It is that time of year for many to make New Year’s resolutions. It may surprise you to know that the tradition goes all the way back to before the time of Christ. Janus was the name of a mythical king of early Rome whose face was placed at the head of the calendar. With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future.

The New Year has not always begun on January 1. In fact, the New Year doesn’t begin on that date everywhere even today. The Chinese New Year is one example. But January 1 is the first day of the new year for those of us in the West. This goes back to Julius Caesar who developed a calendar that would more accurately reflect the seasons than previous calendars had.

Most of the resolutions we make today have to do with our health. For example, some of the most popular resolutions are: (1) to lose weight, (2) to get fit, and (3) to eat right. So it is not surprising that membership in weight watchers and fitness clubs jump dramatically in the month of January.

Some resolutions are to stop doing things that are harmful to our body. They include: (1) drink less alcohol and (2) quit smoking now. If our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), then these would also be very good resolutions.

Other resolutions deal with finances, like paying off debt, and saving money. Those would certainly be appropriate resolutions considering what most Americans just spent for Christmas. Still other resolutions are about self improvement. Some of these are such things as: (1) get a better job and (2) get a better education.

What I found absent from most of these resolutions was anything that involved spiritual growth or even outreach to others. There was one resolution at the bottom of the list of most popular and it was to “volunteer to help others.” At least this resolution in this list dealt with reaching out to others, but the others had to do with fitness, diet, or self improvement.

Why don’t we all make a resolution to be more Godly and to live the Christian life more consistently before the watching world? I think that would be a great resolution for the coming year.

It seems that welfare has replaced work in America. In the last few years, we have seen the largest expansion of the welfare state since President Lyndon Johnson. We have also seen the largest decline in the labor force in 30 years.

Stephen Moore with the Heritage Foundation (and formerly with The Wall Street Journal) believes it is time to ask whether welfare has contributed to the reduction in the percentage of Americans holding a job. More than 46 million Americans are on food stamps. We have a record increase in the number of Americans on disability.

Back in 1996, the Republican Congress and President Clinton passed a bill that made work a requirement for welfare. Despite the predictions of failure and the prediction that it would harm the poor, we actually saw the number of people on welfare decrease by 50 percent. Unfortunately, the current administration has removed most of the positive requirements in that original bill.

When Stephen Moore was on my radio program, I also made the case that some of these generous welfare benefits actually are a significant disincentive to working. The CATO Institute did a study of welfare payments in each state. They argue in their monograph “The Work Versus Welfare Trade-Off” that welfare currently pays more than a minimum wage job in 35 states (even after accounting for the Earned Income Tax Credit). In 13 states, welfare pays more than $15 per hour.

If someone does a rational calculation of costs and benefits, you can see why they might not try to find a job unless it pays significantly more than minimum wage. They also found the in 11 states, welfare pays more than the average pre-tax first year wage for a teacher. In 39 states, it pays more than the starting wage for a secretary.

Americans are a generous people. They don’t mind helping someone who has fallen on hard times. But they see welfare as a system that should provide a hand up not a hand out. It is no wonder that the welfare rolls are increasing when it makes more economic sense in many states to collect welfare than to find a job.

When Sony Entertainment decided not to release the movie, The Interview, we talked on radio about the reasons for their decision. In the midst of the charges of cowardice and other criticisms came the legal concern. If they did release the film and something happened in a theater, would Sony be sued?

I think we all know the answer to that. Of course, they would be sued. This led to an interesting discussion of whether an artist (writer, musician, producer, movie studio) should be held legally responsible for what people do in response to their art.

Trial lawyer and columnist Kurt Schlichter addresses this issue in his column, “Don’t Blame Sony – Blame Obama and the Tort System.” He is positive that Sony and the theater companies would be sued if something bad happened in a theater showing The Interview. He mentions the Aurora theater chain is being sued because a psycho opened fire in the theater when The Dark Knight Rises was being shown.

He argues that Sony was left entirely exposed by our court system. Their lawyers told them (correctly we might add) that under our current tort system, they would be sued. That is why Kurt Schlichter says we don’t need tort reform: we need tort rethink.

“Tort lawsuits often claim negligence, which essentially means that you can win money by convincing, in retrospect and years later within the safety of a court house, nine of the 12 people picked at random to sit on the jury that the defendant did not act reasonably.”

He also takes on the idea that everyone deserves his or her day in court. Although he is a trial lawyer, he admits that most tort claims are ridiculous. “We imagine that courtrooms are the places where justice is done rather than what some estimate to be 10% of our GDP is siphoned off to buy people like me vacation homes in Aspen.

Sony had a number of reasons why they pulled the movie. One compelling reason was that they didn’t want to spend the next decade in court if something bad took place in a movie theater.

On the day after Christmas, I would to ask you a question. How much did you spend on Christmas? If you are like most Americans, you probably would answer that you spent more than you planned to spend.

Dave Ramsey estimates that half of all Christmas shoppers will spend more than they planned and will go further into debt. It is understandable. Advertisers started promoting Christmas long before Thanksgiving. It wasn’t uncommon to see some Christmas decorations and ads alongside Halloween displays. Consumer groups estimate that credit card companies alone spent more than $150 million on advertising and promotions. It is easy to see why so many Americans get caught up in the consumerist mentality during the Christmas season.

In my book, Making the Most of Your Money in Tough Times, I devote a chapter to materialism and consumerism. We live in a culture that encourages us to spend and not to save. It seduces us into thinking that we need all sorts of products and services to be happy.

The more we buy, the more indebted we become. The Bible warns about this. Proverbs 21:17 says, “He who loves pleasure will become a poor man; He who loves wine and oil will not become rich.”

In our lifetime we have lots of money that flows through our hands, and we need to make wiser choices. Consider that a person who makes just $25,000 a year will have (in his lifetime) a million dollars pass through his hands. The median family income in America is twice that. That means that two million dollars will pass through the average American family’s hands.

The more we buy, the less happy we are. Once again, the Bible warns us about this. Haggai 1:5-6 says, “Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.’”

If you are feeling the post-holiday blues because of your spending, I recommend you make a resolution to change your spending behavior.

On this Christmas day, I think it would be good to reflect for just a moment on the Incarnation. God became man and took on human flesh. This is a great theological wonder and mystery.

Malcolm Muggeridge wrote this to describe the importance of the birth of Christ. “Thanks to the great mercy and marvel of the Incarnation, the cosmic scene is resolved into a human drama. A human drama in which God reached down to relate Himself to man and man reaches up to relate himself to God. Time looks into eternity and eternity into time, making now always and always now. Everything is transformed by this sublime drama of the Incarnation, God’s special parable for man in a fallen world”

God reached down to us by sending the second person of the Trinity to earth to become part of the human drama and human dilemma. God stepped out of eternity into time to become part of the human community. What an incredible act of love and mercy.

C.S. Lewis explains that God had to come down that He might lift us up. “In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity. . . . But he goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him.”

God did not just come to dwell among us and comfort us. He came that He might raise us up through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Although we celebrate the birth of Christ today, we also look to the death and resurrection of Christ that we celebrate at Easter. Romans 5:8 proclaims: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 1 Peter 2:24 says that Christ “bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.”

One this Christmas day, we should pause to reflect on why Christ came to earth and what He did for us on the cross.

During this Christmas week, I have taken the time to discuss the theology of some of the Christmas hymns and carols that we sing. Today I would like to talk about The First Noel. It is an English song dating back to the sixteenth century. Some people believe that the First Noel was French because of the French spelling of Noel, but it is actually an English song. The French word Noël does mean “Christmas” and it relevant to the lyrics of the song. The First Noel was first published in 1833 when it appeared in the work, Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern.

The first line of the song suggests a December date for the birth of Christ: “The first Noel, the angels did say; Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep, On a cold winter’s night that was so deep.” Although many doubt that Jesus was born in December, there are some theologians (such as the author of the Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ) who believes that a December date is possible.

Whatever the case may be about the date of the birth of Jesus, the song continues: “Born is the King of Israel!” It reminds us that a king was born that night. Yet few understood the significance of a birth in Bethlehem.

Even the wise men from the East did not completely understand the significance of His birth, but they were guided to Him by a star. “For all to see there was a star;
Shining in the east, beyond them far; And to the earth it gave great light, And so it continued both day and night.”

The song goes on to say that “three wise men came from country far.” The Bible does not tell us how many wise men there were. We know there were three kinds of gifts
(gold, frankincense, and myrrh), but we don’t know how many wise men there were. Some church fathers says there were twelve, other traditions name three: Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar. But the Bible does not say how many wise men there were.

What the Bible clearly teaches, however, is that Jesus was born and that He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)

It is estimated that Charles Wesley wrote over 6500 hymns. Perhaps his best-known hymn is “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.” Over the years it has been edited slightly, but the meaning and theology remains as he wrote it more than two centuries ago.

It begins with a proclamation of the birth of Jesus: “Hark! the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King; Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.”

The hymn reminds us why Christ came to earth. Jesus came into the world to bring peace, but many who sing this song fail to realize that it was to bring peace between us and God. Wesley’s hymn reminds us that His birth was so that God and sinners would be reconciled. We are the sinners in this hymn, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All we like sheep have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6). We have broken God’s commandments and need to be reconciled with God. This was done when Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3).

This hymn by Charles Wesley goes on to describe who Jesus Christ is. “Christ by highest heaven adored; Christ, the everlasting Lord! Late in time behold Him come, offspring of the Virgin’s womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.”

This is the wonder of the Incarnation. Jesus (the second person of the Trinity) became the “offspring of the Virgin’s womb.” God became man and was “veiled in flesh” even though He was the “incarnate Deity.” Jesus was our Emmanuel. The name Emmanuel means “God with us.” So even though Jesus became man, he did not lose His deity.

This Christmas week, let us once again reflect upon the Incarnation. How wonderful yet mysterious that God would become man and dwell among us. And that He would be willing to die on a cross for our sins.

This is Christmas week, and so I thought we might reflect on the hymn, “O Holy Night” by John Dwight.
“O holy night! The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.”

Jesus came into the world to save us and so we feel valuable and our soul feels its worth. Perhaps the most quoted verse in the Bible is John 3:16. It tells us that Jesus came because “God so loved the world.” He came so that our souls would feel their worth to God.

This hymn also asks us to consider the fact that the King of kings was born as a human infant and placed in a manger. He also experienced temptation and persecution. Ultimately he died a horrible death on the cross.

“The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger, In all our trials born to be our Friend. He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger. Behold your King, before Him lowly bend.”

Isn’t amazing that there were some who were willing to worship him even while merely a babe in a manger. The hymn this talks about how we should respond to one another in humility.

“Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, And in His name all oppression shall cease.”

We no longer have slavery in this country, but many people are still enslaved to various forms of sin and need Jesus as their Savior. And we as believers are to model the humility that Jesus demonstrated when He stepped out of eternity into time and gave up His rights as God.

This is a message we not only need at Christmas, but every day.