Saturday, December 25-guest post by Pamela

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is 1 John 4:7-5:21, 2 John 1:1-13, 3: 1-15

Scripture:

⁷ Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. ⁸ But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Observation: Jesus is God's demonstration of love.

Application: Verses 7 & 8 stood out for me because of a song I learned long ago when I was a child. (I found this link on you tube but I'm not sure exactly how the photos fit in with the song ??) The lyrics hold so much more meaning as an adult. These verses hold some harsh words: "But anyone that does not love does not know God because God is love." I know that there are people in my life that are not easy to love. Yet, these verses tell me that by not loving these people I am showing that I do not know God. We are commanded to love each other. We are shown through God's plan of salvation what it means to love. He sent His son to earth as a baby who would pay for our sins with His blood. We did not do anything to deserve this demonstration of love. We did not earn it, we did not ask for it, we did not do something and this was the reward for our deeds. God freely gave His son to serve as payment for all our sins. We are not worthy of this gift and yet God gave it to us to show His unending love.

A few days ago Tammy posted this post (go read it!) and I think it really sums up that celebrating Christmas is really about celebrating God's unending love for us:

"Christmas is about the reason Jesus was born. It's about the reason He left the glory of heaven and exchanged it for 33 years on a planet full of people who had and still do reject Him. It's the reason He endured an agonizing death on the cross to pay the price that was mine to pay. What was the reason? You. Me. Love for you and me. He was the Rescuer sent by God to pay the penalty for my sin. He took on the full wrath of God in my place. In your place. Because He loves you that much! Someone needed to make a way back to God, and He was the only One who could do it. I can't do it, you can't do it. Only He can.

And so He came - born to die. But the story, thankfully, did not end there. Death did not defeat Him. God raised Him from the dead. And in the end, death will not defeat us either.

So celebrate Christmas - with one eye on the manger and the other on the cross and the empty grave! And remember the reason was love."

Prayer: Dear Lord, Today we celebrate Christmas. Not just to remember how Jesus was born, according to your perfect plan, but to remember why Jesus had to be born in the first place. Lord, we fall short and our sin separates us from You and we sometimes fail to show love to others as you would. Thank you for sending Jesus to pay for our sins and to give us an example of what it means to love first. Make it our desire to love as fully as You do and through that love, draw others to You through us. In Your name, Amen.