Daily Devotional for Wednesday December 16, 2020

Should we even celebrated Christmas?

(Luke 2:6-7)

***A MOST BLESSED CHRISTMAS FROM MYSELF AND THOSE WHO LABOR AT LIVEPRAYER FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY TO HAVE A MOST BLESSED CHRISTMAS!!! A Christmas blessing: https://liveprayer.com/mc20/

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, please guide my steps this day. Help me to walk in Your light and strength and not in my own ways. Thank You for Your many blessings, most that I take for granted. Help me this day to acknowledge Your love, grace, and goodness as I live my life for You and do my best to glorify You in all of my thoughts, words, and deeds. This I ask in the name of Jesus. AMEN!!!

***THE DAILY LIVEPRAYER TV NUGGET: God is the creator of all things good and perfect. Satan takes the perfection of God and perverts it...EVERYTHING! Even most with hardened hearts who hate God have a soft spot for the Christmas season. We are all aware of the God-haters attempts to cleanse our culture of anything to do with God, such as the never-ending attempts around Christmas to remove public displays such a nativity scenes. However this Christmas, anything to do with this season is under attack in an attempt to ruin the “joy” this time of year brings out in most people! DON’T LET ANYONE OR ANYTHING ROB YOU OF YOUR JOY MY FRIEND!!!

*Don’t miss the Liveprayer TV program, airing “LIVE” every Monday thru Friday from 11pm EDT to Midnight! For details on viewing options for the Liveprayer TV program, “LIVE” or “On Demand,” go to: https://liveprayer.com/liveprayer-show-about.cfm

***Action steps: 1) Pray for the nation to turn back to the Lord every morning for at least 5 min. 2) Share the Gospel every day with at least 1 person you know is no saved. 3) Every day share something Biblical with everyone you know via email. 4) Every day encourage at least ONE PERSON you know about the responsibility we have to VOTE in November. 5) GET ONE PERSON YOU KNOW TO DO ACTION STEPS 1-4!!!

***CHRISTMAS FOR SINGLE MOTHERS! After much prayer, I have taken a huge step of faith and am announcing that as we have done most years since Liveprayer began, we will be helping out single mothers this Christmas. We will be helping 30 single mothers with a gift of $200 so they can insure their children have something under the tree and a nice Christmas meal. As in past years, all I ask is that these single mothers we help go to church with their children on Christmas! I never ask people to do something I don’t do myself, and as in past years I will be taking care of 10 of the 30. If God is leading you to help with the other 20, just make sure you mark on your $200 credit card of check gift it is for the Single Mothers Christmas. What I need is for those who want to be considered, send me a short email with your name, address, and phone number. I need to know how many children you have and their ages. Lastly, a brief description of why you need this help. PLEASE, AS IN YEARS PAST WE WILL GET INUNDATED WITH REQUESTS. IT WILL BE MOSTLY FIRST COME. PLEASE DON’T BE UPSET IF WE AREN’T ABLE TO HELP YOU, SINCE WE CAN ONLY HELP 30 SINGLE MOTHERS. KNOW IF WE CAN’T HELP YOU, WE WILL BE HERE PRAYING FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN! Email request to” bkeller@liveprayer.com Put SINGLE MOTHER in the subject line. God bless you and enjoy this blessed celebration of the birth of Jesus!!!

Every year at this time, I get inundated with emails that read like 40-page doctrinal dissertations on why a Christian should NOT celebrate Christmas. They make very good arguments about the pagan celebrations at this time of year, the evils of the Christmas tree, lying to children about Santa Claus, how Jesus was not born on December 25th, and many other reasons why a Christian should not celebrate Christmas. To those people I have only one thing to say . . . BAH HUMBUG!

Please, don't send me emails why those who celebrate Christmas are following the devil. If you are led to not celebrate the birth of our Lord and want to miss out, that is up to you. Sadly, your misguided legalism has stolen your joy.

Listen, everyone understands that Jesus was not born on December 25, but according to most scholars, He was born sometime in September. I have yet to meet anyone who worshipped their Christmas tree; only decorated it. If you are old enough to be able to read this, then you are old enough to know that there is no Santa Claus and, yes, there are many pagan celebrations that occur at this time of the year and the Bible does not have the word Christmas in it. However, there is only ONE REASON that we celebrate Christmas and that is to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Christians SHOULD celebrate the birth of Jesus! It is right and good that we take time each year to remember that blessed event. It was foretold by the prophets of old. It is a well-documented, historical event chronicled in the Gospels and supported by the historians of that day. After His death and resurrection, it is easily the GREATEST EVENT IN HUMAN HISTORY!

Think about it. God Himself, the Creator of the heavens and earth, came to this earth as a mere man to live with His creation. He came as a baby, born of a virgin in a humble manger in an obscure little town. He would grow up to die on a cross as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Three days after His death, God would raise Him from the dead as a sign to this lost and unbelieving world that He was exactly who He claimed to be . . . the SON OF GOD!

His life would literally transform the lives of every man, woman, and child for the rest of human history!!! THAT is why we celebrate Christmas. THAT is why, as Christians, we SHOULD celebrate Christmas!!!

I love you and care about you so much. I realize that people who say not to celebrate Christmas mean well and are trying to live their lives in a way pleasing and acceptable to God. Sadly, they are missing the great joy of this time of year. I know they are well intentioned and many of the things they point out about Christmas are true but they have missed the point of Christmas.

Christmas is about only one thing, celebrating the birth of Jesus. It is one of those times of the year that we gather with family and friends and share our faith in Christ. That alone is a great reason we should be celebrating Christmas.

Christmas is also VERY BIBLICAL. Luke Chapter 2 gives us the account of His birth. That was the very first Christmas. Of course, Mary was there, as was Joseph. We also read about several shepherds that God spoke to who were part of that first Christmas. Now, some 2,000 years later, we will set aside time in the coming days to do what they did at that first Christmas . . . to celebrate the birth of Jesus!

I pray today that you will never forget what Christmas is really about and why we celebrate this holiday. Of course, anything that the world gets involved with becomes perverted. The world has taken this sacred time of the year and turned it into a time of commerce.

We must never allow ourselves to get so caught up in the parties, the gifts, the food, and all of the other things associated with the Christmas season to forget what it is about . . . .a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. THAT is what Christmas is really about and THAT is why, as Christians, we SHOULD celebrate this wonderful event!!!

In His love and service,

Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller