“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” So the song goes describing the season that is supposed to bring joy and happiness to every heart. The truth is that for many families, the Christmas season can be the most difficult time of the year. Instead of visions of sugar plums dancing in their head, anxiety and worry flood their minds. The crush of credit card debt. The magnified stress of family relationships. The constant pressure to buy the latest digital gadget to keep the kids happy. It’s enough to join in chorus with Scrooge, “Bah! Humbug!”
          The truth is holidays magnify the pain and stress we endure throughout the rest of the year. Maybe you are celebrating your first Christmas without your husband or wife, due to death or divorce. Maybe you are a single man or woman enduring another Christmas with the gnawing feeling of loneliness. Maybe this Christmas you’re trying to figure out how to scrape together enough money to put gifts under the tree for the kids. To be sure, we may sing for joy during Christmas, but our real lives often reflect just the opposite. The holidays magnify our pain and stress.
          The angels appeared to the humble shepherds and proclaimed, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests” (Luke 2:14). But where is the peace promised in the Christmas story? Is the “favor of God” an abstract, intangible, and untouchable gift that we can only long for and never personally experience? Where is the peace that soothes the troubled heart? Where is the joy that lifts the gloom off the heart broken with grief? Where is the hope and healing for stress-filled lives and hurting families?
           This coming Sunday, we will begin a message series, “The Cure for the Common Christmas.” The stress, heartache, and loneliness of the season are symptoms of a common Christmas, a sickness that only the Great Physician can heal. Like an infection that attacks the system of our healthy bodies, a Christmas without the presence of Christ is just another common Christmas that offers little to troubled hearts and homes. I’ll share four messages in December that point the way to a cure to these seasonal maladies that afflict us.
          Curing the Busy Bug (Dec 2) - Families are stressed to the max and overloaded with internal conflict. Without the peace of Christ, our hearts and homes are infected with anxiety, worry, stress, and unforgiveness.
          Curing the Blues (Dec 9) - The holidays can magnify the sense of loss we have experienced. At our Christmas meal, there may be an empty chair once filled by a person we dearly loved. The good news is Christ offers real joy that will turn our mourning into dancing.
          Curing the M-Virus (Dec 16) - No other time of the year infects Americans with the insane pursuit for “more stuff” like the Christmas season. Media, money, and materialism tempt us to turn our gaze away from the humble manger of Bethlehem. Discontentment grips our soul like a dangerous virus, and we pity ourselves for all the things we don’t have.
          Curing the Broken Soul (Dec 23) - Among all the presents under the tree, will we discover the true Christmas presence? The incarnation reveals the glorious love of God to the world. Jesus was born to heal broken hearts and to give the gift of eternal life and forgiveness.
          Join us at FBC Seminole for worship on Sunday mornings in December at 8:30 a.m. or 10:45 a.m.. Invite a friend to join you as we celebrate Jesus together this Christmas.

Category : Tommy Talk