How To Have An Effective Christmas

"when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said,`Behold, I have come-- In the volume of the book it is written of Me-- To do Your will, O God.'" (Hebrews 10:5-7 NKJ)

What makes for an effective Christmas? Is there such a thing as effectiveness in Christmas? Whatever I may think of these questions, they involve the concept of evaluation and change. As life goes on, I know that various personal issues must be evaluated.

Health must be evaluated. Investments must be evaluated. The whole gamut of retirement considerations must be evaluated. In fact, every area of life must be carefully analyzed and evaluated for its effectiveness in my life. And if my evaluation is incomplete, then problems may arise later.

A complete evaluation would consider cutting-edge technologies, new breakthroughs, and an updated knowledge base. And of course, the idea of updating faith-based practices is no mere attempt to be relative. Instead, I evaluate to see whether my faith practices continue to be spiritually effective.

This is what God did. He evaluated his "old" plan for mankind, which was neither totally effective nor truly acceptable, improving it to the most effective and acceptable one possible. Animal sacrifices and physical offerings had served his purpose, but the time came when they were no longer effective.

But effectiveness doesn't replace all the "old" with everything "new." Some elements are timeless and eternally effective, so they are kept as essential to the effective functioning of the updated version. For God, ritual and ceremony were no longer valid but faith, morality, and holiness continued to be effective in his plan.

God created Christmas to introduce his new and improved plan of 'peace on earth and goodwill toward mankind.' He prepared himself a body and laid it in a manger somewhere in first century Bethlehem of Judea. And from there the rest of the story came to life.

Christmas is a good time to evaluate my faith journey and relationship with 'the Savior, who is Christ the Lord.' He made the only sacrifice that will ever be effective for the salvation of mankind. I only need to do what the shepherds and wise men did: come and 'see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us' (Luke 2:15 NKJ).

Dear Father, thank you for the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Savior, Christ the Lord. Empower me to daily evaluate my faith practices with fear and trembling. I pray this in the name of Jesus. AMEN

Have an effective Christmas this year . . . receive Christ as Savior and Lord,