{"id":1320,"date":"2012-12-11T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T14:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/2012\/12\/11\/putting-christ-back-in-christmas\/"},"modified":"2012-12-11T14:38:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T14:38:00","slug":"putting-christ-back-in-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/putting-christ-back-in-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting Christ back in Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If I could have been present at any event in human history, there\u2019s a lot to choose from: the creation of
the universe, the parting of the Red Sea, fire coming down from heaven and burning up the sacrifice and
the altar Elijah had set up, Jesus calming the sea, His ride into Jerusalem when He told the Pharisees if
His disciples were silent the very stones would cry out, the resurrection of Lazarus, the discovery of the
empty tomb, The angel saying, \u201cWhy do you look for the living among the dead?,\u201d the day when Thomas
stuck his hand in Jesus\u2019 side, Jesus\u2019 ascension into heaven, Pentecost\u2026 the list goes on and on.<\/p>\n

There are many glorious and wonderful moments in the Bible, but the one I would choose, if I could,
would be to be with the shepherds when the angels appeared to them:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they
were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, \u201cFear not, for behold, I bring you good news
of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths
and lying in a manger.\u201d And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying, \u201cGlory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he
is pleased!<\/i>\u201d (Luke 2:8-14 ESV)<\/p>\n

To see the entire sky filled with angels praising God would be beyond amazing. The fulfillment of
thousands of years of prophecy being announced and the thrill of knowing the Messiah had finally come
would be the most awe-inspiring thing I can think of.<\/p>\n

But, as I look at what goes on in our culture, I see this moment slowly fading away from what Christmas
is in America. More and more, Christmas is becoming the holiday of snowmen, reindeer, and Santa.
That\u2019s ironic because the word \u201choliday\u201d means \u201cHoly Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sorry, but Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is not holy. (Note: I do not hate Rudolph. He\u2019s cute, he\u2019s
cuddly, but he is not holy.)<\/p>\n

Many of you will remember \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas\u201d which first aired in 1965. In it, Charlie Brown is
dismayed by the increasing commercialization of Christmas. In one of the greatest moments in television
history, Linus quotes that exact Bible verse above to explain to Charlie Brown the true meaning of
Christmas.<\/p>\n

The funny thing is, the people who created \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas\u201d weren\u2019t sure it was a good
idea to include that verse. When doubts arose about the wisdom of doing so, it was \u201cPeanuts\u201d creator
Charles Schulz himself who said, \u201cIf we don\u2019t do it, who will?\u201d<\/p>\n

As we see Christmas slowly being eroded away, maybe one way to bring a little more Christ back into
Christmas is to commit that verse to memory, keep it close to our hearts as we shop and decorate and
share time with our families, and always be ready to speak it with joy whenever the Holy Spirit presents
an opportunity to do so.<\/p>\n

If we don\u2019t do it, who will?<\/p>\n

How about it, fellow Christians? Is this a good idea? Or, can you think of other good ways to slowly but
surely put Christ back into Christmas?<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Praise<\/b><\/p>\n

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had
been told them<\/i>. (Luke 2:20 ESV)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I could have been present at any event in human history, there\u2019s a lot to choose from: the creation ofthe universe, the parting of the Red Sea, fire coming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 19:37:18","action":"delete","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}