12-22-05
It is almost Christmas! I have heard several people talking about giving
a gift to Jesus for His birthday. If you are so inclined, I can tell you
exactly what He wants. He wants your love. Even though you have
never seen Him, He wants you to love Him. Be warned, though, that
there is more to loving than saying, "I love you". Jesus would surely
enjoy being told that we do love Him if it is true, but I think He has no
interest in the words themselves as such.
Jesus is the greatest person to ever live so surely He is deserving of
the greatest love possible. He is also God and the first and greatest
commandment is to love God with all of our heart, mind, and strength.
There is no greater love than to give ones life. That is what Jesus
wants from you during this Christmas season and during every season.
Laying down one's life sometimes involves losing that life, but more
usually it involves giving the living part. It means giving the days of
our lives away rather than keeping them for ourselves.
So, what does it mean to give the days of ones life to Jesus? It means
giving your life to His purposes rather than your own. It means working
to achieve honor for Jesus rather than for yourself. It means serving
His interests rather than your own. It means that He must increase and
that you must decrease and that you must dedicate yourself to seeing
that happen.
When we set ourselves on these projects we will soon be surprised to
find that the more we apply ourselves to His purposes the more those
purposes become our own. We find that we no longer have the old
interests and that His interests and ours are more and more
synonymous. We will eventually even find that by setting aside our
honor for His today we will soon gain the greatest honor possible for
any person - greater than the highest awards in sport, entertainment,
business, or any endeavor of man. We will someday have the honor of
laying our crowns at the feet of Jesus. I believe with all my heart that
everyone who receives that honor will say it was well worth giving up
all earthly honor and every personal ambition, indeed even the giving
of the days of life or life itself.
Merry Christmas!
Dale