A Step Toward Christmas

I think today was another major step toward Christmas. Tonight at church we had a Christmas program where we sang Christmas carols all evening. We also got some history about the origins of the Christmas carols we sang. It was pretty interesting.

The message in church today felt like it was tailored just for me. It was a pretty amazing message, and just what I needed. The title of the message was "The Joy of Christmas," so I was surprised when Pastor Dan told us to turn to John 15:4-11.

But it all made sense as he elaborated that the basis for the joy of Christmas was that we are given the opportunity to bear fruit for Jesus, the true vine. This gives Him glory and in turn joy, and we have joy because of making God happy. The way we keep this joy year-round (which we should) is by abiding in Jesus, abiding in His Words, and remaining in His Love. We cannot bear fruit unless we abide in Jesus and think about Him. If we abide in His word, we will better know the will of God, and if we obey His commandments, we will abide in His love. All of these lead to joy as well as other rewards. The big part that hit me was that in order to abide in Jesus and have this joy, we have to keep pursuing that goal. It doesn't just happen.