Christmas | Holy. Just. Love.

We celebrate Christmas every year, hopefully focusing on the glory of God, celebrating His work on the cross, and His unmatchable amazing gift he bestowed on His people, the gift of eternal life. We celebrate by coming together with family, eating, or rather stuffing ourselves with delicious foods, and exchange gifts to show our love for each other.

But consider that first Christmas. While yes, God came down as man in the form of helpless baby, consider the other side. Jesus left His thrown. Jesus, who is continually praised and worshiped by the angels did the unthinkable. The interesting part of this story, is what makes it so factual. Who would think up such a thing? The Pharisees did not even see it. They were looking for a King to take over and make things better. A baby? A man who came to be slaughtered? Oh, no, no, no. That was unthinkable.

Would the President of the United States, or any president or king of another country step down from his or her office, their rightful place, and go live in the slums, get beaten unjustly, accused for wrongs they never committed, then die for people who hated them? It sounds ridiculous, but that is exactly what Jesus did. He did it because it was the only way. He did it because he not only loves us, he LIKES us. Think about THAT for a minute.

During this Christmas season, I encourage you to sit for a while in quite contemplating the story behind Christmas. Contemplate the horror and weight of the real story. The angels were rejoicing when baby Jesus came on the scene but had they known his plans I bet that verse would have exchanged rejoicing for weeping. Don’t get me wrong, what a GLORIOUS plan He fulfilled, but be sure it was a plan with such weight and such penetrating radical love that no human being would ever consider it plausible.

Thank you Jesus for your undefinable untouchable unchangeable love for us. You came to be with us, to live a life we never could and to die a death we deserve. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for healing us. Thank you for choosing us. Thank you for You!

I’ve been reading AW Tozer’s “The Knowledge of the Holy” and Jay Adams “The Grand Demonstration.” I love reading and have listed some great books below if you are looking for a reading list. One thing I love about reading is gaining a perspective on something I never have thought of before. Like the new movie that is out right now about Saving Christmas with Kirk Cameron. The perspective shift is wonderful and helpful in defining or redefining our preconceived notions about Christmas and all its hoopla. With what I am learning from Tozer and Adams is that part of the major area of concern is the fact that we are at fault of “libel on His character” through our self-derived assumptions about who God is and that it is “in itself a monstrous sin” as stated by Tozer (see full excerpt below). Adams states “Speculation about the ways of God that He has not revealed to us is wrong. To do it is attempted robbery. If, as He says, unrevealed truths about Himself and His purposes “belong” to Him, and not to us, the attempt to pry those secrets from His hand by means of human reasoning is nothing less than attempted theft.”

“Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is — in itself a monstrous sin — and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness. Always this God will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges.” – A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

Alphabetized by Author’s First Name

A.W. Tozer
The Knowledge of the Holy

A.W. Tozer
The Pursuit of God

A.W. Tozer
Tozer: Mystery of the Holy Spirit (Pure Gold Classics)

David Platt
Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live.

Dr. Emerson Eggerichs
Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires; The Respect He Desperately Needs

Francis Chan
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

Gregory Koukl
Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions

Jay Adams
The Grand Demonstration

Kyle Idleman
Gods at War: Defeating the Idols that Battle for Your Heart

Lee Strobel
The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus

Mike Fabarez
Getting It Right: The Real Problem and God’s Perfect Solution