Virtually everyone loves Christmas: the songs, the decorations, the meals, the time with family.  It's a time of year most people look forward to.

But let's be sure and not simply look forward to it as a time for more hunting, nor as a time to be stressed over preparing meals and getting ready for houseguests, and certainly not mainly as a time to do our part to help our economy out of a recession. 

I want everyone associated with Adaton to resolve today to spend at least as much time this month meditating on "Him whose birth the angels sing" as we do on shopping for Christmas presents, at least as much time thinking of how through Jesus there is "peace on earth, and mercy mild; God and sinners reconciled" as we do watching football, and more time reflecting on how Jesus "comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found" rather than worrying over feeding and caring for out-of-town relatives.  If you do these things, I promise you won't regret it.

George Whitefield made a similar plea to his hearers some 250 years ago:

"Let me now conclude, my dear brethren, with a few words of exhortation, beseeching you to think of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Did Jesus come into the world to save us from death, and shall we spend no part of our time in conversing about our dear Jesus; shall we pay no regard to the birth of him who came to redeem us from the worst of slavery, from that of sin, and the devil; and shall this Jesus not only be born on our account, but likewise die in our stead, and yet shall we be unmindful of him?  Shall we spend our time in those things which are offensive to him?  Shall we not rather do all we can to promote his glory and act according to his command?

"O my dear brethren, be found in the ways of God; let us not disturb our dear Redeemer by any irregular proceedings; and let me beseech you to strive to love, fear, honor, and obey him, more than ever you have done yet; let not the devil engross your time, and that dear Savior who came into the world on your accounts have so little.  O be not ungrateful to him who has been so kind to you!  What could the Lord Jesus Christ have done for you more than he has?  Then do not abuse his mercy, but let your time be spent in thinking and talking of the love of Jesus, who was incarnate for us, who was born of a woman, and made under the law, to redeem us from the wrath to come."