Christmas Giving

I tried to stay away from stores and the mall this week. Most of my shopping or gift making was done a month ago so I was able to avoid the traffic, crowds, and angry consumers. Being back in the states has been a bit strange. It definitely is a comercial culture. One example, there will be a huge shopping boom tomorrow. Wait a minute....why would they need to shop tomorrow?--Christmas is today. The difference is today (or yesterday) they shopped for others. Tomorrow, most people will shop for themselves. It's true there might be some great deals tomorrow. But I think that it is interesting that yesterday we bought for others while there was an expectation that others were buying for us. But tomorrow there is no expectation of others buying for us so we will buy for ourselves. Maybe you were planning ahead. There is something that you need and you waited so that you can buy at a reduced price....good thinking. But maybe for others, there really wasn't a time of the season that your attention was really not on yourself. You bought for others because they are buying for you and tomorrow you will buy for yourself to compensate for their failure. And maybe that is me. There are some things that I have been researching to buy but I'm trying to think through whether I really need them or if I am just trying to appease a decieved heart, looking for happiness in stuff.

I pulled some verses which display Jesus as Giver, maybe tomorrow you will continue to buy for others, to use your money to edify another or meet needs.

Luke 7:21 At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind.

Matt. 14:16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!”

Matt. 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Luke 14:12   And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. 13 “But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

John 6:27 “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”

John 13:15 “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Acts 20:35 “In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

2Cor. 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

Rev. 2:17 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’

Rev. 21:6 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.