The true meaning of Christmas...

Open our eyes Lord!

I sit here, warm cozy on my bed, I have every physical need met, yet my heart aches with an ache so deep I cannot bear it. It’s as if the very heartbeat of the Father is inside of my chest, aching to show His love to the world. I went out looking to get in the spirit of Christmas, I came home utterly devastated, writhed with pain and tears consumed with grief, where is Christmas here? Every bone in my body aches to go out to the poor and needy, to the orphanages I so love to visit, yet my attention is turned and I begin to see that I am amongst the poor and needy, those who have no idea what they are missing in the Love of our Heavenly Father. This may just be the most challenging mission I am yet to face, I’m so overcome with emotion and I don’t know whether I should cry, scream, or run away back to wrap my arms around the beautiful children in the Haiti orphanages.

What am I missing Lord? What am I not seeing? Lord I plea with you, that you would pour out your spirit on us that our eyes and ears may be opened, that our hearts would open up to see you for who you really are. Lord please have mercy on us for oppressing the poor and not setting the captives free, for not tending to the needs of the widows and orphans. Lord that our eyes of our hearts would be opened to what you spoke to the prophet Isaiah in chapter 58.

Lord I’m desperate to do your will, please show me the way and forgive me for my foolish pride.


Isaiah 58
New International Version
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True Fasting
1“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.

3‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?

6“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

11The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

13“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Lord I love you and Praise your holy name.

Picture: Christmas 2010