Chuck Foreman – Teaching / Missions Pastor

Jesus is not in our cultural way of celebrating Christmas. We’ll miss him if we try to find him there. He’s not in the warm fuzzy nostalgia. He’s not in the Christmas trees. He’s not in the decorations. He’s not in the presents. He’s not in the lights. He is the Light!  

An authentic relationship with Jesus and with each other is only possible when we’re willing to see him as the Light, come out of the darkness and be exposed by his light. But when you’ve been living in the darkness, coming into the light can be terrifying. For some of us there’s shame. For some of us there’s guilt. For some of us there’s embarrassment—what if people knew this about me and my family? For some of us there’s a hard heart—we’re unwilling to admit our faults and allow them to be brought into the light so that we can find healing. Only doing the hard thing—coming into the light, experiencing the painful exposure of whatever we are hiding in the dark, can set us free from that darkness.

Merry Christmas! This is Christmas—the Christ child came to set us free! “He has called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  (1 Peter 2:9)