Displaying Christ Crucified, Resurrected and Ascended

In the days that followed December 22nd, Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Years, it is evident that the world did not understand the message of Christmas and maybe we need to take a moment and ask ourselves some difficult questions.

The fact is that all of us have sinned, There is not one perfect person in this sanctuary or in this world. We would never qualify to be wrapped up by the shepherds for the sacrifice in the temple. We are only good enough to be slaughtered like the other sheep unless something happens for us.

Every person in humanity is dead because of sin. The only way that you get life, the only way that you have victory over sin and death is by accepting the sacrificial work of Christ on the Cross, in the Grave, and being resurrected to ascend on High and sit at the right hand of God His Father. Sin crouches at our door daily. We are to take up the cross daily and follow Jesus. We are to live a new kind of life.

Maybe we need to make 2025 a little different from 2024. The only way our candles will burn the correct brightness and we will have any impact on this sin-filled world will be if we die to self and live in the power Christ Jesus gives us.

As individuals and as a collective Church, we can only burn as bright as our obedience and surrender to Christ, and then to our willingness to live by the power of Christ Jesus. The world needs Jesus. We can't tell the world to stop sinning if we continue inside the church and condone it.