The Christmas Carols: Past, Present, & Future Hope (Introduction)

Introduction

In recent days much has been made about the separation of church and state.  Prayer is often discouraged in schools and the workplace, curriculums are scrubbed clean of faith-based answers to fact-based questions, and people often prefer religion to be practiced privately, not shared publicly.  This point of view wins the day much of the time in many people’s lives . . . with one notable exception.  At Christmas time, people still allow the Sacred to invade the secular — even INVITE IT onto the public stage in many ways.  What do I mean?

Our culture still celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ every December through music.  Places where God is not welcome eleven months of the year are often platforms of praise from Black Friday to Christmas Day.  All up and down the FM dial all Advent season, we hear deep theology being sung by today’s top artists.  Every trip to the store during the holidays plays out underneath the soundtrack of the Savior.  Rather than focusing on the irony of this reality, let’s enjoy it . . . and use it as a prompt for worship and evangelism during this busy season.

As we listen to this Christmas music, however, I wonder if we really know what we are singing.  After all, most of these songs are very familiar to us . . . we sing them every year . . . but do we really understand what they are talking about?  To say it another way, when we look at “The Christmas Carols” do we know the hope of Christmas past, present, and future? 

This thirty day devotional will take one Christmas song each day for thirty days and provide a reflection on how that song helps us understand more about Jesus and what it looks like for us to follow Him.

In Christ,

Pastor Mark Robinson

To access all 30 days of “The Christmas Carols” devotional in pdf format, click here.

To access playlists for all 30 songs and for more information about how to worship with Wildwood Community Church this Christmas season, click here.