{"id":4837,"date":"2016-12-22T16:04:01","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T21:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?p=3100"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:41:25","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:41:25","slug":"what-gifts-should-i-give-at-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/what-gifts-should-i-give-at-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Giving good gifts at Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/garycombsorg.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/12\/christmas_833_460_80_c1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3102\" src=\"https:\/\/garycombsorg.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/12\/christmas_833_460_80_c1-300x166.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"282\" height=\"156\" data-wp-pid=\"3102\" \/><\/a>And the angel said to them, \u201cFear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all\u00a0the people.\u00a0<span id=\"en-ESV-24976\" class=\"text Luke-2-11\">For\u00a0unto you is born this day in\u00a0the city of David\u00a0a Savior, who is\u00a0Christ\u00a0the Lord.&#8221; &#8211; Luke 2:10-11 (ESV)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>How do you celebrate Christmas? Decorations, lights, a tree, special foods and candies&#8230; I&#8217;m sure all of these play a part. But for most of us the climax of the Christmas celebration is the time of exchanging gifts. Yet for many, this time causes anxiety. We hope we got them a gift that they like. We want to give good gifts.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps we should look at\u00a0the very first Christmas, Christ&#8217;s birthday, to see what kind of gift\u00a0God\u00a0gave in Christ and consider how\u00a0it affects the kind of gifts we give. When God gave us Christ&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It was a relational gift.\u00a0<\/strong>The angel told the shepherds\u00a0that Jesus had been born \u201cunto you.\u201d God didn\u2019t send money or a card. He gave His only begotten Son,\u00a0Jesus. The Father gave the Son to us, so that we might become His children too. Christ\u00a0is a relational gift to us.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It was a sacrificial gift.<\/strong> The angel said that the baby was born to be &#8220;Savior.&#8221; God sent His Son to die in our place. Kings are born in palaces, but lambs are born in a manger. This baby was born to be the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It was an incarnational gift.<\/strong> The angel announced that the one being born was &#8220;Christ the Lord.&#8221; The title, &#8220;Christ,&#8221; means &#8220;Anointed One.&#8221; It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew title, &#8220;Messiah.&#8221; Jesus was born as a fulfillment to over 300 Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah\u00a0who would come in the lineage of David to lead God&#8217;s people. The title, &#8220;Lord,&#8221; is to say that He is God. He is both God and man. Jesus\u00a0is God in the flesh.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are adopted into God&#8217;s family and become children of God. As children of God, we can let Christ empower us to give as He did.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We can give relationally.<\/strong> Spend time with others, especially those who are lonely. Show them love and make them feel like family. Give the gift of your self.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We can give sacrificially.<\/strong> \u00a0Cut back on spending on yourself and your own family to make margin for giving to others. Give to your church, especially to ministries that will carry the &#8220;good news&#8221; of Jesus to others. Give to a hurting family in your neighborhood or church that is out of work and\u00a0won&#8217;t have Christmas without help. \u00a0Cook a meal. Bake a cake. Make a craft. Give sacrificially.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We can give incarnationally.<\/strong> Give people far from God the gift of the gospel. Tell them about what Jesus has done for you. Live before them in such a way that they see how Jesus lives in you. We can give good gifts this Christmas that point to Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And the angel said to them, \u201cFear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all\u00a0the people.\u00a0For\u00a0unto you is born this day in\u00a0the city of David\u00a0a Savior, who is\u00a0Christ\u00a0the Lord.&#8221; &#8211; Luke 2:10-11 (ESV) How do you celebrate Christmas? Decorations, lights, a tree, special foods and candies&#8230; I&#8217;m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[2069,2015,2330,2070,2052],"location":[],"class_list":["post-4837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs","tag-christ","tag-christmas","tag-gifts","tag-god","tag-jesus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4878,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions\/4878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oyb\/3102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4837"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=4837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}