Christmas

Good Morning Bread of Life,

John 3:16 gives us the message of Christmas. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

While this verse is often overlooked as being a "Christmas verse" we can easily see the loving, giving heart of the Father in that he gave His only begotten Son.

God the Father set the example of giving, and it was carried on through the life of Christ while He lived here on this earth. Jesus said in John 14:9b ...he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? This spirit of giving originated with the Father and radiated through the Son, and in turn Jesus commands us to do the same in John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

This love is not based on feelings or emotions, otherwise Jesus would not have been able to "command" us to love. He is talking about the kind of love He had when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, "not my will, but thine be done". He is talking about each one of us doing our part in love regardless of what we "feel" like at any given moment.

This is the kind of love that will visit a nursing home and hold the hand of one who is discouraged. This is the kind of love that will cry with another who cries, and rejoice with another who rejoices. This is the kind of love that will look "beyond faults" and see the need.

I encourage you at this wonderful time of year to appreciate our giving God once again, and to minister to the "one anothers" all around us.

Keeping Christ in Christmas,



Stephen Lyons
Senior Pastor, Bread of Life Church