Christmas Gifts for Believers

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:03
Hello, welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
00:07
This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture and media from a Reformed perspective.
00:15
Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to engage today's topic.
00:21
Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.
00:24
Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
00:26
My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.
00:29
Today is December 10th, 2020 and we are headed towards Christmas with the quickness.
00:35
So right now we're going to be talking today about some gift ideas for family and friends who are believers.
00:44
That's what the subject of today is going to be.
00:46
And I've mentioned this on previous programs.
00:50
We've talked about this week, some various Christmas subjects.
00:53
We've talked about the subject of Christmas trees.
00:56
Yesterday we talked about a Santa Claus who wouldn't give a boy a Nerf gun.
01:01
And last week we talked about Christmas movies, what's the greatest Christmas movies.
01:05
And hopefully if everything works out next week, we're going to have another caffeinated Calvinist roundtable where we got some special things coming at you.
01:11
We're going to be talking about Christmas music and the best Christmas songs, as well as talking about the subject of eggnog.
01:21
And I know that may not make sense, but I promise it will make sense when the time comes.
01:25
But today we're going to be talking about Christmas gifts.
01:29
Christmas is a season where many of us give gifts.
01:34
And one of the things that's hard to do is to know what gifts to give.
01:38
What can we give people, especially folks who are, who are difficult to buy for? I know that like I have family members that are just terribly difficult to buy for.
01:48
And so sometimes it's difficult to figure out exactly what would be a good gift.
01:54
And because this is Coffee with a Calvinist, I wanted to break this down into two sections.
02:00
And so today we're going to talk about gift suggestions for believers, believers in your life.
02:07
What can you get for them that would have value, that would be encouraging to them, that would be something that would be useful to them.
02:16
And then tomorrow on the program, we're going to talk about Christmas as an evangelism opportunity.
02:23
We're going to talk about Christmas gifts for unbelievers.
02:29
So let's today, let's talk about Christmas suggestions for believers.
02:34
The first question I think that we have to ask when we're dealing with the question of the believers and our family is what exactly is their level of spiritual maturity? Because that may affect what you want to get them for their, for a Christmas gift, especially if you're wanting to get them something that is related to their faith.
02:58
And of course, this being Coffee with a Calvinist, that would certainly be the subject that I'm dealing with.
03:03
And so if we think about it for a moment, obviously there's different levels of spirituality.
03:09
If you think about someone who is a regular churchgoer, someone who is dedicated to studying their Bible, somebody who knows the word and is deeply invested in the life of their church, wherever they are, then that may change the gift then for somebody who is a believer, but maybe is not as mature.
03:34
Maybe they only recently became a believer.
03:36
Maybe they've only been a Christian for a short time.
03:38
And so you have to consider that as well.
03:41
So right away, I think a Bible is generally a good gift across the board.
03:51
And I'm even going to mention this on tomorrow's program, a Bible can even be a good gift to an unbelieving relative, but we're going to talk more about that tomorrow.
04:01
Because I think if we're looking at believers, again, their spiritual maturity does kind of come into play here because there are different types of Bibles.
04:12
Obviously, we could talk about different Bible translations.
04:16
Some people want to have a King James Bible.
04:21
And so if you know that your family member is particular about their desire for a King James Bible, it might not be a good idea for you to go out and buy them an NIV or an ESV or one of these other translations.
04:35
It might be good to honor their particular conviction in that area, even if you don't necessarily agree.
04:41
You can honor their conviction and you can get them a King James Bible.
04:46
And if you're going to get them a King James Bible, then I want to recommend to you the King James Bible that is a study Bible.
04:57
It's called the, I believe it's called the Reformation Heritage Bible.
05:01
I'm looking it up right now to give you the, yes, it's the Reformation Heritage King James Version Study Bible.
05:10
And if I remember correctly, I think that it is put out, I think it's edited by Joel Beakey, but let me see.
05:18
I could be wrong about that, but I think I'm right.
05:22
Let me, give me just a moment.
05:23
Yep, yep.
05:24
General editor is Joel Beakey.
05:27
And of course, Joel Beakey is one who is, he's a reformed teacher known specifically for using the King James Bible.
05:35
And he is a professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reform Theological Seminary.
05:41
So he's a good man, good preacher.
05:44
I've listened to him many times.
05:45
And you can buy from Reformation Heritage Books, they have the Reformation Heritage King James Version Study Bible for only $20.
05:54
And I think that would be a great Bible for someone who may have a particular affinity for the King James Bible.
06:03
But let's say there's somebody who doesn't have that King James Version need or desire and you want to get them something maybe of a more, of a different translation, more of a modern English translation.
06:17
And so there is, of course, my favorite study Bible on the market right now, at least for the last several years.
06:24
It's one that I have come to use and I use it quite a bit, is the ESV Study Bible.
06:31
The ESV just happens to be the Bible we use at our church.
06:35
And so it makes sense that I would, that I would, since it's what I preach out of, it's what I would use.
06:42
And the ESV Study Bible can be purchased in so many areas.
06:49
I mean, if you've ever been to Ollie's, there's a place here in Jacksonville called Ollie's.
06:55
They have the ESV Study Bible.
06:57
Now, it's a hardback edition, but they have the ESV Study Bible and it's a, it's relatively inexpensive.
07:05
I don't remember exactly what the price was, but if you wanted to go, if you wanted to go onto Amazon and get an ESV Study Bible, I'm looking up the price right now, the ESV Study Bible and hardback is $30.
07:17
So it's a little bit more than the King James Version.
07:19
But if you wanted to get it in a leather-like feel, you could get it in $45.
07:28
So it's a little bit more to go with the, with the, with the leather-like feel Bible.
07:34
But again, there's, it depends on what you're looking for.
07:38
It depends on who you're looking to buy for, what, what are you trying to do? But again, I'm recommending here, you really can't beat a good study Bible if you're looking for a gift, except for the fact that a lot of, a lot of seasoned believers, a lot of people who've been believers for a while, they probably already have their own Bible.
07:57
They may even have their own study Bible, ones that they have marked and that they have their notes in and things like that.
08:05
So this may not be the only option, but I do think it's a nice solid option for a good gift that will likely get a good amount of use.
08:17
You know, it's not just giving them a trinket that's going to go up on a shelf, you know, a sign or something that's going to go up on a shelf, but this is something that can, can likely get some use.
08:25
So there's, there's several other study Bibles on the market.
08:29
There is the John MacArthur study Bible.
08:32
Yes, it has dispensational notes in it.
08:35
So there's some things that I would disagree with it, disagree in it, but in general, solid material, solids that I use it when I'm studying for sermons.
08:45
I tend to keep a couple of study Bibles at hand along with my commentaries just to look for little nuggets of truth that I might be able to use in my messages.
08:53
And the John MacArthur study Bible has been on my shelf for, you know, for ever since I started preaching.
08:59
So I definitely would encourage that.
09:02
And the John MacArthur Bible comes in ESV, New American Standard Bible, New King James Bible.
09:07
I mean, you can get it in several different translations.
09:10
And there's also the Ligonier, well, not Ligonier, but the Reformation study Bible is you can purchase through Ligonier Ministries, but you can also purchase it through Amazon or other places.
09:26
I'm looking at one on Amazon.
09:28
It's only thirty five dollars for the black leather style.
09:32
And it is the ESV translation and the editor is Dr.
09:38
R.C.
09:39
Sproul.
09:40
And I have this particular study Bible as well.
09:43
The only thing that you're going to note in this study Bible is this does tend to lean more in the Presbyterian perspective in regard to things like baptism.
09:52
So again, understand that when you're buying a gift like a study Bible for someone, you have to consider what their particular spiritual maturity is and kind of use that as your as your base for what Bible is going to be good for them if you are looking to get them a study Bible for Christmas.
10:13
But but also don't forget that's you know, a Bible is not the only gift.
10:17
It's just certainly the one I thought I would recommend first, because the Bibles are great and they're not again, they're not something that that can't that don't have a purpose.
10:28
They have a purpose and they have use, especially a good study Bible.
10:32
This year, I've already bought a few study Bibles as Christmas gifts, and I'm going to be giving them to family members that I think will be able to use them and benefit from them.
10:40
So certainly understanding their level of maturity, how they can use this particular study Bible in their own life and in their church, all of those things are really, really important.
10:55
So that's that's number one.
10:57
A study Bible, I think, is always a good suggestion for a believer or even if not a study Bible, just a really nice Bible, something that someone can carry to church with them, something that would with nice big letters don't get something that the letters are so small, even for young people, when the letters are so small, they're ridiculous.
11:14
Then that's really not an enjoyable thing to read.
11:17
A journaling Bible is one that has extra wide margins for people who want to write in their Bibles.
11:23
And I remember when I taught through Dr.
11:26
Howard Hendricks book, Living by the Book, which is our book that we use in our hermeneutics class at Sovereign Grace Academy.
11:36
I remember him saying every couple of years he got a new Bible because he wrote all through his Bible and made notes.
11:41
And every couple of years he got a fresh Bible, started writing again.
11:45
And I thought that was great.
11:46
I know some people who use the same Bible all throughout their life.
11:49
And but I thought that was kind of kind of interesting that he got a new Bible every couple of years.
11:53
Even if you know somebody who has a Bible, another Bible certainly can be helpful, especially if they're a person who wants to study deeper, giving them you're basically giving them a library of notes if you give them a study Bible.
12:06
But but then you have to take a step back and say, OK, what if you don't want to get them a Bible? What is another gift? Well, you might want to consider what is their willingness to read? What is their do they have a desire to read things other than scripture? Because there are also several good books that you can get for the believers in your life.
12:29
And especially if they are young believers, there are some really good books that that are good for cutting the cutting your teeth as a young believer.
12:40
My favorite book to give as a gift is by Dr.
12:44
R.C.
12:44
Sproul.
12:45
It's called The Holiness of God.
12:47
And this book is about understanding God's nature, his character, his attribute of holiness, which, as Dr.
12:56
Sproul explains, is really the is the attribute that undergirds all of his attributes.
13:01
His love is a holy love.
13:02
His his grace is a holy grace.
13:04
His justice is holy justice.
13:06
And so the holiness of God, I actually buy that I buy that I bought a case of those to give away to people who visit our church because I think it's such a valuable book.
13:18
And I want to mention this.
13:19
If you are a person who has been to Sovereign Grace Family Church or you are visiting Sovereign Grace Church or you're one of our members, we have a book rack out in our narthex, our lobby area.
13:32
And Brother Andy is constantly updating the book rack with new books.
13:36
And there are some fantastic gift ideas on that book rack.
13:40
And I think The Holiness of God is out there for sale.
13:44
There's also Chosen by God.
13:46
That one might be for the person in your life that you're trying to help point in a reformed direction.
13:52
Maybe it's a person, you know, who's not not not reformed and you want to help them maybe understand why you are reformed.
13:59
If you are, you're listening to Coffee with the Calvinist, so there's a good chance of that.
14:03
So Chosen by God is a great book.
14:06
That, again, is by R.C.
14:07
Sproul.
14:07
But there's a lot of books on that rack.
14:09
And I want to I want to encourage you, if you're a member of our church, go out there, check out the rack, look at it.
14:14
See, you might find something that would be a great gift.
14:19
But also you have to ask this question, what is what if they don't what if they're not a reader? Not everyone is a person who loves to read.
14:29
So what can you do for folks who aren't readers as as as believers? What kind of gifts can you give if you're not going to give books or if you're not going to give a Bible? And I got to thinking I was going to recommend DVDs because there's a couple of really good movies out there.
14:47
American Gospel is a great one, especially for somebody who you know who is a believer, but maybe is in a church that is maybe is in a church that is not preaching the gospel very clearly.
15:01
The American word, the movie American Gospel is great.
15:04
But giving this somebody a DVD is kind of almost like a double edged sword right now because not everybody has a DVD player anymore.
15:11
I know I don't.
15:12
I use I almost everything I do streams on demand.
15:16
So perhaps the the way that you can do that is to look into getting them some kind of a gift card or gift certificate.
15:24
But marking on there, this is for a particular purchase.
15:29
I'm giving you this gift card so that you can download a copy of this particular movie, American Gospel or any other movie that you might think would benefit them spiritually.
15:42
Again, I understand Christmas is not you're not always going to be giving someone Bibles or books about the Bible or DVDs.
15:50
But because again, that's what I wanted to talk about today.
15:53
Sometimes it's hard to know what to give people.
15:55
But for the believers in our life, anything that we can give them that would help point them to Christ, that would help them in their walk with Christ, that would help them in their maturing in their faith.
16:07
These are all beneficial and there are several good movies out there that you can go out.
16:14
You can get the the digital downloads, pay for the digital downloads, give them the the codes to download that, give it to them in a card with a little note explaining what it is.
16:27
And I think that would be a good gift as well.
16:30
So there is the there are just a few recommendations for the believers in your life.
16:38
And tomorrow, when we when we come back to the program, we're going to ask a question.
16:45
What about unbelievers? How do we handle unbelievers and what can we do for gift ideas for them? And with that in mind, I want to go ahead and sign off the program today.
16:56
And thank you for listening again to Coffee with a Calvinist.
16:59
My name is Keith Foskey and I have been your Calvinist.
17:03
May God bless you.
17:05
Thank you for listening to today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist.
17:09
If you enjoyed the program, please take a moment to subscribe and provide us feedback.
17:15
We love to receive your comments and questions and may even engage with them in a future episode.
17:22
As you go about your day, remember this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
17:29
All who come to him in repentance and faith will find him to be a perfect savior.
17:35
He is the way, the truth and the life.
17:38
And no one comes to the father except through him.
17:41
May God be with you.