The headline in today’s paper spoke of the expectation of a huge shopping day, on this day before Christmas.  Did these people not know that Christmas was coming?  If not, I can tell them that it will happen next year, at this same time, Lord willing.

Lest I sound more pious than I am, I must confess that I am notorious for cutting it pretty close myself, but I try not to cut it quite that close.  The whole thing turns my thoughts to the way our human nature works.  We tend to have this mentality that says, “Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.”  Can’t you imagine the rush at the door of the ark, in Noah’s day, when it began to rain, and the waters began to rise?

If the thief, who was crucified beside Jesus, could turn to God in repentance and faith in that late hour of his life, I have no doubt that others can, also, but those who go that route miss the joy of walking by faith in this life.

I have done Christmas shopping both ways: last minute and with some time to spare.  I can tell you, it’s a whole different stress level when you know that you are prepared for it.  It is beyond the power of my vocabulary to express the peace and joy in knowing that heaven is secure, and Jesus is Lord of my today.

We live in the most exciting and opporuntue time of any generation in history.  We can communicate with someone on the other side of the world, just like they were across the street.  That’s amazing, and my old grandpa would have never dreamed it possible.  We have resources today that folks just one generation ago could not imagine.  It is still true, however, that the best advertisement is word of mouth.  Electronic advertisements come at us these days from every direction, but we tend to stop and take notice when somebody we know speaks a positive word about something in which we have interest.

People are often intimidated and are made to believe that they don’t know enough to say a word on the Lord’s behalf, but the truth is, anyone can say what the Lord has done for them.  There is nobody who is a greater authority on what the Lord has done for you, than you!

Electronics have changed many things about the way we communicate.  It hasn’t been long since we had to either go see the person we needed to contact, or perhaps we could call them on the phone or write them a letter. 

I well remember when my family got our first telephone.  It was on an eight-party line, and you knew it was for your house by the number and length of the rings.   Our ring was one long ring.  My cousin’s ring was one long and two shorts.  You learned pretty quickly not to say anything that you didn’t want everybody to know.  Now, my seven year old grandson has his own cell phone, though he doesn’t know where it is most of the time.

Now we can text people, facebook them, or if running just a bit behind the times, we can email them.  Either way, it’s instant and easy.  We can send a message to someone on the other side of the world, just as easily as if they were across the street.  When you add it all up, we’ve come a long way in a short time.  We really don’t have any excuse not to spread the gospel message.

There was a time when even thieves would show a certain amount of respect to a church.  There was a time when even people who had no Christian commitment knew that to steal from God’s people was to steal from God.  It seems that time is history.

Some time back, I met with a group of pastors and the subject of benevolence came up.  We all agreed that we eagerly wanted to help those who were genuine in their need and truthful about how they got there, but that an estimated 9 out of 10 who now call on churches for help are not genuine.

It is quite common nowadays, that people no longer come by, they just call on their cell phone.  When they do come by, it is quite common that they smell like a $4.00 pack of cigarettes.  Does this mean that we no longer help anybody?  No, but it means that we have become far more suspicious than we used to be, and we have to know that God knows their hearts and will deal with them accordingly.

There is another, and more important point to consider in all of this, and that is the biblical instruction concerning how we pass out church money.  We are certainly to help widows and orphans (that is “widows indeed,”) but not necessarily those who are disobedient to the Lord.  Are we to take the money that people, who are obedient to the Lord through giving, have given, and give it to people who are rebelling against God?  That doesn’t even make common sense, much less biblical sense.

God says that if we give to the poor, we are lending to Him, and He will repay, but He has instructed us to which poor we are to give.  It may be that we are entering into an economic season that will provide many genuine needs through which the church can be a true blessing. 

The ultimate blessing of Christmas is Jesus.  If you miss that, you’ve missed it all.  Christmas, however, provokes something inside us, that moves us to want to be a blessing.  In the Lord’s eyes, that’s not a seasonal thing, but actually a 365/24/7 command.  But with that said, we are more sensitive to the need to be a blessing at Christmas.

There is a satisfaction in giving that cannot quite be explained, yet all of us who have participated in it know it’s there.  It’s not a satisfaction that comes from somebody thanking us for what we have done, instead, it comes from deep within us.  There is something about our spirit that just needs to be generous and helpful.

Christmas is the time that we have a heightened awareness of how much God has given us.  God is always a giver and never a taker.  When He gives us biblical instructions concerning giving, it is not His purpose to get something from us, it is His purpose to get something to us.  This may sound too simplistic, but God has already set a system in place by which we can enjoy the blessing of Christmas all the time.  It is simply to be an obedient and cheerful giver.