Are you ready for Christmas?  Got your shopping all done?  Really?  Some people have had theirs done for weeks Christmas giving, Christmas eating, Christmas decorating-all well and good.  But let’s remember its real meaning.  We give gifts to commemorate God’s gift to us, our Lord and Savior Jesus  Christ as our Savior and Redeemer.  ” God so loved the world that he gave…”  “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift…”  And of course, the magi (wise men?)  with their gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh.  The whole Bible, especially the New Testament, is a book of giving.  The early church excelled in giving, and giving was one of its first qualities.  It was a giving, generous, church that did its best to see to it that none of its people would be destitute, but its  people gave so that none would suffer need.  So rejoice in a giving God, a generous God, a good God.  And by his enablement, we can be good, generous, gracious, givers to God’s work for God’s glory.  Not so much motivated by the needs of others, or of the church as by the passionate desire for God to be glorified as his work proceeds and, yes, our giving meets people’s needs and enables the church to pay its bills.  But our primary motive must be a passionate desire to see God glorified.

Rev. Richard L. Shaw, Ph.D