Christmas is here whether you are ready or not. How is one supposed to prepare for Christmas anyway? As Christians, Christmas is not so much about what we do, like shopping, decorating, exchanging gifts, visiting family, caroling, and so on. Christmas is much more about stocktaking of our response to God’s gift of His Son for our salvation. Our sin problem was beyond human solution; only Jesus Christ’s love and death resolved our sin problem. When John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, came, he preached repentance to the people as the way to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. A heart transplant must take place as a first requirement; thereafter, we need a regular heart checkup, and the Christmas season is one of the times to do a heart checkup. Check your heart’s response to sin this Christmas and block all paths of sin; then, you will have a blessed Christmas. “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching … and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Mat. 3:1-2).
