CLICK ON PIC ABOVE after reading below for a great music video. (This is the Christian rock version of "Messiah." If you want a pertinent part that reflects the below devotional, try starting at the 20-Minute mark. Enjoy getting your focus back on where it should be!)
Guilty as charged!
The fourth candle of Advent is the light of love and it often shines on my darkness during the Christmas season.
For example, I can slowly or rapidly drift from a Christ-centered holiday. Whether it’s in the inviting or visiting, I want to make sure that everyone is happy.
But everyone around me is not always happy. Sometimes, this includes me.
On top of the personal challenges, the general and incessant vibe that comes through social media and television and culture is that the true meaning of Christmas is the polar-opposite of giving. In essence, even in my giving, it seems like the message is that we should feel warm and fuzzy about our generosity.
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So, how exactly do you light a love-candle in the midst of a personal and corporate world gone astray?
One match at a time.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Even in the midst of being surrounded by internal and external bombardment, we can deliberately turn our attention to the reason why we needed God to take on flesh…so that we don’t have to let our flesh take on us.
Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.…Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Hebrews 2:7 NLT, John 1:14 KJV, Luke 2:11 NIV