It’s now the 14th of the month, and have I done any Christmas shopping? Nope. Yes, I am aiming to do it in one fell swoop (yet to be confirmed) but it’d be good if I had a few more ideas on what I was buying people.
Other than the shoes and socks request from my younger brother, I still don’t know what to get anyone else. I’m not even sure if I put my hand up to buy the shoes and socks or if someone else in the conversation took on that responsibility.
I need to take my present buying a little more seriously.
I was blogging yesterday about how God takes his people seriously, both those who faithfully connect themselves to him and those who secretly sin against him (or so they think).
I explored Achan’s deception yesterday. Yes, God had promised to bring the Israelites “into a good land” in Deuteronomy 8, but that got hijacked by the rule breaker in the ranks.
Not only had Achan broken rules, but God also said Achan had broken the covenant.
A covenant is an agreement, a legal transaction or a business deal. God set up a covenant with Israel when he brought them out of slavery in Egypt. And God planned to keep his covenant. He promised it.
God is a promise making and promise keeping God. There is nothing that can destroy those promises, because they are held in the blood of the covenant. Jesus’ blood.
And when we come to Him and do business with Him, he takes us seriously. That’s because we’re a ‘set apart’ people. Set apart means different or holy.
We can tell him that we want to be different, with his help.
Some people take vows before God and declare that they will be different in certain areas of their life. I did that myself many years ago and it has changed everything.
Definitely not an easy thing to do, but I’ve discovered that when we do business with God, he’s more than happy to do business with us.
Even if no one else takes us seriously, God does. Even if no one else is on your side. God is. More than you might imagine.
If you’re looking for a different Christmas activity this year, why not take some time to talk to God about your life. I don’t say this flippantly, because it’s serious. If you’d like God to help you change, why not ask him this December?
We can do this because of a baby born at Christmas, many years ago. A baby who came to make amends for all the rule breaking that I have done and that you have done. A baby who came to give us the ability to face the fight again.
For unlike Joshua, it’s not a physical battle we usually face, but a spiritual one.
There’s not a single person who has ever been on earth who hasn’t broken God’s rules. And that’s why we all needed Jesus to come to earth on that very first Christmas.
He came to make for himself a people who are set apart: different and holy.
And while you’re considering your Christmas activities this year, it’s worth remembering what God did for the Israelites.
He put them back on track and into the promised land. No lies were too great for Him.
But as for me and my Christmas activity of shopping, I think I’d better start taking that seriously and find out the story about the shoes and socks.
I’ll ask my mother. She’ll know more than I do about what’s happening.
Yours seriously serious,
Alison
