Category: Christmas

A Million Reasons to Believe

Posted on by Susan Panzica

In one day, I received 7 different sale catalogs from Macy’s. One for jewelry, one for watches, one for household appliances, others for clothes, perfume, and so on. But all of them had one thing in common. Above the logo, “the magic of macy’s”, was their slogan for this season of sales:

“a million reasons to believe”.

Got me thinking…

-Believe in what?

-How many reasons does a person need to believe?

The advertising execs at Macy’s have addressed the issue of belief, which is really the issue of faith. People often pray, maybe when they get sick or have tragedy or financial struggles. My question is – Who do they pray to? In whom do they put their trust? The people at Macy’s suggest that their catalog provides reasons to believe in the “magic of Christmas”.

Well, I believe in the One that we celebrate at Christmas, the One who came from heaven to earth to purchase my salvation, and yours. No “magic” needed! And I don’t need a million reasons to believe in Him, but God provided them anyway!

The writer of the book of Hebrews says that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Then he describes all those great heroes of the faith and goes on to say, “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us … run with perseverance the race marked out for us….”

A great cloud of witnesses…

How many drops of water make up a cloud? Millions? Billions?

That’s how many reasons we have to believe!

All those who have gone before us, walking a life of faith, provide evidence of God’s faithfulness. And those who surround us now, encouraging us, praying for us, building us up, facing adversity with hope, walking their life of faith, being the hands and feet of Jesus on earth… Now, these are the million reasons to believe!
Susan

An Advent Challenge

Posted on by Susan Panzica
So today, here I was standing in the supermarket evaluating the prices of dishwashing detergents, when all of a sudden I caught myself silently singing along to “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, my favorite Christmas carol. Why is it my favorite?
Not because I used to think it was Harold the Angel singing.
Nor because have a beautiful collection of angels.
Not even because the melody is so lovely.
No, it is my favorite because of the lyrics. To think that all over the world people are singing the gospel truth. “God and sinner reconciled!!”
That, in a nutshell, is what Christmas is all about. Jesus left His home in heaven for one purpose, to redeem us.
Yes, He set an example for us to follow.
Yes, He healed and did miracles.
Yes, He taught parables to thousands.
But His crowning achievement and His ultimate purpose in coming was to reconcile us to Himself. How awesome!!

This time of year, people all over the world are singing the gospel truth, yet they don’t realize it. They sing words without recognizing what they mean. What an opportunity to share the truth with those who don’t know Jesus personally, but who know ABOUT Him and the story of His birth.

We say it’s the “Christmas story”, but in fact, it is sharing the Word of God when we share that “story”. When I began to seriously read Matthew 1 & 2 and Luke 1 & 2, God began to show me things that I never noticed before. Since it is such a familiar portion of Scripture, we tend to read it without really reading it, just like I was singing God’s Word without being aware of it.

Advent is a time of expectation of the coming of the Savior. May I suggest that you use the days of Advent to experience the expectation of His coming deeper into your life. Read those 4 chapters asking God to show you something new. He’ll meet you there! And then you’ll have something to share!

Susan