The right response

I love Christmas! I love all the tacky decorations, the cheesy songs on the radio and in the shops and the various degrees of bad to good adverts on the tv. I love the Christmassy food that gets put out on the shelves just once a year, such as brussel sprouts and Christmas pudding. I also love the corny Christmas films that come out every year without fail. Christmas is that occasion you look forward to in the middle of a dark, cold winter where if you are like me, can't wait for springtime. But this year, I am so excited about Jesus! I know you are now shocked and can't believe you just read that. But Neil, you should be excited about Jesus all the time! Well yes that is true. But recently I have been more and more blown away by the incredible revelation of who Jesus is and what He did in order to make our adoption secure.

I preached recently about the shepherds. What a story. Here are a bunch of nomads who were seen as the lowest of the low in society. They were the outcasts of their community. Their life was their sheep. If anything happened to their sheep then they were as good as dead! And then out of all the people that Father God could have revealed the good news to, He chose these smelly hill dwellers who everyone else had rejected. He didn't choose the religious leaders, members of the ruling party or the king. He chose the poorest on the earth. It was the moment in history where everything changed. It was the moment where the angel announced that a Saviour had been born, the Messiah of God. This is the moment where the Kingdom of heaven invaded earth in the form of a baby boy. The curtain of heaven was torn open and thousands upon thousands of angels couldn't help themselves but burst upon the shepherds with jubilant singing to God Most High. So what was the response of the shepherds? We are in danger of creating a church culture where we are more excited about angels, glory dust and other signs than the most important thing. Now I am excited when God reveals his glory with various manifestations. But join with me and the shepherds and the right response to these signs. The shepherds didn't go back to their homes to tell everyone about the angels and the glory! They left their precious sheep and ran to see Jesus!!! As I mentioned earlier, the sheep were their life. No sheep, no income. No income, no food. No food, no life! But they didn't care about their earthly stuff because they were about to meet the Saviour of the world who could offer heavenly stuff that would last for eternity. Their priority was worship. And when they had seen Jesus they told everyone and everything that had breath the good news. They returned to their sheep glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard. Wowwwww!!! This is the grace of our Daddy. That He should ever let us in on this amazing story and give us the chance to know Him personally because his Son stepped into our world. Our response has to be to leave all we have and run into the presence of the King. Whatever you have in your hands right now, drop it and run into His throne-room and worship Him. Glory to God in highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased. Have an amazing Christmas.