November 30, 2015

Gasping at Christmas - Advent 2015

Matthew 2:11 “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

When’s the last time something made you “gasp”?

Gasp is defined as to “draw air in suddenly, especially when in awe”.

The first time I saw the Pacific, the Northern Lights, the Grand Canyon, I gasped.
When I saw Deb, at the head of aisle, a gorgeous bride ready to commit her life to me, I gasped. When I held my baby girl for the first time, I gasped. When I saw a paralyzed man get out of his wheelchair after we prayed in Jesus name, I gasped.

When the Magi walked into the place where Jesus was with Mary, they gasped. The one they had traveled hundreds of miles to see; the one they had risked their live for; the one whose birth made a strange new star appear in the heavens; when they saw this ONE they “gasped” and bowed down and began to express their adoration of this King of Kings.

The biggest danger of Christmas is that it would become commonplace, something we’ve done so annually that the shocking truth of Christmas would seem ho-hum.

I fear instead of falling on our faces, we would say, “been there, done that, have the Christmas sweater to prove it”.  I worry that the commercialism, busyness, loneliness, exhaustion, family squabbles, (or you fill in your personal blank) would bury the raw reality of the awe-striking truth of Christmas.

I fear the stunning truth that the Son of God left heaven to be born in a feed trough in order to save us would cause us to YAWN instead of GASP!

I pray for you such a FRESH & POWERFUL REVELATION of the real Christmas that you would “Gasp!” in awe and worship.