Christmas Archives • Knowing God and His Ways

The most valuable thing you can do is to know God better. Nothing satisfies the soul more. Knowledge of God is the bread of your human spirit and the light of your mind. Everything else that is good in your life flows out of a correct, deep, experiential knowledge of God.

For those who want to know God better, Christmas brings deep celebration, for we celebrate God’s entry into the world in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s greatest revelation of himself and his ways. As someone who wants to know God as deeply as you possibly can, the person of Jesus Christ is central.

So, over the Christmas holiday I urge you to meditate on what you learn about God through the events of the birth of Jesus Christ.

And throughout the year to come consider always reading some portion of one of the four Gospels every day. Meditate daily on the words and works of Jesus.

Currently the way I’m doing that is by reading a section of a Gospel chapter each day along with my other reading. So, I will read a single episode or a single teaching unit of Jesus rather than reading the entire chapter. As a result I pause and meditate on it longer.

May your knowledge of God be your highest joy this Christmas and in the year ahead!

United with you in Christ,

Craig Brian Larson

I came across this tree this week. I think it is especially beautiful. Putting up beautiful decorations is one of the normal things people do at Christmas. Why?

About two weeks ago we began singing Christmas songs in church, and you may have begun playing Christmas music at home. (One of my favorites is “Mary Did You Know.”) Few things communicate Christmas more than the special songs we bring out for one month of the year. Why do we do that?

There is probably one or more people in your life to whom you are planning to give a Christmas gift. Why did people long ago begin exchanging gifts at Christmas?

Yesterday we enjoyed a Christmas lunch after the worship service. Why do we have special meals at Christmas?

The answer to all the above questions is, we are celebrating. We eat and sing to celebrate something good. We exchange gifts and decorate to celebrate something good.

We celebrate that there is an all-powerful, infinitely loving, absolutely pure and eternally living person at the center of the universe who is committed to saving those who trust in him. He is the Son of God. He is unimaginably good. He came to earth and became a man to die for our sins, save us from death, and defeat our worst enemy Satan. No matter what happens to us in this life, our faith in Jesus assures us we have an eternal life awaiting us that will be gloriously good and free from sorrow.

Believers in Jesus have every reason to celebrate.

The depth of our joy at Christmas is tied directly to the strength of our walk as a disciple of Jesus and the degree of our knowledge of the Lord. The more you learn from Jesus, the more he means to you. The more he cleanses your life of what is sinful and broken, the more grateful you are to him. And the more he rebuilds your life, the more you love him.

“Joy to the world. The Lord has come!”

With much love,

Craig Brian Larson

Tag: Christmas

Merry Christmas!