Cultivating A Christ-Centered Christmas: Introduction

Nov 13, 2011 by desiringvirtue

Many of you will be familiar with the name John Piper. Piper, an incredibly gifted preacher and writer has centered his church ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church and his para church ministry, Desiring God, on the one paramount focus of exalting Christ through knowing him and enjoying him forever. His preaching and life testimony have had a tremendous influence on my perception of the Christian life. He is one of those people who seems to naturally exhale the worship of God, so full of his holy presence that he can’t help but breath it out onto you. People like John Piper challenge you to live every moment of your life through the glorious reality of the Gospel, to live your life in a Biblical, Christ-centered fashion.

When his wife, Noel Piper, released a little book titled Treasuring God in Our Traditions, in which she shares simple ways to focus your heart and your family’s hearts on the Lord during various holidays, I knew it was a must read as a young wife and soon-to-be mother. I couldn’t wait to find out what the Pipers did in their home to exalt Christ and draw near to him during holidays like Christmas.

You see, one of the things that Richard and I used to fantasize about as a young, engaged couple was how we would purposefully try to cultivate an atmosphere of genuine love for the Lord within our home. We would talk about everything from nightly devotions with our future children to what we were going to do with the cultural phenomenon known as Santa Claus during the Christmas season. We were so excited to begin our family and begin a legacy of faithful worship of the Risen Lord.

Mrs. Piper, describes a similar desire within a younger John and Noel as they prayerfully considered each tradition they would begin or continue within their new family. Their zealousness to be completely focused on the Lord during Christmas lead them to ixnay the familiar Christmas Tree tradition simply because they couldn’t find Biblical reason to include it in their celebration. They desired to have a distinctly Christian celebration and felt that the Christmas tree was simply a cultural tradition that lent little spiritual benefit to their holiday. They simply desired to be counter-cultural. She later goes on to explain how such extreme measures are not necessary, how some traditions are simply traditions that we enjoy as a blessing from the Lord, but that our motive should always be to put careful consideration into why we celebrate in the way we do and how our celebrations reflect and encourage our relationship to the Lord.

I am very honored and excited to explore these topics with you through a new series called “Cultivating A Christ-Centered-Christmas.” It is my prayer that I can encourage you to make the most of this Christmas season as we seek to bring honor and glory to our Messiah King.

I want to start by exploring our motivation in cultivating a Christ-Centered Christmas and then end by sharing many practical traditions that you can implement within your own home to encourage spiritual growth and Christ-centeredness in your own heart and in your family’s hearts during this wonderful holiday we call Christmas.

Come back tomorrow to contemplate our motivation for a Christ-Centered Christmas!