Putting the Christ Back in Christmas

Well, here we are again.  It's almost Christmas and everyone is scurrying around trying to finish their shopping.  But, in the midst of the shopping, have we really stopped to remember what the real reason for this Christmas season is?  It's as simple as the first six letters of the word itself.....C-H-R-I-S-T.  But in all the hustle and bustle....now it's just "Happy Holiday's", if you get that much out of it.  Jesus has been pushed right out of the greeting itself.

When I opened my email this morning, I got a sobering reminder of how Jesus has been pushed out of as much as he can be pushed out of, even to the far corners of the earth.  My brother is in a foreign country right now, doing some work that is very important.  He will be home next week, so I will talk more about it then, since I would rather him be back "in the motherland" before I talk too much about it.  Suffice it to say, he's in a lesss than friendly country.  When looking at some pictures this morning, one of them caught my eye.  At first glance, it appears to be a beautiful cathedral.  But knowing the story behind the country it resides in actually turns it into a very sad picture.  Cathedrals and church buildings are just buildings--they always will be.  But just knowing that there is really not much of Jesus' love that graces the doors of this building....not much worship, not much of the body of Christ coming together to pay hommage to Him and His death on the cross for us....just makes this building a shell--and a very sad shell at that. 

I pray that as we go throught the rest of the Christmas season, and even into the new year ahead, that we will all remember that without Christ, there is no Christmas.