Tidbit Text: Matthew 2nd Chapter
"9 When they [the wise men] had heard the king, they
departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till
it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When
they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his
mother, and fell down, and worshiped him: and when they had opened their treasures,
they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."
This week I heard something that got my attention. While I was in an office
working on a computer, a woman walked in bearing gifts for her office-mates. I
had never met her, so shortly thereafter I was introduced to her. Afterwards,
she distributed her gifts, and we all told her how sweet she was for giving to
others. She then replied, "Yes, Christmas is the greatest time of the year
– IF WE COULD ONLY TAKE CHRIST OUT OF IT!" Her co-worker replied,
"What!!!??? It’s best you understand that Jesus is the reason for the
season." I then told her, "Yeah! You can’t even spell Christmas
without CHRIST. Man…. The world wants to take God out of everything; then
when everything ‘busts’ loose, it wants to blame Him!!!"
During the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, many are exactly where
that woman was. They want to give the gifts without recognizing Jesus. They
want to and actually do take Christ out of Christmas. Guess what else?! When things
don’t go their way, they blame Him. Example: when they don’t get the gift they
wanted, what do they utter to themselves?— "Oh God!" God is not
some sort of genie that can be called out of His bottle on demand. He’s not the
scapegoat to be blamed for the condition. The condition may be the problem, but
God always had the solution — Jesus.
Unlike the wise men who brought gifts to celebrate the coming of the Lord,
the world doesn’t want a CHRIST-Mas; it only wants a MAS or, worse than that, a
"Mess." You see, the world doesn’t even recognize that
"mas" is an abbreviation of "mass"-celebration of the Holy
Eucharist (spiritual communion with God). No, the world won’t acknowledge that.
Instead, it wants you up to your neck in debt during the next 3 years for that
TV you’re going to put on your credit card. It wants you so busy standing in
checkout lines that you don’t have time to study the Word this week. It wants
you looking so hard for that perfect gift that you’re too "pooped" to
make it to weekly worship. The world only wants the MAS [MESS], not the Christ.
To this we say, "No MAS, No MAS!!!! (Spanish Translation: NO MORE, NO
MORE!!!!)
We say NO MAS (No more) to the world’s way of celebrating our Saviour’s
birthday. And we say No MAS (No Longer) shall we celebrate December 25th
the way the world celebrates it. Most importantly we simply say "NO
MAS!!!" (Don’t even try to give us the MAS without Christ – "We Ain’t
Having It!") On December 25th take some time to thank God for
His perfect gift. No matter what you give your loved ones, it can’t come close
to the gift that God gave or can give you. So to close, I’ll give you the exact
words that I gave that woman during her departure, "Have a Merry CHRIST
—- MASS!"
