Christmas Eve and “Facebragging”

Dear Friends,

Leanna and I, on behalf of our entire church and school staff, wish you a blessed Christmas celebration and a wonderful New Year filled with the promise of God’s power, protection, and presence!

You are warmly invited to our special Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, which will last from 5:00-6:00 p.m. this Thursday evening.  There will be nursery care available, and wonderful Christmas music led by Lori Devey and her team.  Our devotional message is “The Majesty of Christmas” and I hope you will plan on joining in the celebration!  This service is usually packed, so you might want to come a bit early!

In November, President Obama and his administration held their first state dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.  It was a veritable extravaganza of an evening, with guests ranging from high-ranking politicians to Hollywood celebrities and VIPS.  But as we all know, two uninvited party crashers successfully made it into the party.   Tareq and Michaele Salahi made it past security and entered the White House.  Once at the party, they met and shook hands with President Obama, hugged Vice President Joe Biden, and mingled with other famous people.  They then published their photos on the social networking site, Facebook, and attracted quite a bit of notoriety, which of course, was their purpose.   It turns out that this kind of behavior has a name:  “Facebragging.”  And the Salahis are masters of this new art form.   Investigators later revealed that Tareq and Machaele were also working to achieve a role in the reality television series Real Housewives of D.C., and even had a camera crew documenting their arrival at the White House!

Tareq and Michaele’s story captures America’s dangerous obsession with celebrity and our desire to achieve the “fifteen minutes of fame” we feel we deserve.

Let me tell you something as we close out the year together.  It may be possible to slip past security and crash a lavish White House party uninvited.  It is even possible to come face to face with the most powerful man on earth.  But the Bible speaks of another party, one that will take place in heaven and last for all eternity.  In Revelation 19:9 it says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”  No one will ever be able to crash this party!  You must have an invitation, and you must accept the invitation.  The only way to do this is to give your life to Jesus Christ.  Then and only then can you appear face to face with the Lord God Almighty!  This is the purpose of Crosswalk Community Church:  To help people get connected to Jesus so they can participate in this heavenly banquet.   That connection is always only a prayer of faith away.  May the Lord grant us that connection now and always!

Thank you for your continued partnership with Crosswalk Church in helping people get connected to Jesus!

With Christmas joy,

Pastor John