It's beginning to feel like Christmas!

Many people entertain the idea that Christianity, like almost any other religion, is basically a system of beliefs-you know, a set of doctrines or a code of behavior, a philosophy, an ideology. But that’s a myth. Christianity is not at all like Buddhism or Islam or Confucianism. The founders of those religions said (in effect), ‘Here is what I teach. Believe my teachings. Follow my philosophy.’ Jesus said, ‘Follow me’ (Matthew 9:9). Leaders of the world’s religions said, ‘What do you think about what I teach?’ Jesus said, ‘Who do you say I am?'(Luke 9:20)” Quote by Josh Mcdowell

I thought about not putting up Christmas lights on the front of my house this year, but when I saw that there were very few lights on our street I changed my mind.  If  the spiritual health of a street can be determined by the number of lights on a street I think my street might be on life support. 

It seems that in recent weeks leading up to the greatest celebration of civilization, the birth of Christ, we have been bombarded by the shooting in St. Louis, the disappointment of the verdict and the riots that followed and more recently the assassination of two officers in New York city who were doing nothing but taking a momentary break, It seems that when bad news happens it is so easy to allow the rest of us to take in that bad news until it permeates every fiber and nerve ending of our body.

For some of us it is natural to say 'I give up' and tell ourselves that if there really is a good God in this world then God wouldn't permit evil like we are seeing in these days. So we allow our mental mindset to dwell on the negative and we feed our mindset on more negative news programming. 

As a Christian I found that there is hope this time of year.  The birth of Jesus Christ is the single reason why this season exists. It isn't happy holidays, or happy greetings, or Happy Kwanzaa, but it is the one day  that God demonstrated his love for all of us, white, black, brown, with a big present and a huge bow and a card that simply said 'I love every single one of you and I intend to bring you close to my heart'.  

 Through the birth of Jesus Christ we were given the hope that no matter what happens to us in this life God is for us. This video was done by Josh McDowell who set out to prove the bible was wrong, but as he examined all of the evidences he came to the opposite conclusion which was that Jesus is who he said he really was, the son of God. http://youtu.be/HRemWMIy2IY  I posted this video to encourage you to listen at your leisure because I think it will give you the evidence to inspire the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

As a believer in Jesus Christ  I believe it is important to bring hope to the world around me. In my case, the street I live on. Lights I put on my house and the manger scene I put up symbolically gave to those living on my street hope that regardless of what they hear on the news that God really does exist and brings good news this Christmas season. 

People, today, are searching for hope, any hope. Many are searching in all the wrong places. Maybe if they drove by your home  and saw a simple manger scene sitting in your front yard a seed is planted in their souls that may one day come to full fruition.  Where ever you are in this world may you experience the hope we have in Jesus Christ and may the light you shine give hope to others in your world.