Focusing on Christ Rather Than Christmas

​As the time nears Christmas this month, many have focused on Christmas rather than Jesus Christ.  The focus is on parties, presents, movies, music, food, traveling, and even doing good things for others, yet leaving Jesus Christ out of all of it.  People will help others in need to make themselves feel good for their lack of doing good things earlier in the year.  People focus on getting the right presents for family or friends they don’t even like, just to make sure they keep up appearances of a personal or financial situation.  Christians will watch more Christmas-related movies, many not even relating to the birth of Christ, rather than study the Bible to know Jesus Christ, the One Christmas is all about.  Some churches will focus on teaching from Christmas movies rather than Bible passages.  Churches all across the United States have fallen into this trap of deception regarding using popular movies or themes rather than allowing the Word of God to speak for itself.  When Die Hard, the Grinch, Scrooge, It’s a Wonderful Life, and other movies are the focus within a church setting, Christ has been removed from the focus, and Christmas is the center of attention.  When people, especially Christians, remove Christ from their focus, they have given to the anti-Christ spirit (1 John 2:22).  The Bible warns that such activity that removes the confession of Jesus Christ and His coming is deceiving (2 John 7).  These activities eventually lead to heresies in those people’s lives, either confessed in word or lived out (2 Peter 2:1).  Christians should not desert the grace of Jesus Christ by turning to another gospel (Galatians 1:6).  Some people distort the Gospel of Jesus Christ by adjusting it to culture or by perverting it with ideas that contradict the standard of God and His Word (Galatians 1:7).  The Bible declares that person is cursed until repentance (Galatians 1:8-9).  One could also say this is a form of Christ-denial, leading others to focus more on other things rather than Jesus Christ.  Whoever denies Jesus Christ before people will be denied before God the Father (Matthew 10:33).  The Bible also warns against those who depart from the faith by listening to deceiving spirits or the teachings of demons (1 Timothy 4:1).  Those who leave Jesus to teach culture have listened to this very demon of cultural relevance.  Jesus’ birth produced the only perfect person to walk the earth, Who obeyed God the Father in all He did (John 5:19; John 5:36; John 14:10), and Who fulfilled the plan of salvation (Romans 5:8; Acts 4:12) that all of mankind who are born again can now rejoice and be joint heirs with Him unto God (Romans 8:14-17).  Jesus is worthy to be the center of attention during the Christmas season and throughout the year.  Let’s not cheapen Christmas by focusing on culture or other things, but let’s allow Jesus to be the reason for the celebrations, church services, and other activities that take place around December 25th each year.  Jesus Christ obeyed the Father in giving His life so that whoever chooses to receive the gift of eternal life has the opportunity (John 3:16; Romans 6:23).  This Christmas and every Christmas from now on, let’s focus on Jesus Christ rather than Christmas and its activities that surround this wonderful holiday.  For more information about Abundant Grace Church, visit agcsparta.org.