Grace Fellowship

The recent but very real craze is the removal of Christ from Christmas and the transition from “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays.”  Christmas can be by nature a stressful time. Every year believers talk about slowing down and remembering the true meaning of Christmas.  We can’t remind the world of why we celebrate Christmas until we remember for ourselves.

A few years ago, there was an article in Christianity Today entitled, “Christmas Grinches.”  These are the thieves that have come to steal our peace and joy.  The article reads, “Things can go terribly wrong with Christmas so I want to warn you about some of them.  It would be a shame for your Christmas to be ruined.  You have heard of the Grinch, you know the Grinch that stole Christmas.  Well there isn’t just one.  There is a whole tribe of Grinches.  I want to tell you about a few of them and how to keep them from stealing your Christmas peace and joy.  There are different Grinches like the secular Grinch, the time pressure Grinch, and the financial Grinch.”

If we are going to experience peace and joy, we must understand our source of it.  Joy comes from experiencing peace.  The world has defined peace as the absence of conflicts but this is not how Jesus defined it.  Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” (Matt. 10:34)  God is our source of real peace.  Not the absence of conflicts, but knowing the “Prince of Peace.” (Isa.9:6)  If peace is not the absence of conflicts, then what is it?  It is the fact that the war between man and God is over.  God was not at war with man, but mankind, in an effort to be self-governed, was at war with God.  God’s wrath on behalf of sin has been satisfied in Christ. 

The outward acts of sin are merely the fruit of the inward nature. This inward nature of sin is changed by receiving Jesus as our deliverer.God is a covenant keeping God.  He is not fickle, or moody.  He does not wake up on the wrong side of the bed.  He is our solid, stable, unfailing and unchanging Father.  He is not angry or mad with mankind. The problem of sin has been handled on our behalf because Jesus cut a covenant of peace for us. (Isa.54:9-10)

The thought of someone being mad or angry creates stress.  Many live in constant fear that God is angry or mad with them.  I remember feeling this way towards our sergeant at the Army Navy Marine School of Music in Norfolk VA.  I watched him chew out many men during inspections for not measuring up to his standards.  Each soldier was supposed to remove the lacquer from their brass in basic training many months earlier.  The lacquer made the brass shine as long as it didn’t get scratched or turn yellow.  During an inspection he snapped in front of me in military style coming face to face.  Almost instantly he bellowed, “Hamilton is that lacquer on your brass?”  Should I lie saying “No sergeant”?  Images of him chewing out other soldiers rushed through my head.  There wasn’t any getting around it.  I was clearly guilty and caught.   I had to do what was right and take my medicine.  So, I responded “Yes sergeant!”  Prepared to receive a verbal tongue lashing of profanity, I braced myself for the worst!  To my utter astonishment, I was not at all prepared for what followed.  He snapped to the next man saying calmly, “Have it off by the next formation.”  I am certain he already knew the answer to his question and wanted to know how I would respond.  My refusal to lie and willingness to take the heat “saved my bacon” so to speak!  I gladly obeyed his command to remove the lacquer.  Not because he was angry but because he showed mercy.

Jesus, the Prince of Peace, took the heat for our sin upon Himself.  God is not mad, angry or disappointed with us, but why?  It is because Jesus our Prince of Peace cut a covenant of peace with God for us.

Romans 5: “¹Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Luke 2: ¹⁰Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”