A Christmas Prompting

I recieved this from a friend today in an email. I am keeping out the name for privacy reasons. This really helped me remember what Christmas is truly all about. Hope it makes you think. I have copied and pasted part of the email with his permission.

"Most of all this time of year is the complete abomination of the Christmas season that the world has imposed on all of us. With Christmas time coming up most people have turned to cramming into stores on black Friday or frantically looking online on "cyber Monday", or worse yet going into debt to please everyone on Christmas time. Don't go to the check into cash places to finance your holiday or take a loan against your 401K or a second on your house. By doing these things we all feed the evil one and he is delighting in our bold disregard for what the season is celebrating in the first place.
* Rom 13:8 //Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
In all of the hub bub we are not honoring God with the things that we should be. We worry about Christmas lists, and will little Johnny cry if he doesn't get what he wants, and will little Suzie be broken hearted if she gets a good book rather than an electronic computer pen? If in fact we are Christ followers and we strive to seek his face in all we do, then why do we succumb to what the world has told us is good and just? The tradition of gift giving came from the idea that the Magi brought Jesus gifts on his birthday. They gave 3 gifts only and they were very significant in that day of the transformation that they had. So we celebrate the holiday by doing the same with our loved ones on that day.
The story of the bible is much different. While the Magi did give the Christ child gifts, it was because they were convicted by God that was what they were to do. They were not even believers when they were looking for him. Truth is that the Magi were sent by Herod to find Jesus so that he could come and kill him because he threatened his throne.
I would say, why don't we honor Jesus the way that the Magi did? They werecompelled by God to fall down and honor Him. Does it honor God because we have so many gifts under the tree that we have to push things to the side to just plug the tree in at night? Does it honor Him that we have put money into a Christmas account all year long, and not done our tithing, /(Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. *Dueteronomy 14:22*)/so that we could afford what the season compels us to do? What we should be doing is be in prayer for people around the world that have nothing. Those that are faithful to God even though they could honestly say they don't know what an I pod is or a Wii. Those that are living in the jungles of Sri Lanka and are excited about getting a new pair of shoes, when we here have a different pairfor every outfit. Put into perspective what Christmas means to you, and convey that to others.
* Acts 4:2 "Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness." Everything that takes away from God is evil. So if you are indulging your human wants versus your spiritual needs you should pray that God would interceded in your life. We need to honor God in everything that we do and not just when it fits OUR schedule. * Matthew 12:35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. In closing please remember that if God's people will not honor Jesus, itdoes not mean that He stops working. It just means that those that do not know Him right now will come to know Him and His kingdom will come and His will be done, on both earth as it is in heaven. I love you all and I pray for you as well as I ask for your prayers for me and my family this year. Jesus is the reason for the season. Let's all celebrate Christmas with a capitol C. The world is trying to take that away by using terms like "holiday party", or "family trees", I say NO we will not fall for the deceptions of the evil one and we will overcome and build ourselves up in the Lord's image, the way that He wants it to be.P.S. Just a couple of tidbits 41% or Americans can't remember whattheir favorite gift for Christmas was last year, worse yet 30% ofspouses don't even know what the other spouse got them.