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Family Ministry Moments - January 2025

Don’t Save It All for Christmas Day

I know Christmas is over but I’m still holding on to the Christmas spirit for as long as possible.  I figure that is the only way to stay sane during these cold months.  December is cold but at least we have Christmas to look forward to.  January and February can be miserable, so why not try to keep the spirit of Christmas alive! During the Christmas season, I love sitting by the fire surrounded by Christmas decorations and enjoying time with family and friends.  There is nothing better.  Christmas is also the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  For Christians, the season should be replete with special opportunities to celebrate our Savior.  I love that our family and church have special traditions that we observe designed to help us remember the real reason for the season.

When it's all over on December 26th it is normal to feel a letdown.  We have several weeks of cold and snowy weather ahead before we get to enjoy spring; but in those months, we don’t have to leave behind the true meaning of Christmas.  We can and should celebrate our Savior all year long!

In 2000, the Christian singing group, Avalon, came out with a Christmas album called Joy.  On it, they covered a track called “Don’t Save It All for Christmas Day”.  This song, originally recorded by Celine Deon in 1998, is a powerful reminder that the joy and love we experience at Christmas can live throughout the year. The song says, “Don’t save it all for Christmas day, find a way to give a little love every day,” to do this all you need to do is think about the things that make the Christmas season great and continue them throughout the year.  Here are three things we need to continue to do on December 26th and beyond:

1.     Personal and Corporate Worship

Christmas always draws me into a great time of worship, both personally and corporately with my church family.  Don’t let your worship time dwindle in the new year.  I know that life gets busy in this season, but you must prioritize worship.  Make sure to spend time in God’s Word and prayer at least 5 days a week.  Get a new devotional or start a new Bible reading plan.  Make sure to keep it a part of your daily routine.  When it comes to corporate worship, the biggest struggle is showing up.  Get out of that warm bed on Sunday and come to church to enjoy some warm fellowship.  Don’t let the busyness of kids' activities or other things keep you from worshipping with the family of God. There is no better way to keep the spirit of Christmas alive than to keep worshipping our Savior all year long!

2.     Fellowship

At Christmas time we experience great fellowship with family and friends.  We go to Christmas parties and spend time with loved ones. This is fellowship and it is an important part of a community.  We need to continue to get together and share
fellowship.  Make sure to spend time with your friends, family, life group, church family, etc.  It can be hard to schedule these times as life gets busy or the weather gets bad, but if you prioritize it you can make it work.  Don’t underestimate what spending time with others will do for your soul.  Sharing fellowship creates a spirit of love and joy among Christians.

3.     Serving

Finally, Christmas brings with it a spirit of generosity.  We tend to give money in this season, but we also love to give our time to serve others.  We look for ways to show love to others through serving.  Maybe it is baking cookies for a neighbor or helping someone put up their Christmas decorations or even just writing an encouraging note.  Why does this have to stop on December 26th?  We are called to spread the love of Jesus all year long by serving others.  Remain vigilant and look for opportunities to serve those around you.  People need help in January just as much as they did in December! If you do these things, you will keep the spirit of Christmas alive all year long.

“The Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all year round.” 
J.I. Packer

Student Life - January 2025

In my article for this month, I wanted to talk about numbers, probability, prophecy, and silver dollar coins. While this does seem random and strange, I really hope this article encourages you as I have been encouraged. What I want to talk about involves prophecies in the Old Testament that explain what would happen when the Messiah arrives. As we all know, there is a lot that goes on in the Old Testament. From stories in Genesis talking about a garden called Eden, to psalms that David would write explaining how he had messed up before the Lord. But while we read about these stories in the Old Testament, every once in a while, we find a prophecy that God sprinkles in. Sometimes, these prophecies do not elaborate on much. But there is one fact about them: they are specific. And there is one key item we must remember about prophecies: they are claims at knowing the future. 

Prophecies come from the Lord, at least the true ones do. Deuteronomy 13 explains this to us. It explains that if someone claims to have a prophecy from the Lord, it must follow two rules. First, the prophecy must not direct people to worship other gods. Second, whatever the prophecy says will happen in the future must come to pass. In the Old and New Testament, if this criteria is followed, then God’s people can know that the prophecy was true and that it was the word of God. With this in mind, I want us to consider 8 prophecies in the Old Testament. These 8 prophecies point straight to the Messiah that is to come. 

The first prophecy explains that Christ would be born in Bethlehem. The second explains that there will be one who will be a forerunner for the Messiah, announcing His coming. The third says that the Messiah will enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey. The fourth explains that the Christ will be betrayed by a friend. The fifth explains that this betrayal will cost 30 pieces of silver. The sixth explains that the silver pieces would be rejected, thrown, and used to buy a potter’s field. The seventh explains that the Messiah will remain quiet while on trial. Finally, the eighth prophecy explains that Messiah will be crucified. 

Now, what is so special about these prophecies is not just that they were fulfilled, but that they were fulfilled by ONE Man. Anyone fulfilling any of these prophecies is pretty unlikely, but one Man fulfilling all 8 is INCREDIBLY unlikely. Here is where the numbers and probability come in. Smarter people than me have done the math already and the probability of one Man fulfilling these 8 prophecies is 1 in 1017, or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. That is an unimaginable number and probability. To try and explain the odds of this in more simpler terms, I’ll show you an equivalent. Consider the state of Texas and how large it is. Remember, to drive north to south in a straight line, it would take you about 16 hours to do. With the size of Texas in mind, now consider a silver dollar coin. The size of a silver dollar coin is 1.5 inches in diameter, about half an inch bigger than a quarter. With that size in mind, lets take enough silver dollar coins to cover the face of Texas completely. With that finished, I go ahead and color one of the coins in with a marker, so that the coin is different from the rest. Then I shuffle the coins, so that my marked coin is randomly placed in Texas. Now, I ask you, dear reader, to put on a blindfold and fly to wherever you want in Texas. Your task is to guess and pick the silver dollar coin I marked from the trillions that I spread out in Texas. The odds of you picking the one I marked are the same odds of Jesus fulfilling the 8 prophecies I mentioned earlier. 1 in 1017. What incredible odds against our Savior. 

Yet, we know that He did fulfill these 8 prophecies. And again, this is just 8 prophecies! He fulfilled more than just simply 8! So, I write to you to share this extraordinary news with you. God the Father and Jesus our Messiah went to GREAT lengths to build a relationship with you. All of this was not just for God to flex on His creation showing how cool He is. He prepared, predestined, and planned all of this so that we could know who He is and who the Messiah is. This is such an amazing gift for us to have and share with others. Because this is not just some cool facts, this is tangible evidence for us to show others about our God. This is the effort our God made to prove who He is. That is the difference when someone asks us what makes our God different. The God of the Bible used prophecy, which was fulfilled, to prove that He is in control. Praise God for that faithfulness!