Couple of notes – first, if you are in the Pine Belt we’d love to have you worship with us tonight at Asbury for our Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion. We have two identical services, one at 4:30 and one at 6. Come join us!

Second, this will be our last scheduled post of 2014! Its’ been a great year. I hope these have a been a blessing to you! See you in 2015!

Luke 2: 1-7:

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Two years ago I was able to be in Israel immediately following Christmas. We left a few days Christmas Day and spent 10 days there. If you’ve never been to the Holy Land, I hope you get a chance to go someday. It’s something that will change your life!

We happened to go to the Church of the Nativity, the traditional spot of Jesus’ birth on the day that was the Orthodox Christmas. The Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas 13 days later (here’s an explanation why) and we show up the church on their Christmas day.

And what’s going on? Well, they have church. And in the Holy Land, a church isn’t what we think of here in America. It will be multiple “church” or denominations, within the same complex (that’s thousands of years old). So the Church of the Nativity has a Roman Catholic part, a Greek Orthodox part, many different parts.

And on that day, we waited for a chance to go and see the different parts of the church. But, they were having church.

So we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

And finally when we were able to go and see everything, we had to rush through. This was a big deal to us, but to the people of the church, they were having church.

For us it was a big deal, the only time many of us would ever be at that site. That didn’t matter to the people of that church; there were there to worship, to attend to their faith.

Our rush didn’t diminish their attention to worship.

Today is Christmas Eve. There will be rushes. They will be events. There will be worship.

Don’t miss Jesus. Don’t let the stuff of this moment diminish Jesus from your midst today. Don’t look past Him. Don’t look around Him. Don’t miss Him.

We were so busy wanting to see the scenes, we almost missed the reason for the scenes.

Don’t get so busy with Christmas that you miss the reason for Christmas.

Jesus.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones, and you thought our app, you can now watch our worship services from Asbury too!

We are in the final countdown until Christmas. It’s almost here. We are going to rushing around, getting ready, finalizing stuff.

Some of us may be on the road already, heading to the parents or grandparents house.

Some of us may be at work for the last few days before the fun starts.

Others may be at home, lying around, enjoying the break.

No matter where you are today, remember this. Christmas is not about the stuff. It’s not about food, the traveling, the going, the coming, all that.

Now, these things are a lot of fun. We enjoy all these things. But other events have these elements. They are not Christmas.

Christmas is Jesus. Jesus is Christmas. That’s what all this is about. Remember that. Remember that.

Remember in this season why we do what we do. Remembering is an act of will. We have to make ourselves do it. Everything this week is going to want to cause you to shift your attention somewhere else.

Everything is going to make you pull your gaze from what truly matters.

Don’t do it. Why?

Because when we shift our attention from the reason for the season to the stuff of the season, we get frustrated. We get tired. We get cranky.

Instead of enjoying the stuff, we are just ready for it to all be over.

When we focus on the reason, we can enjoy.

Today, remember why. Make yourself remember. Make yourself focus on what matters. Make yourself remember Jesus.

In all things. Make yourself remember Jesus.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones, and you thought our app, you can now watch our worship services from Asbury too!