22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.  Matthew 1:22–24

I have many happy memories of what Christmas nights were like when I was a kid. Our greatest joy was not to receive Christmas gifts, but to see if we could find the hidden gifts before Christmas day.  There was nothing better than searching through the house any time we were home alone. 

What are your favorite Christmas memories?

THINK

Wow, this is the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus! Matthew tells us about Jesus’ first Christmas, how God took care of Joseph and Mary, and even what His name would be. Isn’t this incredible? And even today, more than 2,000 years later, once a year we can stop, think, remember, and retell the story of Christmas.

Imagine you asking Jesus what Christmas is all about. He would probably answer you that Christmas is in His name: God is here, God with us! Yes, when Jesus was born, God was present among us. He came to live with us here on earth and save us from our sins so that He could live in our hearts and so that we could live with Him in heaven! 

I really like a song that says that “God is not far away in the sky without caring about me, but He is by my side because every day; I feel Him taking care of me and that is why I can have peace.” He is among us, He came to bring peace to the world! That is the meaning of Christmas.

DO SOMETHING

Imagine that you are going to have a special meeting with Jesus today. Take some notes of what you want to say to Him. Pray and tell Him everything you wrote. He’s with you today, right now!

PRAY

Thank You, Jesus, for being here and for taking care of me and my family. Thank You for Christmas and thank You for bringing us peace! Amen.

Have you ever thought it would be cool to hear some C3 leaders discuss the daily verses, share about their lives and mostly just talk about nonsense?  Of course not!…even though nobody has ever thought that we are still doing it.  You can follow along with us each morning in a brand new podcast – Monday Comments & Tony’s Greatest Moment.