Through the Eyes of Christmas: Keys to unlocking the spirit of Christmas in your heart by Ron Davis. How will you get into the Christmas spirit this year?
Each December, most of us face that same question as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. Whether we will admit it to ourselves or not, we all yearn for true Christmas spirit in our hearts and homes each year. We want our Christmas to be one of peace on earth and goodwill towards men just as the angel announced to the shepherds. But after the shopping, wrapping, and relatives, often our Christmas experience is far from peaceful and there is little goodwill to go around.
We pull out the same decorations, put up the same tree in the same corner, with the same wreath on the same front door. We do the same Christmas stuff in the same Christmas way as last year and wonder why we get the same result-no lasting Christmas joy. Is true Christmas spirit a myth? Or, have we become so preoccupied with the hustle and bustle of the season that we unwittingly buy the secularized version of Christmas? It is only then that we discover the substitute the retailers are selling has no real Christmas spirit. Our disappointment is that we do Christmas things but still fail to see Christmas spirit in our hearts. So how do you find Christmas spirit? What are the keys to unlocking Christmas spirit in our hearts?
Pastors must ask those same questions as they prepare their Christmas sermons. Recent research tells us that 90% of Americans celebrate Christmas, but over half have forgotten why. A majority of Americans now celebrate Christmas as primarily a cultural holiday, rather than recognizing the real reason for the season. Less than half of the millennials surveyed said they were planning to attend religious services on Christmas. What are Pastors going to preach Christmas Sunday that is inspired and anointed? And after 2,000 years, what can they possibly say that is fresh, relevant, and will make a real difference in the lives of their parishioners? To avoid losing the real meaning of Christmas, Pastors need to remind their people of the true purpose the coming of Christmas has for our lives. They must rediscover the spirit of Christmas in their hearts. But how?
Through the Eyes of Christmas reveals the keys to unlocking Christmas spirit in your heart. By looking deep into the lives of the first Christmas participants, the book refocuses our vision to see Christmas from a fresh perspective. What were Mary and Joseph focused on that first Christmas night? When we relive Christmas by looking through the eyes of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men and all of the other well-known (and some not so well-known) characters of the Christmas story, we discover what they were focused on. We see the Biblical truths their stories reveal. That brings the true, lasting joy of Christmas spirit into our lives. When those truths are applied to your life, it will be said of you as it was of Charles Dicken's Ebenezer Scrooge, ..".he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge."
