HIMPower Magazine HimPower December 2017 | Page 22

is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14 KJV)
With this in mind, I was led by the
Holy Spirit to write this month’s cover
story about
Christ. Yet,
the focus isn’t
on Him lying
as an infant
in a manger.
Rather, I was
led of the Spirit
to shine light
on the short-
comings in our
Christmas cele-
bration when
contrasted with
who Christ
is and what He wants from us—what He
considers to be our reasonable service for
the One who gave His All for us.
It’s sure to challenge the way you think
about your walk with Christ, how you
observe Christmas, and may even make you
uncomfortable.
Initially, the thought of completing a
task of this magnitude seemed more than I
could do. But as you know, God never leads
us where He has not prepared us to go—
even if we didn’t realize we were in training
at the time. Case in point, recently on a
restless night, I opened my Bible to a not
so familiar passage of scripture. At the time
I didn’t think much about it, but now I’m
convinced it was no accident. Christ needed
for me to better understand His purpose in
coming to earth in order for me to convey
22  HimPower December 2017
the message He wanted you to understand,
“Whosoever therefore shall confess me before
men, him will I confess also before my Father
which is in heaven.
But whosoever shall
deny me before
men, him will I
also deny before
my Father which is
in heaven. Think
not that I am come
to send peace on
earth: I came not
to send peace, but
a sword. For I am
come to set a man
at variance against
his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter
in law against her mother in law. And a man's
foes shall be they of his own household. He that
loveth father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that
taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is
not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:32-38 KJV)
I don’t know about you, but the fact
that Christ didn’t come to send peace to
earth, took me by surprise. If He doesn’t
bring peace on earth, who will? Suddenly, I
wondered if praying for peace in the world,
in America, in homes and communities was
futile. If that wasn’t enough to shake my
hopes, learning that Christ came to set one
family member against another shook my
foundation.
Yet on closer examination, I real-