From Founder/CEO Cynthia Mascarenhas: “I pray that this Christmas, no matter your circumstances, you would remember that Christmas is about Christ – above all else! May the message below offer you peace and encouragement to be victorious in whatever you are facing today. Have a blessed Christmas.”

Christmas is about Christ. Christ is about sacrificial love. If it wasn’t for the ultimate price paid to rescue us from our sinful state, we would not be celebrating Christmas and we would have no hope for eternity. “Love one another as I have loved you” is talking about sacrificial love, the kind of love that could hurt you. The kind of love that cost Him everything.

Paul exhorts us in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.” Is this a tall order? Or is it the only way to do life successfully? You can get by without it, but you cannot live an abundant life without it.

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.”

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Marriage, parenting, friendship, family, work, church – every relationship that is designed to be cultivated and honed demands this essential ingredient: LOVE. We are surrounded by people who are takers and believe in “selfish” love. But have you been blessed enough to have experienced “selfless love”?

I’ve learned a thing or two about love, both selfless and selfish. The closer you get to people, the more they grate you. Their tiny warts can be personified as major roadblocks. The challenge of integrating two different personalities into one entwined life calls for laying down our own preferences, compromising our ‘set in stone’ ways to meet the other halfway. The constant demand to place one’s own selfish desires second to the desires of another – this could foster resentment if not tempered with love. If selflessness is repeatedly met with selfishness, you have a responsibility to hold the other person accountable. In a meaningful relationship, you will have the ability to do just that because love does not fear. Has this kind of love been modeled for us? Yes, it has. It is how the Christ of Christmas loves us!

• Christ loves us enough to lay down His life for us
• He also has allowed us to deal with the consequences of our own selfishness.
• He loves us despite our faults; better yet, He loves us through our faults.
• He admonishes and chastises us while not giving up on us.

Ultimately, the Christ of Christmas is a gift, not a mandate. We need to want Him, we need to receive Him, we need to engage with Him, we need to enjoy Him. In other words, we need to reciprocate, or it will be like any other gift that was never unwrapped – just knowing you have a gift waiting for you, or maybe even knowing what’s in it, does not unravel all the benefits of the gift itself. You have to receive, open, and experience the gift to truly appreciate its worth.

Love can only be enjoyed and appreciated when you reciprocate with unselfish love. You could receive selfless love and selfishly choose not to reciprocate. If you do that, you will never truly experience the full value and worth of the “gift” you have been given. Fullness of life – abundant life in accordance with His riches in glory in Christ Jesus – is the ultimate gift given freely to all who will receive it. Reciprocate this gift of selfless love with unselfishness; RECEIVE Him, KNOW Him, and LOVE Him as He loves you – selflessly.