‘Decorating the Christmas Tree

1. Start with a live Christmas tree and think about the tree that was used to crucify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2. Notice the trees wonderful fresh fragrance and aroma. Think about his precious anointing and presence in your life.
3. Place the tree in it’s stand and water it well to keep it nourished. This is what the blood does for us. If we stay saturated in his blood we are always nourished and refreshed. We will never fade or fall back.
4. As you wrap the tree in bright lights think about his power in your life and what you can do in him and what it was like in your life before you knew about his power. How many times did we struggle in ourselves to try to be “good” or to try to break free from chains that kept us bound? Thank God now all we do is rely on his power through the Holy Spirit and let him be God in us. He sets us free and places us in good standing with him.
5. Now as you take the time to examine the branches, think about the Lords loving arms around you. How many times has he picked you up and loved on you? His arms are always outstretched like the beautiful branches of the tree. As the tree’s branches hold treasured ornaments so does the Lord’s loving arms for he counts us as a precious ornament that he himself has fashioned.
6. Next, bring out the heirloom bulbs. These are usually ornaments that are safely tucked back into their boxes each year and when brought out you reminisce all of the past years that they were used. These ornaments are ornaments of grace. As you look back over your life and reminisce where you started, hopefully you can see how far the Lord has brought you and cry “GRACE!” God’s enabling ability on your inability to do what you could not do yourself. It was his wonderful unmerited favor that opened doors of safety for you and closed other doors that could have meant you harm.
7. Then of course there are those very special personal ornaments that you treasure. These ornaments are the testimonies of what the Lord has delivered you from and what he has delivered you to. Everyone of us have these special ornaments in our lives and only you and I can tell what God has done for us and do it justice. These ornaments stand out on the tree and attract attention and so do the testimonies of the saints, after all we overcome by them. Hopefully every year we add more and more of these personal ornaments or treasures on the tree.

8. Now it is time for the garland which is God’s mercy. We have all sinned and fallen short of his Glory, but thank the Lord you or I did not get what we deserved. Instead as the accuser bellows “Guilty!” We have a wonderful Savior that we have been hidden in who resounds the word “Mercy, Mercy!” all over heaven. We deserved his justice but have obtained his loving mercy! His mercies are renewed every morning which tells me that we cannot exhaust his glorious supply.
9. For the final decoration let’s place the beautiful shining star on the very top of the tree. The shining star represents God’s word or direction. His word should always be at the very forefront of our thinking. How do we do anything without first knowing what direction to start. His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. The star pointed to Jesus and showed the Kings of the East where he was, and so does the star of his word. As you read through the pages every line and every passage points to Jesus, for the word is Jesus. He is the bright and morning star!
10. After the tree is decorated we place beautifully gift wrapped packages underneath. So are the fruits of the spirit beautifully wrapped in different packages. These fruits operate in our lives to help us win others to Jesus, but they also are given for our benefit and when yielded to will help us to live the abundant life that through Jesus was made available to us. Just as all of the beautifully gift wrapped packages have wonderful things inside, we also possess wonderful treasures inside placed there by the Lord himself. Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS

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