Merry Christmas From Jim and Brenda Richards

Brenda, my children, staff and I pray a Merry Christmas for you, your children and your children’s children. The way to have a merry Christmas is to celebrate and acknowledge the birth of Christ, our Savior!

While the rest of the world is overspending, overstressed and missing the point of this time of celebration, I pray you will keep your focus on the one thing that turns this holiday into a holy day: the birth of our Lord!

Jesus’ birth was the first step of sacrifice He made for us. He left the realm of eternity with the Father; He emptied Himself and became a man in every way, He suffered temptation, persecution, and death for us so we would never have to fight those battles. He gave the gift of His life so we could have life! This is why we celebrate His coming!

Your children, parents, grandchildren, siblings and friends don’t need what you can buy for them as much as they need who you can be for them. Like Jesus, you can give your life so others will find His life!

FOLLOW JESUS’ EXAMPLE:

Whether they accept you, reject you, agree or disagree, show them what God’s love looks like in the way you treat them. Overlook their insults, selfishness, ignorance and unbelief. Be the Bible they’ve never read! Show them the God no one has told them about! Treat them better than they deserve! That’s exactly how God treats us!

You don’t have to preach to them; just let them taste and see that the Lord is good, through your kindness. Remember, it’s the goodness of God that draws people to repentance! In fact, I encourage you to commit to this way of living as a manner of life. In time, when they need help, when they want answers, you will be the one to whom they turn.

I HAVE ONE MORE CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!

I hope you have already accepted my gift: the four-part series, Creating Happy Holidays. If so, you’re probably already putting into practice many of the things I have mentioned.

One of the ways I’ve developed to help you put Christ back in your Christmas celebration is The Christmas Story:

This is a short, tasteful message where I tell the Christmas story with beautiful music playing in the background. But I tell it from a more biblical point of view, with no preaching. At some point in your celebration, I encourage you to gather your family and listen to this short, but beautiful Christmas story. In sharing this you will be tactfully, non-offensively be giving those you love the opportunity to share in the true gift, the reason for our celebration: the life of Christ!

Merry Christmas! May you experience and spread the peace of God!

Jim & Brenda Richards