Matthew 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Our pastor reminded us yesterday that we are about to enter into the Christmas season. As he put it, we are rushing into Christmas. I was struck by his use of the term, and in many ways I suppose that many of us do feel rushed by this season. Maybe that is because the world around us is reminding us daily of its approach and what it means and all the things that you need to do to prepare yourself for that special day. Then our memories kick in of Christmas past, and traditions, and plans, and the cost. Oh my yes, the cost.

So allow me to slow things down a bit here in these preparations for that day and try and bring some deeper meaning in what we are about to celebrate, no matter what your tradition.  Let us begin with His announcement, since the world is proclaiming the arrival of Christmas.

We are about to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25^th because for no other reason than the bible does not say what day he was born. A day has been selected for us to remember His birth. While the bible does not give us a particular day it does provide some important information in the pronouncement of Mary’s pregnancy. We will get into some of that later but for today let us consider this; He was born with purpose.

He shall save his people from their sins.

As we gather for this special day, and it must be special, everyone is talking about it, what is your purpose for gathering? I am not going to tell you what to say here. That is for you to decide, but if you had a reason to come together to celebrate, then isn’t it fair to ask the reason of His coming?

I’ve celebrated Christmas both ways. I’ve made a point of remembering the purpose of His birth and I have celebrated without remembering. Is it important to remember that purpose of a joyous day of celebrating one’s birth? I do not remember one birthday, mine or anyone else’s, that said “Why were you born?”

Few people celebrate my birthday, billions celebrate His. So let us begin with that.

Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

I am constantly going up against newer is better. In some areas of our lives this might be true but where it really counts nothing beats old school. There is nothing as good for the soul as getting personally involved with spiritual development.

One of the biggest problems today with spiritual development is a lack of time spent together, one on one alone, in the Word. It takes time and dedication and it is greeted all too often with excuses. If you examine an excuse between father and son when it comes to face time, you will find it all comes down to putting something or someone first before the relationship. Fathers have been just as guilty with a vast array of responsibilities as excuses. Sons watch and model in many ways their father’s behavior, consciously or not. So let me put the responsibility to act on the fathers.

My father taught me how to fish and hunt and “fix” things. When it came down to spiritual matters I received nothing. We spent time watching baseball together, we spent zero time in the Word. So when it was my turn I had no foundation of experience to pass on to my children. By the time I got saved I already had children that had an established norm with Dad.

You might think they are still young and you have time and try as you might, a pattern has already begun that is hard to change. Resistance to change is normal. Except when it comes to spiritual matters there is something even more important going on that a man in his forties coming to Christ often is not aware of when he has changed and is changing his world.

When we are new in Christ at forty, we are babes in Christ, and babies cannot teach babies. We are not mature enough to teach our children what should have been done for us from an early age. The cycle can be broken, but it is too late for men like me. I have to leave the old school approach to the younger men, to my children, who are now Christian, with babies of their own.

I missed out and I am saddened by that, but there is nothing I can do to change that past. I can however speak to the need for young men and women to lay aside new ways, new ideas, get involved and go old school with the most important experience your children will ever have; one on one with you, in the Word.