What Christmas means to me…

Merry Christmas everyone! It is around 10 o' clock pm my time and I am sitting outside of the hostile that we are staying at in Malawi Africa. I just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Leading up to today this month has been tough for me being away from all my family and friends for the Christmas season. But this past  week I have really been thinking a lot about what Christmas means to me and why it's so important to me. It's been really different here in Africa because people don't celebrate Christmas like we do back home in America. There are not pictures of Santa Claus all around or lights on the houses. Some people do celebrate Christmas here, but there are no Christmas tree's up or the holiday season atmosphere I am used to experiencing back home.

So for this blog I wanted to share what I have found deep within me of what Christmas truly means to me…

I hope it blesses you!

So I got to speak today at a special Christmas church service this morning  where the whole service was meant on worshipping God for his birthday! I know that can sound kind of cliché to some, but it really hit me today what and who Christmas is really about. I have always known it to be about Jesus, but if I am being honest knowing that hasn't always transferred from my head to my heart…

Again being away from all of the Christmas festivities, has really put this day in perspective for me. Why do we really celebrate Christmas? I have discovered the raw reality that most of my life I have spent this day celebrating myself rather than Jesus. I feel like I have went to a friend's birthday party and instead of celebrating my friend by giving him presents and making the day all about him. I made the day all about me and what I wanted. Today was an awakening for me that I hope has changed me for my whole life and all of Christmas's to come…

I watched the movie called "The Nativity Story" last night. I think it came out 4 or 5 years ago. It's a movie about the birth of Christ. Watching it really awakened me to the realization that Jesus was born 2,000 years ago. That God really did send His one and only Son who was the Kings of Kings and the Lord of all Lords into this world as a little baby boy born of a virgin to one day die for all of our sins.

As I talked this morning this realization really hit me….There are so many times I pray to God and pray to him not truly believing that He really hears me. There have been so many times I have found myself of just going through the motions. I have found myself going through the motions of church every Sunday and going through the motions of the Christmas Holiday without truly celebrating the One who Christmas is truly all about. There has been so many times that I have talked to people about God where I was not fully believing that He was there with me. Today I was awakened to the truth that God did truly send his son 2,000 years ago to share His true Love and Hope of God to us. Jesus came to be the true light of the world that shines through all darkness, to all people….

It hit me that if I'm not celebrating His birth today then why am I celebrating anything at all. So I am making the declaration that I will no longer spend Christmas being consumed with myself and even others. Yes I want to spend it with family and loved ones, but if I am not spending the day celebrating the FACT THAT MY SAVIOR AND LORD WAS BORN, then I should not be celebrating it at all….

I'm not trying to preach to anyone, but just honestly sharing the thoughts and feelings from my own heart towards my own life….

It says in scripture that one day every single person will bow down on their knees and confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord. It hit me today that one day each and everyone one of us will come face to face with our maker and creator…our Lord and our Savior…Jesus Christ!

Jesus promises in scripture that He will always be with wherever we go. God promises to never leave us and never forsake us. Christ promises to be with us always, until the end of all time…

I also shared today how I was struck the other day when reading the Gospel of Mark. I have heard this story before but when I read it really got touched by it. I was reading the story about when Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after being crucified. The scripture says that Jesus returned in another form to his friends on the road in a way that they did not even recognize him. It says that Jesus talked to them and they didn't even know it was him. As I read this and thought to myself about my life and the life of Christ, I wondered if I have ever encountered Jesus face to face in this life and have never known it. The scripture also says that we will entertain angels in our life without even knowing it.

I just want you and myself to know that there is so much more to life than we realize or recognize. When I do meet Christ face to face whether in heaven or on this earth when he returns….I don't want to look back at my life with regrets of not believing in him or not loving him and loving others like I should.

I just hope today as you spend time with your family and loved ones…that you will take a moment to take a step back, take a deep breath and remember the one who first loved you...Remember the God that is alive and that is here with you. He loves you and will always love you no matter how you and I live our lives….

God Bless you all and Merry Christmas!

I will try to write another blog in a week when we travel to South Africa talking about my past month in Malawi!

Your friend and brother in Christ

Ryan