The Ultimate Christmas Gift part 5
Category: Faithblogs
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In my last four Faithblog’s I have looked at the ultimate Christmas gift. So far, I have looked at the gift’s usefulness, worth, and effectiveness, and there are many other area’s I could look at in finding the true value in a gift, but the last area I want to look at is whether the gift is a gift that keeps giving.
Some gifts we use once or twice and then put in a box, give away, or throw away. However, some gifts just keep on giving. For example – books give the gift of knowledge, torches give the gift of light in dark places and come in handy during a blackout, and jewelry is something that can be appreciated for a lifetime and can be passed down from generation to generation for them to enjoy too.
God’s gift should be described as a gift that keeps on giving. Matthew 6 contains the Lord’s prayer in which Jesus taught us how to pray, “Give us today our daily bread…” Daily bread refers to our daily needs, and means that our needs are something we are to ask for on a daily basis. Elsewhere, Jesus tells us that if we pray and ask for anything in His name, he will do it. I’m not advocating the “name it, claim it here” theology here, but if we have genuine needs and pray for God to meet those needs, God will answer us.
James 1:17 tells us that, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
The truth is, not only does God give us everything we need today, but he is also preparing to give us so much more in the future. In John 14:2 Jesus proclaimed, “My Father’s house has many rooms. If that were not true, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you?”
But there’s another aspect to this. A good gift is one that keeps on giving… but the ultimate Christmas gift is one that keeps on forgiving.
Another thing Jesus taught in his prayer is that we are to continually ask for forgiveness. “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins.” (Matt.6) Given the context, and with the petition for prayer coming directly after the petition for daily needs, we can assume that Jesus meant for us to ask daily for God to forgive our sins.
Let’s face it we are sinners, and we sin every day. Anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. The hard truth is, God gave his gift because we are sinners. Romans 5:7-8 tells us that, “Very few people will die to save the life of someone else. Although perhaps for a good person someone might possibly die. 8 But God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners.”
So we see that God’s ultimate Christmas Gift is one that is useful, costly, effective, and keeps on giving and forgiving.
Join me next time as I conclude this series of Faithblog’s.
Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
December, 2008
Picture by Tara Bartal
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