TLP S00-E15: Make Your Family's Christmas More

So, ask yourself this, saved or unsaved, will celebrating Christmas the way everyone else does work to help our children see the light of the gospel?

Christmas Celebration and the Gospel

Welcome to Truth. Love. Parents. Where we use God's Word to become intentional, premeditated parents. Here's your host, A .M. Brewster.

Merry Christmas! I love this season and I'm honored that you'd spend this time with me. No doubt things are pretty hectic right now, but God is good and I hope this episode will be beneficial to you in the most important job you have, discipling your children.

Two weeks ago we discussed the parenting blood to water concept and discovered that born again, family members are the most significant and precious relationships we have. No doubt this observation is a very heavy reality weighing on many of your hearts this Christmas.

Though both my kids have made a profession of faith, I have extended family who've rejected the Lord and every year I have boys in my home who are unsaved. So I understand how you feel. But praise God for Christmas.

I mean, it's one of those times of year that everybody, including the unsaved, enjoy hearing about and singing about the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is a fantastic season to replant the gospel and to help our regenerated children grow in their faith.

But you might be thinking, how? I mean, we celebrate Christmas every single year and yet my children still reject the Lord. I mean, they sing the songs and they give the presents, but they just don't get it.

They don't see it. And it's true, the story of the incarnation lilts through the air in nearly every mall. It so often seems impotent to change hearts. Every year the same radio stations play, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Away in a Manger, Mary Did You Know, Silent Night, and Joy to the World.

Christmas is one of the two times most unchurched people will even consider attending a service, and many do, but then they return right back to their Christless lives. I understand the question. I get the confusion.

And that's why we need to ask ourselves this, saved or unsaved, will celebrating Christmas the way everyone else does work to help our children see the light of the gospel? I don't believe it will. And I'd like to share with you one small little addition you can insert into your family's Christmas celebration this year that may help your children have a more realistic understanding of the baby in the manger.

And for those of us who are already following Christ, it can be yet one more reminder of the significance of the incarnation. So by all means, put up the tree, wrap the presents, watch Home Alone, take as many days off work as you can, and spend lots of time with your family.

And if you haven't heard it, check out episode 8 about making your family time work better, because that's what we all want more. And in short, just continue celebrating Christmas the way you have, but make this one change.

Don’t Stop With the Manger

Don't stop with the manger. I think to the world, the way we celebrate Christmas sometimes comes across like a poorly executed magic trick. You may not have looked at it that way, but I've spent most of my life studying illusion.

I even did it professionally for a while. But here's the point. In magic, making something appear or disappear is only a fraction of the whole. Amateur illusionists will poof something into existence and rely on the gimmick or the technique to amaze the audience.

And often the reaction is good enough to prompt the immature magician to copy his own performance the next time. But truly amazing illusions have layers and facets, stories and patter. The gimmick or the technique is merely a small part of the intended performance.

Now let's apply this metaphor to Christmas. First of all, I am not saying that the virgin birth was a gimmick. It is true that Christ came to this earth in a stunning display of divine power and wisdom when he was born to a virgin in fulfillment of ancient prophecies.

But it was only the opening act of God's heavenly story. Jesus Christ didn't come to this earth simply to be born into a virgin in a stable. He came to live a perfect life and purchase the redemption of the human race.

The virgin birth merely substantiated his coming and set the stage for all that was to follow. But unfortunately, we don't celebrate that during Christmas. We leave the rest of the story untold until Easter.

But by the time the less celebrated Easter comes around, most of the world has moved past nativity and can't really see the connection anymore. Here's what we all need this Christmas. Add the rest of the story.

Open with the birth, but take time to point to the separated life he lived. Had he not devoted himself to perfectly obeying the Father, he could never have borne our sin on the cross. And had he stayed dead, he could never have redeemed us from Satan's grasp.

But that's exactly what he did. There's a purpose in the nativity. It was the opening act of the Lamb's preparation for slaughter. Yet when our celebration stops with the manger, we find ourselves just worshiping a baby.

Not the Savior of the world, not the great I Am in human form. I believe this may be one of the reasons the Roman Catholic Church has put too much emphasis on Mary and given her a status she would never have had, nor would she have wanted, by the way.

When we focus only on the virgin birth, it becomes easy to admire and revere and follow the adults in the story because it's hard to relate to a baby. But they're all merely shadows to the adult that the baby would later become.

But when we start with a focus on the divine power and wisdom in the nativity, then we look forward to the cross and the stable, then the mortal characters kind of fall away and we're left with nothing more than the glorious miracle of Emmanuel.

Four Ways to Put the Savior Back Into Christmas

If you'd like to focus your family celebration on more than the manger this year, I'd encourage you to do these four things. Number one, get a family-oriented Advent devotional and go through it in the days leading up to Christmas.

Paul Tripp has one I thoroughly enjoy and he shares it for free on his site. I'll go ahead and I'll include the link in the description here. Number two, on Christmas Day, read the Christmas story. Most people enjoy the one in Luke chapter 2 verses 1 through 20.

Of course, starting with the beginning of Luke and reading through Luke chapter 2 verse 52 will give the fullest account of the time before his birth and through his childhood. The number three, between the second and the twelfth days of Christmas, that's the 26th through January 6th, you can dip into the Gospels to see his life, death, and resurrection.

You could actually just read two chapters a day for those 11 days and finish the entire book of John. And then number four, if you really want to help give your family a different focus this Christmas to see the complete picture of who Jesus Christ is and why he came to this earth.

One other thing you can do is join our social media campaign that we're calling More Than The Manger. You can hashtag it, share it, post it, and promote it. From December 26th through January 6th, Evermine Ministries will post at least once a day on our various social media accounts about hashtag More Than The Manger.

Follow Evermine Ministries on Twitter and Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, and spread the news to everyone you can. We've even created an image to go along with this campaign. You should be able to find it on our social media sites or at evermindministries .com.

The Full Picture of Christmas

I hope your family's Christmas will be a time of drawing closer to the Lord and closer to each other as you look at the real purpose he came to this earth, the full picture. He didn't just come to come.

He came to live and to die and to raise again. And we should all come out of Christmas, the Christmas season, thinking and talking and acting more like Jesus. Otherwise, what's the point?

Truth. Love. Parents. Is part of the Evermine Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional, premeditated parent. Join us next time as we search God's Word for the truth your family needs today.