Okay, 43 days, 4 hours, and 2 minutes until Christmas! So this week I’m going write about the second pillar of the Advent Conspiracy – SPEND LESS! Now for some of you that sounds like good news from a far country, like cold water to a thirsty soul, or, as Southerners would prefer it, like a tall glass of sweet tea on a hot day! For others, meh, it’s bad news because either we like spending money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like, or because we like people spending lots of money on us…yes, I’m being a little snarky there. But here goes…

We need to learn to resist the empire of consumerism, and resisting this empire is going to take intentionality and strategy. You see, the empire of this world demands our allegiance at the risk of our souls.

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36 ESV, Jesus)

Let me give you a taste of the empire we’re up against. Some of the hottest Christmas toys through the years: Mr. Potato Head (1952), Pet Rock (1975), Atari (1979), Cabbage Patch Dolls (1983), Game Boy (1991), Tickle Me Elmo (1996), Playstation 3 (2006), and Zhu Zhu Pets (2009). I wonder what it will be this year? What will be that one thing people need, can’t live without, and will go to any extreme to obtain even if it means they can’t afford it?

We live in a kingdom of gold and glitz. It is an empire of power, wealth, and materialism. How do we successfully resist this empire of our day? I believe the storyline of the Bible gives us the answer we are seeking. Our only hope of resisting the empire of spending more is the power of the gospel. What transformed and rescued us in the first place is what transforms and rescues us today.

Jesus entered the human scene during the time of Herod the Great. He was ruthless, wealthy, thirsty to conquer, and insecure (he killed his own family members because he felt threatened by them). Herod was more interested in saving his empire than he was in saving his soul. When the news of Jesus’ birth hit Herod the Great’s ears the Bible records that he was “troubled.” This means that he was thoroughly agitated, greatly distressed, and highly anxious. And when Herod wasn’t happy, nobody was allowed to be happy.

At this point Herod went on the attack. Because he felt threatened by a child born into poverty, he ordered the slaughter of all the baby boys in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16-18). He was not about to be outdone by some would-be poor, baby king born in an animal stall. He was going to squash the competition.

However, the empire will not threaten God’s purposes. He subverted Herod’s plan and power by waking Joseph in a dream. God’s plan of rescue through redemption will not be threatened by another kingdom (Matthew 2:13-15).

The power of the gospel is our only hope to resist the empire of today. We must intentionally plan ahead to spend less. We can’t wait until we get to the mall. Don’t go into debt to the empire of cultural consumerism; it only leads to a deeper bondage into the empire. If we rebel against the day of extravagant spending we need to be prepared for an attack. This attack may come from friends or family or even brothers and sisters in Christ, but resolve to spend less to give more. And that’s next week. And now we have only 43 days, 3 hours, and 15 minutes!

Grace & Peace,

As I write this there are just 51 days, 14 hours and 34 minutes until Christmas. That means that most of our shopping will be done in the next 30 days (give or take). Yes, Christmas is exciting, magical, wonderful, heartwarming, loving, and whatever adjective you can think of to describe this time of year. With that in mind, I wanted to get a good jump on the Christmas rush with a challenge I’ve been pushing for the last four years – Advent Conspiracy. Some of you may be new to this and so, for the sake of clarity I want to give you a brief synopsis of what this means…

The Advent Conspiracy is an idea a friend of mine in Illinois told me about (you can see more about it at www.adventconspiracy.org). The idea is that we take back Christmas from consumerism. It is simply a conspiracy among believers to recapture a true celebration of Christmas in the midst of a culture that is clamoring for more stuff while giving less of themselves to each other. The conspiracy can be summed up in four succinct tenets:

Worshipping fully is about getting back to the true message of Christmas:

“This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.” (1 John 4:10 The Message)

Christmas should be a time of getting caught up in the story – His story. We’ve messed everything up with our sin. Just take a look around during the holidays and see how many people are fighting, depressed and stressed. This just proves that we need someone to step in and rescue us; we need a hero; His name is Jesus. Jesus came into our story to change our story from tragedy to triumph, from doom to redemption. God’s amazing grace changes everything in our lives and that is what should capture our attention during Christmas. This knowledge transforms us from spenders to worshippers. God rescues us to create a worshiping throng. This is what happened to the shepherds and what should happen to us.

“And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” (Luke 2:20 ESV)

And now we have even less time before Christmas!

Grace & Peace,

We are all scrapping for a place in line; we would prefer to be in first place, but second will do in a pinch. Nobody really wants to give up their place in line; I don’t see too many people deferring to others. We have lost our sense of putting others first and are settling for putting others in their place.

I saw a snapshot of this played out at the airport. Some of the airlines are now doing what I would call organized random boarding. This means that it is organized because each passenger is given a letter and a number, but it is random because no seats are assigned. So, when boarding begins you are supposed to get in a line according to the group (A, B or C) and number. Then when you get on the plane you find a seat that suits you. Sounds good doesn’t it? Yes it does, except when people “jump” the line. For example, if you have B30 you don’t line up with the A group, at least you’re not supposed to. But you know what? Yes, people go on ahead and scramble for a better “place” so they don’t get stuck on the back of the plane in seats that don’t recline.

With that off my chest let me just say that this is not the way God intended for His children to live. Many of our problems of anxiety, frustration, envy and pride could be solved if we just simply follow the teaching of Paul:

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3 ESV)

Put others before self. Think of others before thinking of self. Make sure someone else’s needs are met before ours. I think you get the picture. And just think about it: we all got on the plane and made it to Spartanburg; it didn’t really matter who got out of the airplane first.

Grace & Peace,