into his harvest field of the unknowing and unreached people of our globe!
The impact of the incarnation was necessary to provide the blameless sacrificial God/man, Jesus Christ the Lamb who took away the sins of the world through his atoning death on the cross, thereby satisfying the wrath of God who raised him on the third day and who has highly exalted his name above all names in heaven and on the earth to the glory of God the Father. The incarnational impact that transformed your life through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ is very message that unheralded, leaves the mission of Christ our King unfinished under your watch and mine. Let’s go together, church and missionary sent to finish the task for the next language group yet to hear or know the true meaning of Christmas.
Author
Steve B
Steve served as a church planter, pastor, leadership developer, missions trainer, and in missions leadership over the 37 years prior to stepping into the leadership of MɪssɪᴏSERVE Alliance. Steve is married to Terri Jo and they have four adult children and 13 grandchildren.
Steve served as a church planter, pastor, leadership developer, missions trainer, and in missions leadership over the 37 years prior to stepping into the leadership of MɪssɪᴏSERVE Alliance. Steve is married to Terri Jo and they have four adult children and 13 grandchildren.