Christ's Peace at Christmas – Experience It

 What are you struggling with at this moment as your try to focus your mind on celebrating the birth of Christ Jesus? I realize we have to live with hardships that may offer little peace and joy. Like in our society, those are the kind of conditions God sent Jesus to redeem. What you’re facing now is what Jesus wants to help you with by giving you strength and peace to endure.

Open your heart and mind to remember that “God is not a God of confusion and disorder but the Lord of peace, harmony, and order.” “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” as you prepare yourself to celebrate God’s gift to you. God bless you and Merry Christmas. 

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A child is born to us! A son is given to us! And he will be our ruler. He will be called, “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

~Isaiah 9:6 Good News Bible

 May God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you rich blessings and peace-filled hearts and minds.

~2 Thessalonians 1:2 The Living Bible

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This week on December 21-25, KHCB Radio will celebrate Christmas by providing alternate programming, the Five Days of Christmas, with only Christmas music and short devotionals. Accordingly, AttitudesAnswers will post a short Christmas blog post and podcast each day this week. Merry Christmas!

Subscribe to the Attitudes Answers podcast on your favorite podcast platform to hear this and other 2-minute features 3 days every week.

Passion's Poison: Accept the Antidote!

Samson, an Old Testament character from the book of Judges, is known for his physical strength. He is notorious for having been a passionate person determined to get his way regardless of consequences. His obsession to satisfy his passions is what C. S. Lewis branded as “sweet, sweet poison.”

Samson's passionate determination to get his way is analogous to Adam and Eve’s experience in the Garden of Eden. The fruit on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil looked enticing, but the moment it was tasted, the consequences became poisonous, just as C. S. Lewis predicted about such an obsession. As their passionate obsession took control, their innocence evaporated.

Adam and Eve discovered that an obsession may promise more than can be delivered. Even with godly passions we can be pulled into an obsession that's based exclusively on the need for self-satisfaction. So who shall deliver us from this self-inflicted poison? “Thank God for Jesus Christ who redeems and saves us.” Christ Jesus is the antidote for passion’s poison.

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With my whole heart I agree with the Law of God. But in every part of me I discover something fighting against my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I do. What a miserable person I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die? Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me.

~Romans 7:22-25 Contemporary English Version

Rediscover His Light

Distractions do not have to be bad, wrong or evil. A distraction can be anything that pulls attention away from primary objectives. Distractions do, however, tend to interfere with our commitments to significant others, Christ Jesus and ourselves. Distractions can appear by invitation and serve as an excuse to discard what God intended for us to pursue.

 

There was something about the little town of Shechem that caught Jacob’s attention. He evidently saw opportunity in Shechem, but in God’s plan, there was a better place for him to settle. God's heart is saddened when we choose less than his purpose for us. Worse still is choosing what is disastrous.

Jacob's decision to stop at Shechem would bring heartbreak. He observed his children experience issues that would affect their lives indefinitely. Yet Jesus is our Redeemer and is faithful to seek and to save all who have gone astray and are lost. Jesus is the Light that never goes out. His light can be rediscovered when we seek it with all our heart.