Good Morning,
Merry Christmas to all. May today be peaceful and full of joy for you as it was intended to be. My coffee is hot and smells just like Door County White Christmas should!
My day will be spent with family. I intend to enjoy every minute of it. I received some pretty nice gifts last night for Christmas. New seat covers for the Old Ford Truck will keep her looking like new.
I do believe that it is OK for a person to give themselves a gift. Now this does not justify you going out and getting that new truck or diamond you want. But from time to time it is good to treat yourself to something you need.
Galatians 2:20New International Version (NIV)
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me
I think every Christian should treat themselves to a Spiritual Crucifixion as a gift.
Many Christians want to be obedient but continue to stumble in sin because they try to hang on to parts of the old self they think they are able to control. This is a self-defeating rationale that relies on the idea that man saves himself by his own works. The Bible teaches us that nothing a man does can save his soul, and salvation is only by the grace of God Ephesians 2:8–9. Through this gift of grace, man can be born again and be given a new nature to replace the old, sinful self. He must be born again if he is ever to see the kingdom of God John 3:3, and if he is to be born again, his sinful nature must be crucified with Christ, and he must be filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
The sinful nature being crucified literally means that the desire to sin and the acting upon it needs to be willfully put to death. Not stored away and eventually tossed, but to be given a death sentence and then crucified not to be raised up again.
This would be the best gift anyone could ever give to their self.
So have a merry day and fill your stocking with a new life in Christ.
God bless,
Marty
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