Christmas – Resounding Shophar Ministries

An Unrealized Gift

Have you ever received a gift that wasn’t complete? You know what I mean. Perhaps it was a gift card, something that had to be redeemed to purchase the gift of your choosing. Maybe it was what one would call an “IOU”, where someone gives this to you in a card or envelope promising to give you something in particular at some point in the future. In either case you received a gift that wasn’t truly realized until it was fulfilled.

Another example of such a gift, one that might help make the point better, is the gift of seeds. What if someone gave you a gift of apple seeds? Those seeds in and of themselves are not much of a gift, but if you plant the seeds and they grow into an apple tree producing a lot of apples, now that would be quite the gift wouldn’t you say? Especially if you really liked apples.

During this time of year people celebrate the greatest gift of all for mankind, and even then in the midst of the celebrating they often times forget about the gift itself. I’m talking about Christmas and the birth of Jesus. Christmas is without a doubt the biggest and most celebrated of holidays. It has also become the most commercialized as people spend a lot of money buying gifts and decorations for the holiday, and even giving sizable contributions of various types and amounts to a variety of people and charitable organizations.

So, what about this gift that often times gets overlooked in the midst of such activity. It’s the birth of Jesus, God’s gift to mankind. Churches put on Christmas programs focused around Jesus, and people put up nativity scenes all over the place. There is also a phrase that some will use to help remind others of this gift, “He is the reason for the season.” A lot goes into celebrating the birth of this Jesus in a manger, but the problem is that very few ever allow Him to leave the manger. As a result, for most they never truly experience the gift of Jesus as God intended them to. Let me explain.

God gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, as a gift for all mankind, but the gift was not fulfilled in the manger as many attempt to do. Instead, the gift was fulfilled on a wooden cross hoisted on the top of Golgotha about 33 years later, and was realized three days later when He was resurrected from the dead. This was the gift God had destined for all mankind, the gift of salvation through the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus.

We get all excited about the birth of Jesus, and rightfully so, but if we don’t let Him out of the manger and let Him get on a cross, then our celebrating of His birth is all in vain. If Jesus hadn’t died and rose again then there would be no celebrating of Christmas, or at least nothing anywhere close to what it is, and it wouldn’t have any real significance for us.

Are you embracing the gift God has given us as He intended we do, or are you just keeping Him in a manger where it’s safe and non-threatening to you and the way your living? People love Jesus while He is in a manger because a baby doesn’t threaten or interfere in their way of life, but if they let Jesus out of the manger to die on a cross then that forces them to take a real close look at their own lives in light of what Jesus did on their behalf, and a lot of people don’t like that.

As we celebrate the birth of this gift God has given us, will you also remember to let Him out of the manger to receive God’s gift to you in all His fullness??? He is more than the reason for the season, He’s the reason for celebrating the life He’s giving us in heaven through the cross and His resurrection.

He is the gift unrealized.

John Johansson

C G and C

Many people are haunted with memories of their past. They struggle with thoughts and regrets of how they should’ve handled things better, and now they are in an emotional prison of sorts. I’m not talking of things for which you had no control over, but rather instead those times when you had the opportunity of handling or responding to situations differently than you had. While there may be better and more sophisticated ways of addressing these, I want to simplify things by breaking things up into three groups, condemnation, guilt, and conviction.

I’ve found that a lot of people I’ve talked to in the past are confused about what condemnation, guilt, and conviction are or look like, and because of it they don’t know how to deal with them. The first group called condemnation is a nasty one. Sometimes others are the source of condemnation, and other times it is self-inflicted. Condemnation is fairly easy to spot, but not so easy to deal with. Regardless of its source, condemnation devalues and degrades people. With condemnation you will hear statements like; “you’ll never amount to anything”, “I’m no good”, “I’ll never be good enough”, or “you’re not worth it”. All these and other like statements do is destroy your self-esteem and sense of self-worth. These statements basically knock you down, and then work to keep you down. Do these statements, or thoughts, reflect how God views you? NO! God knows and believes you are very, very special, and He has a very special plan for you. God wants you to not only know that, but to also believe it. God will never belittle you or make you feel hopeless or worthless. He sent His Only Son, Jesus, to come and die so that you could have life and life eternal. You are worth it to Him!

The second group is guilt. There is a good or healthy type of guilt, and there is a bad and unhealthy type of guilt. The bad and unhealthy type of guilt are those things that you take upon yourself when they are not yours to take. These could look something like feeling guilty because your distant cousin three states away fell and broke his leg the other day while you were home working in your garage. This may be a bit of an extreme scenario but I think you get the point. Some people have a way, one way or another, of feeling guilty over things that they have absolutely nothing to do with. This is unhealthy guilt. The good and healthy guilt is when you it is for things that you were responsible for. Guilt comes when we become aware of or acknowledge we should have done things differently in a given situation. Guilt tells us that the way we responded or treated someone was wrong, or that we went somewhere that we shouldn’t have, or that we should’ve said or done something when we didn’t. Guilt is knowing that something we said or did, or didn’t say or do, was wrong and we should have done differently. Many people deal with guilt and never get past it. The more guilt they feel the greater the chances are that they will begin to feel condemnation in their life. The more they feel guilty the harder it is for them to move on in life.

The third group is conviction. This is similar to guilt but with one added twist to it. Guilt tells us we were wrong in something, but conviction tells us that we were wrong in something and gives us hope by giving us direction on how to make things right and to be free of it. Granted, sometimes the direction conviction gives us to make things right is not what we are wanting to hear, and therefore we see the conviction as guilt with nothing we can do about it. God’s Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and the purpose of it is so that we will make the necessary changes to make things right in His sight. God’s heart is that we be right with Him in all our ways, and because of that He will let us know what we need to do to make that happen. Conviction gives us hope that we can rise above what we’ve done if we follow and obey His lead in how to make things right in His sight. Conviction is what leads us to salvation, where we recognize that we are lost and dead in sin, and with that He gives us the instructions we need on how to get free of it and be made right in His sight through a life surrendered to Jesus. Some people think that the moment we responded to His conviction of sin and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior then it’s a done deal. All our sin is taken care of with nothing more to worry about think, but this is a bit off. Yes, Jesus’ death made provision for all our sins, past, present, and future, but if all our present and future sins are already covered then why should the Holy Spirit convict us of sin? Some don’t recognize God’s conviction as conviction in order to avoid making life changes that are pleasing in His sight. And as I mentioned earlier, some don’t recognize conviction because they don’t like or accept any of the instructions God is giving them to make things right in His sight. Conviction is something that we should all welcome in our lives as it works to make us more like Jesus, and it prepares us for that trumpet sound we are waiting to hear. To squelch conviction in our lives, and we can do that, we are in essence quenching this role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The more we ignore conviction we become harder in our heart and more stubborn in our ways, and this can have dire eternal consequences in our life if left unchanged.

So, hopefully this helps clear up the confusion regarding condemnation, guilt, and conviction. In Romans 8:1 we’re told that there is now no condemnation for those who live according to the Spirit, but there is condemnation for those who live according to the flesh. Condemnation is not what God has for us as His followers, but if we are living according to the flesh then we are subject to it. Good and healthy guilt can help us recognize when we’ve done wrong, which is important in order to for God to help us with it. And conviction is vital in the life of every Christian, and not just convicting the sinner to salvation, because it helps us know when we’ve violated God’s will and nature in our lives and shows us how to make things right with Him and others. If we are living to honor and please God with our lives, and to accurately represent Him to the world as His ambassadors, then we need to welcome conviction instead of ignoring or pushing it aside.

John Johansson

Should The Christmas Euphoria End With Christmas?

Well, Christmas is past and it’s time to get back to life as usual. Or, should it? I recently heard that the reason why people experiance such an euphoria during Christmas time is because they are remembering the good and pleasant memories of Christmas’ in the past. Apparently, when people remember good and pleasant memories a chemical reaction is triggered that creates the euphoria so often times prevelant during this time of year. Hmmm. Have you ever heard it said that even large secular companies understand the benefit of charitable giving? Isn’t that a principle that God instituted, give and it shall be given to you? Sort’ve sounds like what has been commonly, but erronously, referred to as ‘seed faith’ giving. Funny how that even non-Christian organizations understand the benefit of giving, a principle that God established.

Well, I think the same thing can be said about this Christmas euphoria that people so often times experience during this time of year. We are told that the joy of the Lord is our strength, right? What is the joy of the Lord? Is it some cosmic thing that we wait to have dropped in our laps? What is it? Simply, the joy of the Lord could be summed up by saying it is in remembering and thinking about what the Lord has done in our lives, or even in the lives of others. When we do this there is great strength to be gained. We hear of King David reminding himself of the good things of God just to encourage himself, so why wouldn’t we do that. It is amazing how that medical science is now verifying that on a medical level there is a benefit to remembering and thinking of the good things of the past.

So, why should the Christmas euphoria end with Christmas? If our Christmas euphoria is correctly focused on Jesus, both His birth and His death and resurrection, then there is no reason for it to end. In fact, the joy and strength we receive when we remember the things of the Lord should be year round and actually carry through the Christmas time of year. Can you imagine how much more it would add to your Christmas if this was the case?

I’ve been focusing a lot on remembering, but it is when we remember that we receive joy and strength. I know that I need to focus more of my time and thoughts around remembering and thinking about the things He’s done in my life, which I am determined to do, and I challange you to do the same. You can never remember and think about Him too much, especially since it is in Him that we even have life both here and in eternity. In fact, there is such a joy that comes when sharing those very things with others. Something that we are even told to do. We can’t keep those memories to ourselves. We need to share those memories with others because not only will it bless and encourage you, but it could be the very thing that helps and encourages them. They, too, can experience the joy of the Lord just in hearing of how God has blessed and moved in your life.

Would Christmas be what it is today if ….

That’s right. Would Christmas be what it is today if Jesus never died and rose again? We talk of the birth of Jesus being God’s gift to the world, but the gift didn’t really become the gift until after He died and rose again. It’s like a packet of seeds. Has anyone ever given you a packet of seeds as a gift? Was the seed the gift in and of itself, or was it only the gift when it died six inches in the ground and then grew into the plant or tree it was intended to grow into? Jesus was God’s gift to the world, but that gift had to still grow to fulfill the purpose it was given. If Jesus hadn’t died and rose again, then Christmas would not be remembered today. Really. Think about it. If Jesus hadn’t died and rose again then there would truly be nothing to remember about Christmas. So, when people try to remove Jesus from Christmas they really don’t understand what it is that they are doing. It’s one thing to remember that Jesus is the ‘reason for the season’, but if we don’t remember what it is that He did for us some 33 years later, then we don’t truly comprehend the full magnitude and scope of God’s gift to us.

Many people have no problem remembering the ‘babe in the manger’, and people go bonkers over Christmas remembering Him in the manger, but most people then ignore what it is that He did for us 33 years later. As long as Jesus remains in the manger then it’s safe. People don’t have to change the way they live or to have a reason to surrender their lives to Him. People don’t want Jesus to interfer with their life.

I recently watched a series of videos and a movie called, Not A Fan. In these the narrator defines the difference between a follow of Jesus and a fan of Jesus. A fan of Jesus is one who follows Him only until He begins to interfer with their lives, at which time they no longer follow Him. But, a follower of Jesus follows Him no matter the cost, and no matter how He ‘interfers’ with their lives and their goals and agendas for life. So, having said that, a fan is one who gets excited about Jesus in the manger but have problems when He gets out. And, a follower is one who celebrates Jesus coming in the manger, but their focus is on the only road to follow which leads to the cross, and the transforming change the empty tomb brings to them.

So, which one are you??? Are you keeping Jesus in the manger, or are you remembering that He didn’t really become the gift God intended Him to be until 33 years later.