Thought For Christmas 2018

          We often ask our grandchildren, around this time of year, "Why do we give gifts?". I was pondering this and I would think the top three answers would be

      1. God gave His Son, Jesus, the greatest gift of all, and in like manner, we should give good gifts.

      2. The Wisemen came from afar bearing gifts so in like manner, we give gifts

      3. St. Nicholas gave gifts to poor children and like him, we too should give gifts.

  But do we ever think about what Jesus gave? At the risk of being sacreligious …

    For an object lesson, I put different items inside the stocking and pulled them out as we read Bible verses. Here are the gifts that Jesus gives us and in like manner, we too should give gifts.

1. Rest  -  Matt.11:28

2. Keys to the kingdom  - Matt. 16:19

3. His life as a ransom for ours - Matt. 20:28

4. The secret of the kingdom  -  Mark 4:11

5. Words and wisdom that adversaries can't resist - Luke 21:15

6. Light   -  John 1:9

7.  Grace   -   John 1:16,17

8.  Truth   -   John 1:16,17

9.  Living Water  - John 4:10

10.  Life  -  John 5:21

11.  Eternal Life  -  John 10:28

12.  Two tasks for us

      A. Love One another -  John 13:34

      B.  Testifying of the good news  John 20:24

13. Peace  -  John 14:27

14. The Word of God  -  John 17:14

15. Glory -  John 17:22

16. Victory - 1Cor. 15:57

17.  Blessing promised to Abraham  -  Gal. 3:14

18.   Strength - 1Tim 1:12

19.  Insight and understanding  - 2Tim.2:7, 1John 5:20

20. His Spirit  - 1 John 4:13

      What better reason to give gifts but 20 gifts that Christ gave us.  Thank you Jesus!!!