The True Meaning of Christmas

Romans 5:1 - Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We live in a sinful world and I’m sure that sometimes there isn’t peace in our relationships, on our jobs or in the communities that we live in. I know that there can even be discord in the church at one time or another that can cause relationships to be strained. I know that when you have kids there isn’t always peace in the house. Sometimes the ideas kids have clash with their parents, but sometimes kids just make a lot of noise in the house. Sometimes even between husband and wife there is a lack of peace.

The truth is that at one point we were all at war with God. There's still evidence of it. If we think, while we're listening to God's Word in a sermon or somewhere else, "this is boring," or "what does this have to do with me?" When we fail to take time to hear what God has to say, then we are at war with God. God wants us to hear what he has to say.

But when He came on the scene, Jesus Christ stepped in between God and us and made peace. This is the peace that the angels spoke about to the shepherds and this is the peace that Paul wrote about to the Christians in Rome. "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." This is the peace that we have because Jesus Christ came to this earth on that first Christmas and lived a perfect life in our place and suffered the punishment we deserved for all of our conflicts with God.

We should understand this peace that we have with God. No matter what other conflicts we may have in our lives, we have peace with God. When we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior, our conflict with God is no more. Now we no longer suffer with any of the conflicts we may have on this earth, but we enjoy peace in our relationship with God.

What about people that are lost? Our call is to get them to understand that, as they trust that Jesus Christ has made peace between them and God and they too get to enjoy that peace with God now. There is no Christmas that we celebrate the birth of Christ that we shouldn’t also remember sharing the gift of Christ. The receiving and sharing of Christ are one and the same. We should not do one without the other.

So may you enjoy the peace given by the birth and work of Christ. I pray that God will bring someone across your path to share the gift that you so enjoy.

Our First Service

This past Sunday on the 16th of December The Compass embarked on the journey that God has set before us. After months of meeting people, sharing our vision and planning for this day it was great to see God bring it together. I believe that we have put our stamp on this ministry. God is calling us to be more then a fellowship of believers. I believe He is calling us to be true ministers of His gospel. As we gathered for prayer before the service I told everyone that this would be a ministry that has not come to play but come to pray, has not come to play but come to praise and that we have not come to play but come to proclaim. There is much work still to do and our sights are set on our Lord and what He desires for us to do in the community that He has set us in. We are looking forward to our next service, which is on January 13th 2008. Our prayer is that people will return and that we would see people from the community as well. We are so thankful for all the people that came out to support us.