"Jesus Is the Reason for..."

“Jesus is the reason for the season.”  This is a saying I have heard all my life. I hear it every year at Christmas time, as I am sure you have too. This year I have really started thinking about this quote. Yes, Jesus is the reason for the season, but he is so much more than that.  We should see Jesus as more than just the “reason for the season”, but as the reason for everything.  Titus and Adelaide have a book called “For God So Loved The World.”  In this book there is this sentence. “Jesus lived on earth, but he came to die, cause he loved us so- that’s the reason why.”(emphasis added)  Christmas is just the beginning of the story.  The Christmas story is the springboard to the greatest truth we could ever know. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will will not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him(John 3:16-17).”  

How many times do we celebrate the birth of Christ full force, and then once the new year starts, fizzle out into mediocre christian living?  We wait all year to celebrate Jesus coming to earth as a baby, but we forget to celebrate the truth we have all year long.  Or how often do we criticize the liberals for taking “Christ out of Christmas”, while during most of the year we take Christ out of our own lives?  We forget the freedom he brings, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17).” We forget the joy he offers “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:11).” We forget the peace he gives us “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you (John 14: 27)” And most of all we forget to love Christ in the way he wants “If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:14).”

This year I urge you to make Jesus not only the reason for the season, but your reason for everything.  Let’s not only keep Christ in Christmas, but keep Christ in our lives throughout the entire year.