Thanks for your patience as we work through the difficulties we have been experiencing with getting the email version of Freedom Fighter to you these past several weeks. I want to remind you to please check the website if you do not get your email version: http://www.americaskeswick.org/. I want to thank Brian Bitler, our Director of IT for all he is doing to resolve this problem so that we can enjoy our journey together. Thanks, Brian.
I am thankful for the guys that assist me in writing Freedom Fighter throughout the year: Chris Hughes, Pastor John Strain, Dr. Henry Lutz and Dr. George Van Sandt. Their help is much appreciated and I know you are blessed as they write. I also want to thank Keswick Board member, George Hutchison, for his STEWARDSHIP INSIGHT blog. Today's Freedom Fighter is his post for yesterday, and I felt it was important to share it with all of you today on this Christmas Eve, 2009:
Who should keep Christ in Christmas?
As we see Merry Christmas being replaced with the more "politically correct" Happy Holidays, I have always fought the noble battle to tell merchants and society to keep Christ in Christmas. As I leave a store, I defiantly tell the cashier "Merry Christmas" when every sign screams loud and clear "Happy Holidays".
I always made sure that our "Holiday Cards" not only include a manger scene on the front, but a Bible verse on the inside. I send emails with a bold "Merry Christmas" no matter who the recipient is. Yes, in my little mind I felt I was a good soldier in the "Keep Christ in Christmas" war in our society.
But yesterday in Sunday School, someone referred to this quote by Warren Wiersbe. "Today...the world is telling the church to face up to her sins, repent, and start being the true church of the Gospel" (The Integrity Crisis, Thomas Nelson). And then I remembered what Larry Burkett used to say. "We don't need to preach to the unsaved world to put Christ back into Christmas. They shouldn't, we should."
I started to think; whose job is it to keep Christ in Christmas? I began to realize that to our society and lost world, Christmas is just a holiday. Christmas represents time off from work, time to be with friends and family and time to get and receive gifts. That is a great holiday and a great reason to be happy. So Happy Holidays is very appropriate.
But for the follower of Jesus Christ, Christmas is so much more. It is more than the time off from work and gifts and time to share with family and friends. It is even more than the baby Jesus being born in Bethlehem. Christmas represents a gift from God to all mankind that opens the way to God Himself. This gift is the only way to God and a way that never could be created by mankind.
So how can we expect society, or mall stores or our government to keep Christ in Christmas when it really is nothing more than a happy holiday to them? So then exactly whose responsibility is it to keep Christ in Christmas?
We, individually as believers and collectively as the church have so much more to celebrate than the world does on December 25th. If we (followers of Jesus Christ) don't keep Christ is Christmas, it will very quickly become just a happy holiday.
So as we celebrate Christmas this year we must remember it is our job; not our politicians or local communities or merchants to keep Christ in Christmas. To them, it is just a happy holiday.
Merry Christmas and thank you God for opening the way to You through the greatest gift of all, your son, Jesus Christ!! -- George Hutchison is a member of the Board of America's KESWICK and is a certified instructor with Crown Financial
Who should keep Christ in Christmas?
As we see Merry Christmas being replaced with the more "politically correct" Happy Holidays, I have always fought the noble battle to tell merchants and society to keep Christ in Christmas. As I leave a store, I defiantly tell the cashier "Merry Christmas" when every sign screams loud and clear "Happy Holidays".
I always made sure that our "Holiday Cards" not only include a manger scene on the front, but a Bible verse on the inside. I send emails with a bold "Merry Christmas" no matter who the recipient is. Yes, in my little mind I felt I was a good soldier in the "Keep Christ in Christmas" war in our society.
But yesterday in Sunday School, someone referred to this quote by Warren Wiersbe. "Today...the world is telling the church to face up to her sins, repent, and start being the true church of the Gospel" (The Integrity Crisis, Thomas Nelson). And then I remembered what Larry Burkett used to say. "We don't need to preach to the unsaved world to put Christ back into Christmas. They shouldn't, we should."
I started to think; whose job is it to keep Christ in Christmas? I began to realize that to our society and lost world, Christmas is just a holiday. Christmas represents time off from work, time to be with friends and family and time to get and receive gifts. That is a great holiday and a great reason to be happy. So Happy Holidays is very appropriate.
But for the follower of Jesus Christ, Christmas is so much more. It is more than the time off from work and gifts and time to share with family and friends. It is even more than the baby Jesus being born in Bethlehem. Christmas represents a gift from God to all mankind that opens the way to God Himself. This gift is the only way to God and a way that never could be created by mankind.
So how can we expect society, or mall stores or our government to keep Christ in Christmas when it really is nothing more than a happy holiday to them? So then exactly whose responsibility is it to keep Christ in Christmas?
We, individually as believers and collectively as the church have so much more to celebrate than the world does on December 25th. If we (followers of Jesus Christ) don't keep Christ is Christmas, it will very quickly become just a happy holiday.
So as we celebrate Christmas this year we must remember it is our job; not our politicians or local communities or merchants to keep Christ in Christmas. To them, it is just a happy holiday.
Merry Christmas and thank you God for opening the way to You through the greatest gift of all, your son, Jesus Christ!! -- George Hutchison is a member of the Board of America's KESWICK and is a certified instructor with Crown Financial
God's WORD for US: Proverbs 24; Habakkuk, Revelation 15
Great Quote: Your Lord is Love: love Him and in Him all men, as His children in Christ. Your Lord is a fire: do not let your heart be cold, but burn with faith and love. Your Lord is light: do not walk in darkness of mind, without reasoning or understanding, or without faith. Your Lord is a God of mercy and bountifulness: be a source of mercy and bountifulness to your neighbours. If you will be such, you will find salvation yourself with everlasting glory. John of Kronstadt
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