The Everyday Club

12/19/11       Brenden and Kayvon,        about 20
What do two college students, with minimal religious background experience, believe about the origins of Christmas? "It was invented in the U.S. and imposed upon the rest of the world in order to sell our products and way of life." one said. I was with Eric (from church) and we had met Brenden and Kayvon on the sidewalk outside a strip mall and asked for their opinions. A few minutes of our asking and listening to their theories about Christmas, religion and the existence of God brought one of them to ask what I knew about the origins of Christmas. I started to launch into an Old Testament history leading up to Christmas but quickly realized a sidewalk conversation wasn't the place. Instead I stuck to some of the essential issues about God's existence and our accountability to Him. The goal was to help them see their sin and need for a savior in the short time I had. The good person questions based on the law (Ten Commandments) worked well for this. We find in Psalm 19 that "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul" But how can it do this since the law itself doesn't save us but rather condemns us? (Gal. 3:10) Because the law was given to lead us to Christ (Gal. 3:24) And just as Romans 3:19 says that by the law "every mouth will be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God", Brenden and Kayvon listened. What I said made sense to them intellectually and they thanked me for it. As the world around us becomes more and more biblically illiterate, we need more than ever to relate such basics as the Ten Commandments, our need for the Savior and, of course, the Christmas story.