A Life Full of Gratitude ~ A Heart Full of Gratitude: Pre-Christmas Celebrations

Pastor Ian spoke at church on Saturday evening. "Priceless" was the title of the sermon. He began by talking about the MasterCard commercials that we are all so familiar with.

Baseball tickets: $49

Popcorn, hot dogs, sodas: $27

Autographed baseball: $50

Real conversation with your 11 year old son: Priceless

Certain things money can't buy, for everything else, there is MasterCard.

However, there are certain things money can't buy. Money can't buy peace, love, forgiveness. And it is these things that we reflect on at Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. If the message of Christ's coming to the world isn't the best news we have heard, then we are missing the point and have perhaps misunderstood the importance of Christ's life.

Our hearts are transformed by Christ's love and this is a heart transformed to love others. This makes God's love for us clear. The love of Jesus radically changes how we live and how we view people God places in front of us. This helps determine our priorities and purposes for our lives and that in turn impacts the lives of those around us.

Pastor Ian went on to talk about the Higher Calling we each have to let others know about our relationship with Christ and how surrendering our life to God and living passionately for him is our greatest blessing. Christ's love compels us and we have to ask ourselves what our deeper motivation is. Our life is not our own as we serve the master who created us and loves us like no other. The legacy of our lives will largely be shaped by the motivations that we allow to govern how we live our life - who we serve and what we live for. This higher calling and motivation ought to bring renewed perspective to our life. Perspective that goes beyond the here and now and beyond the culture of the day. We live with a Biblical worldview whereby our spiritual lives are open and we value things differently. Perspective beyond the worldy vantage point - seeing people through Christ's eyes - knowing that every single life matters and every single one of us has a purpose for our life that can impact others.

The message of Christmas is, "For God so loved the world." No one is outside this message as it is the Gospel message. "For Christ the Saviour is born." Jesus was born and God loved each of us so much that he sacrificed His son to give us eternal life.

"The meaning of our earthly existence is not found in material prosperity but in the development of the soul." ~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Is there something in your life, in your soul, that needs to be addressed? Are there priorities that aren't right? Are your motivations what they ought to be?

As we move into the Christmas season and exchange gifts, we know that no gift that can be found under the tree is as priceless as our relationship with Christ. We are enjoying many pre-Christmas celebrations with family and friends. Kim and Jackie were here this past weekend and we celebrated Jackie's birthday as well as an early Christmas. Monday we had our Annual Gingerbread Decorating. We had fun with everyone who came and the houses turned out well. Tuesday evening was our Annual Christmas Dinner with the Tysdal's. We had a wonderful meal and enjoyable evening at Notable. I love this time of year and all the traditions that come with it. Wednesday evening was the Annual Twinkle Tour at Confederation Park with friends. Hoping Jamie is feeling okay this morning after getting knocked off his feet by a toboggan. Every year it seems one of the guys ends up in the snow. We had such a great evening of lights, sledding, and visiting. A busy but fun time of the year!