Isn’t There Anyone Who Knows What Christmas Is All About? 
A Charlie Brown Christmas includes television’s best ever two-minute answer to the question “What is Christmas all about?” as Linus recites Luke 2:8-14.
Tags: Charlie Brown, Chrirstmas, Nativity, Video
Dan Stevers reminds us that:
At Christmas, the present God gave us is His presence.
Tags: Christmas, Christmas Eve, Jesus, Nativity, Video
Keith and Kristyn Getty are my favorite Christian musicians. Enjoy their performance of the Christmas Carol, Jesus, Joy of the Highest Heaven.
Merry Christmas!
Tags: Christmas, Christmas Carols, Getty, Jesus, Keith and Kristyn Getty, Video
Being in the Christmas spirit, yesterday I pondered It’s a Wonderful Life and whether George Bailey’s sacrifice was joyful or bitter.
Today, I ponder whether George’s end-of-the-movie transformation was temporary or lasting. 
Temporary or Lasting Transformation
You know the story and the scene.
The angel Clarence shows George how his life impacted many. Despondent George decides to stick around.
He returns home joyfully looking for his family. Soon he finds that his wife has asked all his friends to come through for him.
Standing in front of the family Christmas tree, money pours in to replace the money stolen by old Mr. Potter. George is joyful.
Or, is he? Is he simply happy?
Is he a changed man? Or is he a man changed by circumstances?
The Sequel
I’ve often wondered (and even thought about trying to write it!) what It’s a Wonderful Life, The Sequel might be like.
Would George be able to sustain his new-found excitement about life?
I don’t want to be a Scrooge at Christmas, but I don’t believe George’s “change” would have been sustainable.
Yes, George did likely have an emotional change. And that’s not bad.
And, yes, George likely even had some thought-life change—a new perspective. And that’s not bad.
But did George have a heart change? And, was his heart changed by God—transformed, renewed, regenerated?
Not to get too theological here (well, why not?), but…
• Changing our external circumstances is not enough for lasting internal change.
• Changing our emotions is not enough for lasting internal change.
• Changing our mental perspective is not enough for lasting internal change.
Secular rational-emotive therapy can offer those sorts of short-term fixes.
In the sequel, I suspect (I’m writing it, so I can suspect whatever I want!) that George’s change would have been short-lived.
Happy for a while, but what happens the next time or the tenth time that Uncle Billy messes up? Can George, in his own power, continue to “manage his moods”?
Or, what happens the next time or the tenth time that George sacrifices for others and they don’t reciprocate? Can George, in his own power, continue to maintain a new perspective on life?
George (and Me and You) Need a Transformation
Here comes some more theology.
George needs mind renewal flowing from regeneration—he needs to become a new person in Christ. By grace through faith, George needs to be born again, born from above.
His old ways of relating, thinking, choosing, doing, and feeling need to be crucified with Christ.
George needs a new, God-given, Spirit-engrafted, Christ-empowered nature. A new way of Christ-like relating, thinking, choosing, doing, and feeling needs to be resurrected with Christ.
That’s the only hope for lasting transformation and true joy.
Let me say it plainly. For George to truly change, George truly needs to be saved. By God. In Christ.
He can’t simply be “saved” by circumstances. Or new feelings. Or a new way of looking at life.
A Changed and Changing George
Saved by grace through faith, then George can begin the process of growth in grace—sanctification.
In the sequel (my sequel), George would seem to be “different” at first. But, little by little, the old George would seep out, come to the surface.
In despair, he would cry out to God again. But this time not simply to save him from his circumstances.
George would cry out that God would save him from His sins, including his self-centered motivations for sacrificing. And, most importantly, from his sin of unbelief and rejecting God in Christ and living on his own power for his own kingdom.
George would acknowledge that he was just as much in need of salvation as Mr. Potter!
And, saved and changed, George would need to cling to Christ to keep changing…to keep growing.
The movie would not “get boring” now with George never struggling again.
Not at all. The movie would “get exciting” now with George, like the Apostle Paul, saying:
“To this end [living for others for God’s glory] I labor, struggling with all his [Christ] energy, which so powerfully works in me” (Col. 1:29).
But I don’t want to spoil the whole sequel!
I think you get the picture about how the picture would go and flow.
George would be a truly transformed, new man in Christ. And, like the rest of us changed by Christ, on a daily (moment by moment) basis, George would by faith through grace need to put off the old man and put on the new man in Christ.
That’s a movie I’d like to see.
That’s a life that is truly wonderful.
Join the Conversation
How would you write the sequel to It’s a Wonderful Life?
What sequel insChrist writing in your life since he saved you?
Tags: Christmas, George Bailey, It's a Wonderful Life, Joy, Salvation, Sanctification
Santa lives at the North Pole … JESUS is everywhere.
Santa rides in a sleigh … JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water. 
Santa comes but once a year… JESUS is an ever-present help.
Santa fills your stockings with goodies … JESUS supplies all your needs by the riches of His grace.
Santa comes down your chimney uninvited … JESUS stands at your door and knocks, and enters your heart.
You have to wait in line to see Santa … JESUS is as close as the mention of His name.
Santa lets you sit on his lap … JESUS lets you rest in His arms.
Santa doesn’t know your name, all he can say is, “Hi little boy or girl, what’s your name?” … JESUS knew your name before you did. Not only does He know your name, He knows your history and future, and He even knows your heart and how many hairs are on your head.
Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly … JESUS has a heart full of love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness.
All Santa can offer is “HO HO HO” … JESUS says, “Cast your cares on me, for I care for you.”
Santa’s little helpers make toys … JESUS pays for and forgives sin, makes a new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes, and builds mansions.
Santa may make you chuckle but … JESUS gives you joy that is your strength.
While Santa puts gifts under your tree … JESUS became our gift and died on the tree, for you and for me.
It’s obvious there really is no comparison.
Yes, JESUS is better than Santa Claus—infinitely better!
We need to remember WHO Christmas is all about.
Jesus is the reason for the season.
Tags: Christmas, Christmas Eve, Jesus, Nativity, Santa, Santa Claus
Note: This is the tenth and final post in a series on Healing for the Holidays. Read Part 1: A Promise, Part 2: Give Sorrow Words, Part 3: Holiday Healing Q/A, Part 4: A Lament for Your Loss, Part 5: Tidings of Comfort and Joy, Part 6: All I Want for Christmas Is Hope, Part 7: God’s Rope of Hope, Part 8: Pregnant with Hope, and Part 9: Christ in Your Holiday Album.
Two Paths toward Healing Hope 
Traveling from grief to growth is a long, winding road. Healing for the holidays is not a series of steps or some secret plan. More than anything, healing is relational—our relationship with Christ and the Body of Christ.
As we begin our tenth and final post about healing for the holidays, I want us to focus on the two options we have for healing: Christ or self.
Path # 1: Digging Cisterns—Pursuing False Lovers
If we follow the beaten path, the way of the world, then our holiday hurt guides us to false lovers. Idols of the heart. Digging cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Something or someone who will rescue us from agony’s clutches—or so we imagine.
God describes digging cisterns in Jeremiah 2:13. “My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
In the Ancient Near East, you had two choices for life-giving water. You could settle near a clear, pure, bubbling spring of fresh underground water, or you could dig a cistern which captured run-off water and held it in a stagnant well that often cracked leaking in more filth and leaking out water.
Spiritual cistern digging involves rejecting God as our Spring of Living Water because we see Him as unsatisfying, unholy, and unloving (Jeremiah 2:5, 19, 31). Once we reject the only Being in the universe who could ever satisfy the last aching abyss of our souls, we choose to turn to substitutes—worthless, putrid, empty, futile substitutes—cisterns.
Now what? Is that all there is?
Not at all. God offers us so much more, infinitely more—because He offers Himself.
Path # 2: Worshipping God—Glimpsing the Face of God
Rather than turning to false lovers who tame your soul, you now turn to your untamed God who captures your soul. You worship God. In the midst of life’s losses, yes you can choose worship—engaging God with love, which leads to ministry—engaging others with God’s love.
“Worship” is such a common word. But what is worship really? Specifically, in the midst of grief, what does worship look like?
• Worship is wanting God more than wanting relief.
• Worship is finding God even when you don’t find answers.
• Worship is walking with God in the dark and having Him as the light of your soul.
We must understands the truth that every problem is an opportunity to know God better and our primary battle is to know God well. Thus, if we want our holiday hurts to lead to worship, we have to ask ourselves a primary question, “How is my grief influencing my relationship to God?” Grief can either shove us far from God or drag us kicking and screaming closer to Him.
Whom Have I in Heaven but You?
The Bible consistently invites us to worship God in the midst of suffering. Worship as the end result of suffering has always been the testimony of God’s people.
Asaph, reflecting on his suffering, concludes, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25).
David concurs, as his suffering creates a God-thirst. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2).
Paul looks back upon a lifetime of suffering and says, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:8, 10).
What these biblical writers present, the hymn writer, Katharina von Schlegel poetical states:
Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: the best thy heavenly Friend,
Thro’ thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Grief’s ultimate goal is worship: exalting and enjoying God as our Spring of Living Water—our only satisfaction and our greatest joy.
The Rest of the Story
We’re at the end of our blogging journey, but our healing journey continues ever onward until heaven. My prayer for you is that you will not only survive the holidays, you will, in time and through Christ, thrive in the holidays as you walk with God in the dark and find Him to be the light of your soul.
Pausing to Reflect
How is Christ leading you through a thorny path to a joyful end?
Help for Your Healing Journey
For additional help on your healing journey, learn more about God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting.
Tags: Christmas, God's Healing for Life's Losses, Grief Recovery, Healing for the Holidays
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