Gospel.com Blog

Brace yourselves for Black Friday! In a sign that the holiday season is finally and officially upon us, Wal-Mart, Target, and other major retailers have just released ads for their Black Friday sales—roadmaps for the annual shopping frenzy following Thanksgiving.

I have no problem with anyone finding a good holiday sale at these or other stores, of course. But I can’t escape a twinge of despair at the thought of this annual celebration of consumerism. It’s partly guilt at the thought of so much money that will be spent on luxury goods and gadgets; it’s partly frustration that Black Friday is ironically linked to a holiday in which Americans (in theory) express their gratitude for and contentment with God’s blessings. And after the horror at a Long Island Wal-Mart last year, the thought of people stampeding through store aisles makes me feel somewhat ill.

What’s a Christian to make of all this? We can decry the excesses of consumer culture and the commercialization of the holidays… but that message, which I’ve heard repeated every year since I first watched the Peanuts Christmas special, feels these days less like a bold spiritual statement and more like a dreary and obligatory annual Culture War complaint. We can abstain from Black Friday and the frenzied consumerism it represents, or at least moderate our participation. But what’s something positive we can do as we head into another holiday season marked by sales and rebates rather than spiritual reflection?

This year, I’m going to use the beginning of the holiday sale season as a time to plan out how I and my family are going to live this Christmas. I’m not going to stop with the usual questions about Christmas shopping lists; this year I want to actively chart what we want to accomplish and think about during Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas. I’m going to ask the questions that usually get put off until the last minute, when holiday stress and expenses are high:

What will my prayer and devotional life be like over the holidays? Is there a particular book, devotional, or study I want to work through?

Are there any habits or behaviors God is calling me to give up?

What holiday programs in my community do I want to get involved with?

Who do I want to spend extra time with this holiday season?

What charities and organizations do we want to support this holiday season?

Who in my community is going to need some extra help (financially, emotionally, or something else) this Christmas? How will I help them?

What other questions should I be asking as the holiday season begins? Will you join me this winter in setting the holiday catalogues aside for a while, and making sure to ask these questions before the holiday madness distracts us?

What do you think?

Christmas is coming soon! From all of us on the Gospel.com team: Have a wonderful and safe Christmas! Enjoy this celebration of the Christ Child!

And if you’re looking for any last minute gifts, consider some of these suggestions from Dan Seaborn of Winning at Home:

Better than a radio

Give real communication. Turn off that new TV and have a real conversation with the people you love. Speak from the heart and listen with patience. Call the family member who you’ve been avoiding, visit the friend you haven?t had time for.

Warmer than a sweater

Give physical touch. Hug somebody you love. Put an arm around your son or daughter’s shoulder and leave it there for a while. Hold hands with your spouse. Give Grandma a kiss on the cheek. Pat a friend on the back.
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We linked earlier this week to some Christmas music resources at Songs and Hymns. But if you’re still in the mood for more holiday music (and who isn’t?), there’s more at RBC Ministries. Here are a few links:

• Did you know that “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” was written about a family tragedy during the Civil War?
• Chances are you know the first stanza of the famous Christmas carol “What Child is This”—but as with many holiday songs, the second verse brings out a whole new meaning to the carol. Give those often-overlooked second, third, and fourth stanzas a read next time you’ve got a hymnal at hand!
• Read about the powerful social commentary lurking between the lines of “Angels, From the Realms of Glory.”
• You might not even recognize the original version of perhaps the most famous Christmas carol of all.

These devotionals are a reminder that there’s more to Christmas music than catchy tunes and familiar words—there are important stories and messages behind them. Your appreciation for these songs will only deepen if you take a moment this Christmas season to really ponder what they’re saying.

The church I grew up did a candlelight service every Christmas Eve. Upon entry into the building we would be handed unlit candles, and I would spend the rest of the service waiting for the moment when we’d start lighting things on fire during church.

After an interminable time, we’d start singing Christmas songs in the dimmed lights while two people would walk from the back with candles to start lighting our candles. I remember staring transfixed as the flames multiplied and cast strange shadows on the faces in the sanctuary.

It was in this setting that we would sing songs like “Silent Night” and soak in the peaceful feeling of Christmas eve. Despite the familiarity of the tunes and the words, Christmas music is still wonderful and worshipful.

If you’re looking for the music, history or for some of those classics (Silent Night included) check out the Songs and Hymns website.

As part of the Christmas celebration celebration, many of us will read through the Christmas story again (you can find it in Luke 2:1-20). And although the written part of story is relatively short, it’s full of little touches. It’s easy to confuse the details of the Biblical account with other pop culture renditions.

Perhaps some of us (myself included) have taken it for granted that Jesus was born in a stable; however, the Gospel writers never mention exactly where Jesus was born—just where he was laid afterward. It’s just one of those details built into the mythology surrounding the Christmas story that we take for granted.

You can read more misconceptions over at ChristianAnswers.net. Here’s a few more:

Did Mary ride a donkey to Bethlehem? Perhaps, but there are various other possibilities. The Bible doesn’t say how she got to Bethlehem. It only says that she came with Joseph.

Did Mary arrive in Bethlehem the night she gave birth? The Bible does not suggest this. They could have arrived weeks earlier. God’s Word simply states, “while they were there [in Bethlehem], the days were accomplished that she should be delivered” (Luke 2:6). Arriving in town well before her due date would make more sense.

The Christmas story contains some of the most memorable characters of all time: the virgin Mary, Joseph the carpenter, jealous king Herod, the mysterious wise men, the frightened shepherds, and many others. Bringing each of those characters to life is one of our favorite Christmas features—Back to the Bible’s Twelve Voices of Christmas. It’s a well-produced, twelve-part audio drama (written by Woodrow Kroll) that tells the story of Christmas from the perspective of twelve famous Bible characters.

It’d make a great short Christmas devotional series if you listened to a few parts each week. (You can also read a text transcript for each part, if you prefer.)

It’s finally here! Christmas Day—one of the few days of the year that the shopping malls stand empty and the roads and highways are (relatively) quiet.

Christmas is different than every other day of the year, and no matter how commercialized the holiday seems to get, when December 25 actually arrives, it puts a temporary hush on even the busiest, most hectic lifestyle. Much of the world may not believe in Jesus Christ or the miraculous birth that Christmas celebrates, but still the holy invitation to know peace and joy filters through even the most materialistic culture.

This Christmas, do you know peace and joy? The peace that Christ offers runs much deeper than the thrill of getting a few extra days off of work for the holidays, or the fun of Christmas parties and family get-togethers. The world slows down and scrabbles for a bit of that peace every year on December 25, but the peace of Jesus is something you can experience every day of the year, even long after the presents are forgotten and the Christmas trees hauled off.

Maybe you’re looking for a peace of heart that persists beyond December 25. Or maybe you’ve looked around at your life and not found much to by joyful about this Christmas. This Christmas, take a step toward lasting peace—read the original story of Christmas, familiar as it may be; read about the baby born on this day thousands of years ago, and think about what it all means for you today.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve spent the last month working frantically to wrap up work and business before the year’s end, or if you’ve spent every day of December in quiet spiritual meditation. Today is a day to celebrate, to ponder the birth of Christ, and to rejoice at the good news his birth proclaims. From everyone here at Gospel.com, we wish you a blessed Christmas Day. May the peace and joy of Christ touch your heart, no matter how clean or ugly your life feels. Today,

“the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.” —Matthew 4:16

Say “Christmas Eve” to me and I think meatballs. Mounds of delicious Swedish meatballs.

I also think of this hazy peaceful feeling that seems to crop up only on Christmas Eve, possibly due to the aforementioned meatballs. And then there’s singing Christmas carols in church whilst holding candles (all while failing to avoid the hot wax that has never been stopped by those silly little paper circle dresses).

Oh, and goodwill. I feel lots of goodwill on Christmas Eve.
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Here are a few Christmas articles and resources for you on this last Friday before Christmas.

First, two articles from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries:

The Silence of Christmas by Ravi Zacharias begins with a look on how perceptions of Christmas have changed in the United States.

The Mission of Christmas is a Christmas reflection by Betsy Childs

And from Winning at Home with Dan Seaborn:

An article about giving gifts like time and affection titled, Giving what you Can’t Wrap.

Family at Home is an article about difficult family relationships and how Christmas often exacerbates tensions.

A fun movie from Youth Ministry Exchange:

This video shows 100 Crying Children with Santa in ten minutes. They’ve prepared this as a free resource. Check out the link for more information.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

A lot of Gospel.com ministries work (or are based) in countries outside the U.S. Christmas in different parts of the world can look quite different than the tree-and-presents American version. Here are some Christmas resources that offer a slightly different take on this familiar holiday.

• What is Christmas like for Christians in Egypt? Arab World Ministries has an account of one Egyptian family’s Christmas that highlights some of the unique aspects of Christmas in the Arab world. Elsewhere on the same site is another good article about what Christmas means to Muslims—useful info for anybody involved in ministry to Muslims, or for somebody who’s just curious what Islam makes of this Jesus-focused holiday.
• The Pefeccionando a Los Santos de América Latin ministry works with local churches, missionary organizations, and institutions of higher learning in Latin America. They’ve put together an article that shows us a glimpse of what Christmas looks like in Mexico. Although Christmas traditions from the U.S. are influencing Mexican Christmas celebrations, there’s a lot of unique elements in the Mexican observation of Christmas that any Christian will find interesting.
• This third item is from the U.S., but offers a Christmas reflection from a part of the country that’s been radically changed by a natural disaster: it’s a short story about Christmas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.