Title: Seeing Christmas Through God's Eyes - The Light
Author: Jerry Watts
Text: Isaiah 9:2, John 1
Christmas time! What comes to your mind? I mean the first thing. I dare say, for most of us, our thoughts process is controlled by a couple of things, our context, and our frame of reference. Context would be that because we are in a church building, in a time of worship at the time of a Biblical message that our thinking would be Biblical in nature which would evoke in us and from us a different response than another place. Our frame of reference controls how we view things. This 'frame' of our 'reference' refers to things we have personal knowledge of. The cultural, social, educational, professional, and personal which makes us who we are and how we view the world. Thus, how we view Christmas is largely driven by how we've been taught, experienced, and seen, over the years.
Like it or not, when "Christmas" is mentioned, most people, think about "Light, tinsel, bells, presents, tree, family, friends, and even food." We can even toss in Santa Claus for our little ones. This is how we perceive or view Christmas. It is controlled by our dominant culture and teaching. So?
For the next 5 weeks, I would like to challenge us and our thinking, as God's people about Christmas.
The challenge, I offer, is not in the thought of 'how YOU view Christmas, but "How does God view Christmas?" This is the heart of this series.
So I ask, "What is the first thing you think of when you hear Christmas?" For some it would be "LIGHTS." (SCREEN) Lights are a big part of our cultural Christmas. When I was a kid, I looked forward to our bi-monthly trips to Columbia, because of the lights. This is before "Experiencing Columbia." When we were in Alabama and George County, we would take a drive during December to see the light. We put up lights on our houses, our Christmas trees, and in our yards, lights have a way of exciting us. When the Mack center is completed, lights will b ...
Author: Jerry Watts
Text: Isaiah 9:2, John 1
Christmas time! What comes to your mind? I mean the first thing. I dare say, for most of us, our thoughts process is controlled by a couple of things, our context, and our frame of reference. Context would be that because we are in a church building, in a time of worship at the time of a Biblical message that our thinking would be Biblical in nature which would evoke in us and from us a different response than another place. Our frame of reference controls how we view things. This 'frame' of our 'reference' refers to things we have personal knowledge of. The cultural, social, educational, professional, and personal which makes us who we are and how we view the world. Thus, how we view Christmas is largely driven by how we've been taught, experienced, and seen, over the years.
Like it or not, when "Christmas" is mentioned, most people, think about "Light, tinsel, bells, presents, tree, family, friends, and even food." We can even toss in Santa Claus for our little ones. This is how we perceive or view Christmas. It is controlled by our dominant culture and teaching. So?
For the next 5 weeks, I would like to challenge us and our thinking, as God's people about Christmas.
The challenge, I offer, is not in the thought of 'how YOU view Christmas, but "How does God view Christmas?" This is the heart of this series.
So I ask, "What is the first thing you think of when you hear Christmas?" For some it would be "LIGHTS." (SCREEN) Lights are a big part of our cultural Christmas. When I was a kid, I looked forward to our bi-monthly trips to Columbia, because of the lights. This is before "Experiencing Columbia." When we were in Alabama and George County, we would take a drive during December to see the light. We put up lights on our houses, our Christmas trees, and in our yards, lights have a way of exciting us. When the Mack center is completed, lights will b ...
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