Yesterday I talked about charitable giving. Today I wanted to follow up by challenging us as Christians to consider giving even more than we do. Perhaps the best book on that subject was written by David Green. It has the arresting title, Giving It All Away. He is the founder of Hobby Lobby and tells the story of his success and calls for Christians to give generously to churches and other ministries. He and the rest of his family have been on my radio program. We often talk about Hobby Lobby, the Museum of the Bible, and even their court case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Most people know that Hobby Lobby is closed on Sunday. They may not also realize that their stores close earlier (8 PM) than other stores. That means that they are only open 66 hours a week and compete with stores open many more hours. David Green did this so that his employees can spend more time with their families.

Hobby Lobby also pays its full-time employees well. Back in 2009, they raised the base pay to $10/hour. The next year they tacked on another dollar. They next year they did it again and then again. This is another way that the Green family values their employees.

I asked David Green if he ever imagined that he would have to sue the federal government. The thought never crossed his mind, but they did so when the HHS mandate would have required them to provide abortifacients for their employees.

Much of his book focuses on giving and challenges Christians to engage in the adventure of tithing. He has three principles they use and encourages all of us to implement them as well. First, set your criteria. What are you going to fund? What are your priorities? Second, set your giving amount. Give the first fruits, not what is left over. And finally, set fire for the future. He also has thought quite about how to make generosity generational.

His book is certain to spark your interest and encourage you in giving.

As this year winds down, many Americans focus on year-end giving. There is abundant evidence that charitable giving has been affected by our newly revised tax code that rewards fewer taxpayers with tax benefits. Howard Husock wrote about this earlier this month when many Americans took advantage of “Giving Tuesday.” His observations then are even more relevant at the end of December.

Indiana University’s school of philanthropy have been able to document two significant trends. While overall giving has slightly climbed, individual giving has declined. Actually, when you adjust for inflation, then giving by individuals declined even more.

The major reason is the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which raised the standard deduction for federal income-tax returns for a larger percentage of taxpayers. In the past, many of these taxpayers would itemize their charitable deductions. Now they no longer quality for a charitable tax deduction.

The Tax Policy Center acknowledges that “most low- and moderate-income taxpayers do not claim a deduction for charitable contributions, largely because most do not itemize.” The 90 percent of households that do not itemize make at least 40 percent of all charitable contributions. The remaining 10 percent that do itemize account for 60 percent of charitable contributions.

I suspect that a significant percentage of those who don’t itemize but do make charitable contributions are Christians who do so because they believe they should give to their church and Christian organizations. Some are suggesting a future tax code revision provides for a charitable-giving tax credit or some other incentive.

Of course, these proposals won’t even be considered if we continue to elect to Congress representatives that try to find more and more ways to spend and continue to run up massive federal deficits.

The recent revelation of a Chinese spy involved with a member of Congress has been a vivid reminder that China has been using various ways to gather intelligence. They not only use actual spies, but gather intelligence from students, tourists, and businessmen. This “thousand grains of sand” approach gathers what might seem to be inconsequential bits of information they can then put with other information to gain a full picture of what is happening in this country.

When we think of spying, often we think of the “Red Sparrow” approach that has been used by the Soviet Union. A female intelligence operative gains the trust of a political leader and then puts him in a compromising sexual relationship. This is then used for blackmail in an effort to collect critical information.

The Chinese method is different. Their “Honey Pot” method is to gain information simply by developing a trusting relationship. This relationship might develop long before the target has much political influence. He may merely be on a city council. But today’s mayors and city council members are tomorrow’s members of Congress and presidential candidates.

The Chinese also use students in this country. According to the Chinese National Intelligence Law, every Chinese national is required to provided information to the Chinese Communist Party and be interviewed by consulate officials.

China also has established Confucius Institutes on many university campuses. They are supposed to be providing college students with greater awareness of China and teaching Chinese languages. They provide a base of operation for Chinese spies who can collect research material and military secrets. And the Chinese consulates in this country are also used as a base of operation for Chinese spies.

All of this is why our government must address this growing problem of Chinese spying.

China is a national security threat. That is the conclusion of the Director of National Intelligence. John Ratcliffe begins his assessment by reminding us that he has access to more intelligence than any member of the US government other than the president.

He says that if he could “communicate one thing to the American people from this unique vantage point, it is that the People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II.” To put it simply, China wants to dominate the US and the rest of the world economically, militarily, and technologically.

He describes ways in which China has been stealing trade secrets from American manufacturers. He talks about Chinese nationals stealing research and development secrets. China’s intellectual property theft costs America as much as $500 billion a year.

China is also stealing sensitive US defense technology in order to make China the world’s foremost military power. We also have found out that China is even conducting human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army in hopes of developing super-soldiers for the future.

China is also developing world-class capabilities in emerging technologies. It is also developing cyber capabilities against the American government.

He concludes by warning us that “Beijing is preparing for an open-ended period of confrontation with the US. Washington should be prepared. Leaders must work across partisan divides to understand the threat, speak about it openly, and take action to address it.” Let us pray that the next administration and Congress does this, but I have my doubts.

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.

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.

On this Christmas week, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on the coming of the Messiah. The Old Testament contains hundreds of prophecies that give specific detail about the “anointed one” who is the Messiah. The prophets proclaimed that He would come to save the people.

The Bible is unique in many ways, especially when it comes to fulfilled prophecy.
At the time when it was written, 27 percent (1800 verses) of the Bible was prophetic. Large portions of those prophecies have been fulfilled, and that is a powerful argument for the inspiration of the Bible.

What is the probability that these Messianic prophecies could be fulfilled in the life of one person by chance? Peter Stoner, in his book Science Speaks, calculated the probability of just eight Messianic prophecies being fulfilled by chance. These included the prophecy in Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Another was Malachi 3:1 that predicted that a messenger would prepare the way for the Messiah. Four of the prophecies were from Zechariah. They predicted that the Messiah would be betrayed: by a friend, for 30 pieces of silver, and it would be used to buy a potter’s field. Another prophecy said that the Messiah would die by being pierced (crucified).

Multiplying all of these probabilities together, Peter Stoner came up with a number of 10 to the 17th power. In other words, the chance that just eight prophecies could be fulfilled by chance is one in one hundred quadrillion. In order to illustrate this, he says imagine we could fill the state of Texas with silver dollars two feet deep. Put a red mark on one and then ask a blindfolded person to travel anywhere in the state. The chance that he would pick up the marked silver dollar on the first try would be one in one hundred quadrillion.

The conclusion is simple. Jesus is indeed the Messiah predicted by the prophets.

The carol “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is an English translation of a Latin hymn that is sung during Advent and Christmas. The text goes back to at least the 18th century (and perhaps much earlier) while the music put to it goes back to the 15th century.

“O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

Emmanuel means, “God with us.” Even before the coming of Christ, we see passages in the Old Testament that remind us that God was with Israel. In 1 Kings 8 we read, “Praise the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave through his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us.” In Psalm 46, we read that, “The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”

One of the most visible reminders of God’s presence was during the Exodus. God was with the Israelites as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of smoke by day. His presence was with them in the Tabernacle and later the Temple in the Holy of Holies.

But the most important aspect of Emmanuel is found in the New Testament. John tells us in his gospel, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). This is the miracle of the Incarnation. God put on human flesh and came to Israel so that He might give His life for all of us. Paul writes to Timothy, “Here is the great mystery of our religion: Christ came as a human” (1 Timothy 3:16). This is what we celebrate at Christmas.

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 became the “offspring of the Virgin’s womb.” God became man and was “veiled in flesh” even though He was the “incarnate 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 I thought it might be worthwhile to spend a moment to reflect on the words to the hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” It was written in 1867 by Phillips Brooks (an Episcopal pastor from Philadelphia). He had been in Israel two years earlier and had celebrated Christmas in Bethlehem. He wrote this song to reflect on what the night of the birth of Jesus might have been like.

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

While the streets of our cities are quiet on Christmas day, most likely that day was just like any other day for the people in Bethlehem. But as evening came, the town grew quiet and something remarkable took place.

In the second verse the hymn says, “While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.” This is just like today. Our world goes about its business, usually oblivious to the spiritual realities around it.

Jesus came into the world quietly. Yes, there was the angelic announcement to the shepherds, but most other people were unaware of the fact that the most significant event in history was taking place. God became a man. But he was born in a stable and laid in a feeding trough. There was no pomp or circumstance as you would expect of a King.

Jesus came not only to live among us but to ultimately die for our sins. He took upon Himself the sins of the world (your sins and my sins) and paid the ultimate penalty that we deserved to pay that we might have everlasting life.

During this Christmas week, I hope you will stop long enough to consider what happened in that little town of Bethlehem. But even more so, I hope you will think about what Jesus did for you at Calvary.