For The Love Of God

Was blog-surfing and came upon this blog. One of her entries caught my eye...

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
- D.A. Carson, For the Love of God

Reflect. Ponder. Reflect. Ponder.

God let me not fall into the traps of trusting myself instead of You.

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"It's more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35b

I wasn't expecting gifts for Christmas. But somehow, it has become a habit for me to give away gifts on Christmas. It started with the notion couple of years back that I want to show my appreciation/thanks to those who have impacted me in ways big and small for the past year. It still is. I mean, hey, it's the one and only time I appreciate them (cos I tend to forget birthdays, so... :P).

It was never written in the bible that Christians should give away presents on Christmas Day, more so for non-Christians. But somehow giving away presents is like a "must-do" for the non-Christians, than the Christians. And they are more enthusiastic about it than the Christians.

"Have you done your Christmas shopping?" seemed to be a popular question radio DJs asked their listeners on the days leading to Christmas, and was probably the added catalyst the retailers need to boost their sales. Most DJs are Eurasians, if you notice, hence, it's quite a tradition of their community to give presents.

But for the rest of Singaporean population, I find it really funny for them to feel compelled to give away gifts during the Christmas season. I know most of the reasons is that they want to see the smile on the receiver, especially children. To make their loved ones happy on this joyous season.

Anyway, back to my giving...

It'd be nice to get something in return :) But I think getting nothing in return is better than candles or soap dishes. Just let me enjoy being the giver :)