Will your Christmas celebration include time for worshiping our Savior?
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
The first Christmas didn't resemble the Christmas that we have these days. Very few people celebrated the birth of our Savior and those that did were not concerned with Santa or a Christmas tree or what gift to give to everybody.
At the first Christmas the religious leaders were not the "wise men." Even as Herod asked the religious experts, the chief priests and scribes about the information that he received from the "real wise men" they still miss the most important event that every Jew is looking forward to seeing.
At the first Christmas the earthly king was anxious to get Jesus out of the way. There was a threat to the throne in Herod's world and this threat must be dealt with at any cost, it sounds like us today, we want to be in charge and reign on the throne of our life so we don't have to give up control to Jesus.
| Psalms 2:10-12 Now then, you kings, act wisely! Be warned, you rulers of the earth! 11 Serve the LORD with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Submit to God's royal son, or He will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities--for His anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him! |
It used to be that Christmas only consisted of praise and worship and gifts for one person. These days there are so many things that are a distraction to us and we have lost the real meaning for this season of celebration. We need to be careful that we don't get rid of Jesus or become spiritually complacent and miss the reason for the season.
Jesus deserves our adoration and praise and we will do good to remember that he gave up the riches of heaven to give us the greatest gift of all.
