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Joy to the World


It's Christmas time again. Christmas is my favorite time of year. We celebrate the coming of our King and savior, Jesus Christ. We spend time with all of our family together, we bake things, sing songs, do advent, and the list goes on. One of my favorite things to do with my family around Christmas, is watch Christmas movies. Of course, my favorite Christmas movie is 'It's a Wonderful Life.' It's the one movie reserved especially for Christmas day. One of my least favorite movies has always been 'The Grinch.' Of course Jim Carrey made it tolerable for me, so we still watch it.
I'm sure you've all heard the story a million times. The Grinch hates the sound of the whos celebrating Christmas, so he attempts to stop it from coming. He dresses up as santa, then goes down into everyone's house and steals all evidence of Christmas. Decorations, presents, even their trees! Then he goes back up to his hidey hole, super satisfied with himself. That is, until Christmas morning actually comes. Then instead of anger, sadness, and crying, he hears them singing! He couldn't steal their Christmas spirit!
I was sitting in church yesterday and all of a sudden it hit me, the story of the Grinch, is every Christian's life. The Grinch is satan. He hates the sound of Christians praising and celebrating our Christ, so he dresses up like something appealing(this can be anything deceiving that you don't see coming), and sneaks into our lives. He tries to rob us of our joy, by stealing our blessings, and then retreats to admire his handy work. But try as he might, he couldn't stop Christ from coming and he can't steal our joy, because our joy is not of this world.
1 Peter 1:8-9 says "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
We are filled with an inexpressible, inextinguishable joy!
If we as Christians don't feel joyful, it's usually because we have become very nearsighted. As a lot of you are aware, I have been having some health problems with no apparent cause. Some of these issues can be quite scary, such as heart palpitations, dizziness, and shortness of breath. It is very easy for me to get frustrated about it, not knowing the source. It's hard to be thankful when I'm experiencing some of these symptoms. The other morning while worshipping with my daughter, I realized that I've been looking at things with the wrong perspective again. Instead of me being upset because I have health problems, shouldn't I be thankful it's me and not my children with health problems? Shouldn't I be thankful that I'm alive and breathing to have these health problems? Shouldn't I be thankful that I have access to healthcare? I think true joy begins with thankfulness. And I believe we can truly be thankful when we grasp that God could never bless us again, and the praise for Him would still never be enough. That's when we can fully appreciate the joy that is Jesus Christ.
Luke 2:10-11 And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come.

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