Keep Apart From This World

All earth cheers the birth of the Jesus child
For gifts, and lights, and the retail sales boon;
Easter, too, with heaps of candy eggs piled,
Baskets, bunnies, that ring the registers' tune;
But let one Christian tell why He did come;
How this same Babe calls for men to repent;
Or that He rose, death and grave overcome;
How free Grace saves all who from sin relent:
Then see the fury of Satan unleashed
Against the messenger, whose words of hope
Are offered in love to a world deceived,
Drowning, as the life guard might throw a rope.
O friend, don't you see? Keep yourself apart
From this world; it deserves not your heart.

The Christmas season is almost here, and the nation is in mourning that the people won't spend enough money on gifts to help the troubled economy. Long ago, most people forgot, or never knew, the true meaning of Christmas. To most of us, it is a time of celebrating gifts or office parties or family feasts. We ought to call it Moneymas, or Giftmas, or Spendmas, since the fact that a baby named Jesus was born in Bethlehem; our God came to earth in flesh like us; and that He came to die for our sins, not His, because He didn't commit any sin; since these facts are lost amidst an orgy of shopping and partying.

This time we might help ourselves to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas by not spending any money. We could take our Bibles and read Chapter 2 of Luke; meditate on what a price the King of all the universe paid to leave the safety and glory of heaven for 33 years on earth and a painful death; attend a neighborhood church on Christmas Eve to participate in a candlelight worship service; and silently ask God to forgive us for the way we have trashed His birthday party. We would feel a lot better afterward, and our credit cards would be a lot lighter.