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    A Different Kind of Christmas: Devotions for the Season
    A Different Kind of Christmas: Devotions for the Season
    A Different Kind of Christmas: Devotions for the Season
    Ebook81 pages1 hour

    A Different Kind of Christmas: Devotions for the Season

    By Mike Slaughter

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    About this ebook

    Every year, we say we’re going to cut back, simplify, and have a family Christmas that focuses on the real reason for the season—Jesus. But every year, advertisements beckon, the children plead, and it seems easier just to indulge our wants and whims. Overspending, overeating, materialism, and busyness rob us of our peace and joy and rob Jesus of his rightful role as the center of our celebration.


     


    This book of devotional readings is designed to draw your entire family into closer fellowship with God as you respond to this Christmas season and the call of God to live generously all year around. The devotional includes thirty short readings, Scripture, prayer, and stories about helping others at Christmas.


    A Different Kind of Christmas: Devotional Readings for the Season is a great gift idea for family, friends, teachers, and ministry leaders.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateSep 1, 2012
    ISBN9781426764745
    A Different Kind of Christmas: Devotions for the Season
    Author

    Mike Slaughter

    Mike Slaughter is the Pastor Emeritus at Ginghamsburg Church. Under his leadership, Ginghamsburg Church has become known as an early innovator of small group ministry, the Church "media reformation," and cyber-ministry. Mike is the author of multiple books for church leaders, including Down to Earth, The Passionate Church, Change the World, Dare to Dream, Renegade Gospel, A Different Kind of Christmas, Spiritual Entrepreneurs, Real Followers, Momentum for Life, UnLearning Church, and Upside Living in a Downside Economy.

    Read more from Mike Slaughter

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      Book preview

      A Different Kind of Christmas - Mike Slaughter

      Introduction

      It was November, and my wife Carolyn and I were at the Tri-County Mall outside Cincinnati. Thanksgiving was still three weeks away, but already the mall was decorated for Christmas, Santa’s elves were assembling his throne, and our favorite radio station was playing around-the-clock holiday tunes!

      In the midst of the season’s noise, it’s hard to find the heart of God. Yet if you listen closely, you can hear the words of Jesus:

      All I want for Christmas, for my birthday, is for you to remember the poor, reach the lost, and set the oppressed free.

      This Advent, I am challenging you to celebrate a different kind of Christmas—a Christmas that cuts through the hype and doesn’t leave you exhausted and broke at the end of the year. It will be a Christmas that puts Jesus in his rightful role as the center, founder, and purpose of our celebration.

      Over the next five weeks, we will spend time together and with God avoiding the overspending, overeating, over-worrying, and busyness that have become the hallmarks of the holiday season. Instead, we will expect, and become part of, the miracle that Jesus wants to perform this Christmas through you and me—sacrificial actions that can transform lives both far away and close to home, transforming us in the process.

      Each week will begin with a brief story about what can happen when you remember that Christmas is not your birthday, that it’s Jesus’ birthday, and you intentionally focus on honoring him. Then, during the week, you will have a devotional time each day, including Scripture, story, and a prayer. Week by week, you will be encouraged this Advent to

      • expect a miracle;

      • give up false expectations of the perfect Christmas;

      • experience (and demonstrate) God’s scandalous love;

      • shop for Jesus’ wish list, not your own;

      • commit to taking a different road.

      Jesus’ birthday will be here soon. Let’s start celebrating!

      WEEK ONE

      Expect a Miracle

      I love The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien, a great writer of the mid-twentieth century. The three books are not only exciting adventure stories but also demonstrate what it means to be the people of God. The third book in the trilogy, The Return of the King, always reminds me that we are living in that between time right now—the time between Jesus’ first appearance on Earth and the moment of his return. Sam and Frodo, the two Hobbit heroes of the trilogy, know that they must leave the safe comfort of their Shire to become revolutionaries for good. Against their better judgment and peace-loving, risk-averse nature, they set off for the evil land of Mordor, risking heart, home, and even their lives, to move against the forces of darkness. In one particularly bleak moment deep in the enemy’s territory, Sam is able to spot a single star shining out of the darkness above the heavy clouds of Mordor. Sound familiar? The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5 NIV). Even in the deepest darkness, the true light has come into the world, and darkness can never eradicate it.

      Within the church, especially in the past century, we have reduced Christmas to pageants, presents, candle lighting, and carol singing. We converted Saint Nicholas into Santa Claus, and then rolled them both into our picture of Jesus. We started memorializing the birth of the Savior through comfortable trivialities instead of following him into battle against the kingdom of darkness. We forget, or ignore entirely, that we are to be kingdom operatives, like Sam and Frodo, serving as Christ’s revolutionaries of hope in the world.

      This week we will remind ourselves that the miracle of Christmas looks nothing like the materialism of our culture. Instead we will learn how to expect the miracle—and be the miracle—until the return of our King and the full restoration of his Kingdom.

      1. HOW DO YOU PICTURE GOD?

      He was despised and avoided by others, a man who suffered, who knew sickness well. Like someone from whom people hid their faces, he was despised, and we didn’t think about him. (Isaiah 53:3 CEB)

      The LORD God’s spirit is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor. (Isaiah 61:1 CEB)

      How do you picture God? Some of us see God as a harsh, judgmental father, much like our own flawed dad, or as a capricious Zeus hurling thunderbolts from heaven at unsuspecting humans. At Christmas, our picture of God closely aligns with that of our culture, depicting God as Santa Claus coming to town—both a watchful stalker who knows when we’ve been bad or good and rewards or withholds gifts

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