Isaiah 9:6-7 English Standard Version

⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

One of Strong’s Definitions of zeal indicates a change in His face due to strong emotions. What stronger emotion can exist above the perfect love of God?

“The conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity in AD 312 signalled the beginning of the end of pagan celebrations in the Empire, but early religious leaders couldn’t simply ban the popular Saturnalia, as there would be a backlash. There is a theory that they used many of the traits of the festival when establishing Christmas, a rival feast that would take Saturnalia’s place, but commemorate a Christian occasion: the birth of Jesus. The exchange of gifts was probably one of the traditions carried over from the old to the new.” Source giftsinternational.net

Consider this in our deliberations about the issue of gift giving.

God gave His Son to us long before man tried to make sense of how to mix paganism with Christianity.

Christ is the gift given.

Today we deal with the traditions of men. We carry the memory of how our families celebrated Christmas. We were young and we did not know much of anything in those days except what we were told.

We came of age and we received the gift of Christ by faith.

Now it is time to celebrate according to faith in the gift given.

How we celebrate says the only truth our children will hear about Christmas.

Luke 1:17 English Standard Version (ESV) “and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

1 Peter 3:15 English Standard Version (ESV) but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

The heart prepared needs to have the message of hope explained in a way that is both gracious and honest. There is no respect in making light of the emotional turmoil of a heart that is suffering.  Allow them to speak about their pain without judgement.

When they repent and confess Christ will come to them. It is at this point that they will need to surrender to His Lordship. That surrender has to be heartfelt and a matter of relieving themselves of the pain they feel and not the guilt that has been justified by God.

Self-preservation is at the heart of salvation. They want to be saved from the pain that already exists in their hearts. What tells us how to treat the tender heart on the edge of salvation?

Our own tragic story.

Paul’s witness about his encounter with Christ is a one in a billion case. What we went through in meeting Christ at our moment of repentance and confession will be closer in reality to what is going on for that lost soul on the edge of salvation.

That witness is the defense of our faith placed in Christ. We should all have a clear understanding of what that process was in our own case and a clear and simple way to explain what happened to us. We should make it sincere and easy to understand.