A simple greeting on Christmas Day
Thank you for being a reader of EveryDay Life. Instead of writing a devotional as usual, I just want to say, ” Thank you and enjoy a Blessed Christmas and New Year,” to all who read and who share EveryDay Life with your family and friends. Thank you for sharing this journey with me. Thank you for welcoming me into your heart and life. When our oldest granddaughter was entering university, I had been her only pastor and I wanted to keep sharing God’s Word and Godly principles into her life. Friends and friends of friends began to ask to receive what I was writing, and with the help of others who had technical skills I lacked, EveryDay Life was born. I still write first to my granddaughter, now the mother of three school age children. With her blessings, thousands of people now read EveryDay. You are gracious and the Holy Spirit is faithful to bring God’s Word in practical application. Here are a few thoughts for today . .
Christmas is only fully Christmas when you share its joy.
A joy-filled message is not credible when coming from a joyless messenger. You can’t share something you don’t have, and you can’t keep something that you won’t share. That states a spiritual principle that also applies to inexpressible and glorious joy, “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.” Proverbs 11:24-25 NIV. When you give joy, you gain joy.
Share the joy of Christmas every day and to every person, in every imaginable way. Celebrate with abandon and without apology. Invite, include, involve, converse, welcome, laugh, love, express life, and be real. Celebrate Jesus joyously. Incarnate the joy of the timeless message so an unbelieving world cannot resist. Christmas is the celebration of the truth that, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 NKJV.
Blessings on this Christmas day and as we enter a New Year, Pastor Allen and Gayle Randolph