Christmas: Seeds of the Eternal

Lately I have been quite interested in the current surge of attention in our culture toward being entertained by the realities of the spiritual realm. There is a large volume of "spiritual" entertainment that has come over the past few years. On T.V. we are watching a steady diet of the spiritual. With shows like Touched by an Angel, Medium, The Ghost Whisperer, and Missing all relying on the spiritual to help solve crimes and other such type stories. From the movie theatres we have the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter and now the much anticipated C.S. Lewis Classic The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. Certainly they are all classified as fantasy and I don’t want to take this too far, however, the stories that these great movies are made from are from classical books.
These books have had a significant influence upon our modern society. Most of that influence comes in the form of subtle (and at certain points in the stories not so subtle) spiritual content. And the reading/viewing public really eats it up!
Evil is real. However, evil can be overcome by good. Hate, vengeance, power, manipulation can all be overcome by love, forgiveness, courage and wisdom. The story teller’s creative abilities with these basic facts set our hearts at ease. They basically reassure us that the power of love and goodness will ultimately win over all that is rotten and evil in this world. It’s never without a fight and it always seems like evil has the upper hand for most of the story.
The bible is very clear about why we are all so fascinated with the hereafter, the other worldly, the spiritual realms. It teaches that “God has planted eternity in the human heart”. We come by this fascination honestly. You could say it is in our spiritual DNA. We long to know as much as we can about the supernatural. We believe in "lucky charms' or even "superstitions". Some will go to great lengths to pry into the darkness through witchcraft and incantations but only end up spent, depressed and disillusioned at the end of their search. But search they must for God has planted the seeds of eternity in all of our hearts.
In keeping with this theme I want to encourage all of you to check out the Christmas story. It is full of the supernatural. It is truly a spiritual story from start to finish. There were Angels coming and going and God speaking to people. Speaking to young and old alike, all of whom were searching for life and fulfillment just like the rest of us are. The Christmas story is a truly great story! Some have even gone so far as to say the greatest story ever told. However just because it is in the Bible, sadly most folks haven’t bothered to read it. But take the time this Christmas to slow down, grab a bible from somewhere (if you don’t have one give me a call we will try and get one to you somehow) and read this fascinating and wonderful story. It is found mostly in the Bible Books of Matthew and Luke, and in both cases they are in the first couple of chapters of these books. You will see that the reason God planted eternity in our hearts is for us to take interest in spiritual things and so be lead towards a relationship with him.
Please feel welcome to join our Peachland churches this season. Our schedule includes a Christmas service is on December 18th @ 10:30 AM; a Christmas Eve service from 6-7 PM of music and carol singing and a reading of the whole story of Christmas on Christmas morning @ 10:30 AM all in the Peachland Community Center. Check this local paper for times for all of our Peachland church services this season. Don’t allow the fantastic and highly spiritual story of the birth of Jesus Christ to slip past you this year. Merry Christmas everybody!