December Daily: Trying to Stay Focused

I love all things Christmas. The tree, decor, cards, giving and receiving presents, Christmas lights to look at when I drive at night, good food, the story of Santa and the overall holiday spirit.

But one thing, above all else, that I want to cherish most this year is the birth of Jesus. Over the past year I have been reading the Daily Chronological Bible, oh how I encourage everyone to make this their New Year's Resolution. No matter where I have been this past year, my daily readings have been faithful to meet me where I am. For example today I was reading the story of Paul's imprisonment in Jerusalem; I found a little story that made me stop and think. You see the Jews did not like the fact that Paul was preaching about Jesus. They made up bogus claims like he was speaking against the Jews and starting riots. These lies are what lead to Paul's imprisonment. King Agrippa arrives in Caesarea to visit Festus. Festus brings the situation before Agrippa.

The words that Festus said to Agrippa jumped out at me this morning.

"But the accusations made against him (Paul) weren't any of the crimes I expected. Instead, it was something about their religion and a dead man named Jesus, who Paul insists is alive." Acts 25:18-19

I am not really sure what caught me the most. The fact that they called Jesus a dead man or the fact that they were expecting Paul to be some kind of hardened criminal based on what the Jews had said about Him. Actually what fascinated me the most, is that through all of the years Paul spent in prison, His faith never wavered-if anything it grew stronger. He was beaten, falsely accused, ship wrecked among many other things, yet he kept going. He kept preaching the Good News of Jesus. Jesus the risen Lord, not a dead man. Jesus who was born as a baby to a virgin girl. Jesus whose main goal in life was to seek and save the lost and who later would die for my sins. Jesus who not only died for my sins but for yours as well. And because of Jesus' death we have eternal life if we believe in Him and if we admit we are nothing without Him in our lives.

I admit that I enjoy the holiday festivities like the everyone else but most of all, I enjoy the true meaning of Christmas, Jesus' birth. My goal this holiday season is to take time out to reflect on Him. To spend less time shopping and more time reflecting. I also want to be more like Paul. Even though he faced many hardships for his ministry he never wavered from the truth, in all things he continued his quest to spread his message about Jesus. His life and testimony are an inspiration to me. No matter where the path lead him he remained faithful and he remained steadfast.

Truly amazing isn't it?

Oh and one last thing totally not relevant to what I just wrote...

Jodi, do you want to ride a donkey in the next few days so you can say you truly know how Mary must have felt when she rode to town 9 months pregnant? Just a thought, don't throw anything at me, I'm only kidding