By Michael Brooks
Brooks is a pastor of the Siluria Baptist Church and adjunct instructor at Jefferson State Community College.

Christmas is a time a time for giving. It’s interesting how we think of people to put on our gift lists at Christmas that we don’t think about during the year, such as the postal delivery person and newspaper carrier.

We brave the highway traffic and in crowds in the mall searching for the right gifts for special people in our lives.

Of course the finest gift we can give is the items in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” which, this year, amounts to $34,131 — some $200 more than 2014. There was a three percent cost of living increase for the ten lords a ‘leaping and a slight increase in the cost of partridges and turtle doves.

Giving is an important part of the Christian gospel, too. The God of the Bible has always revealed himself as a giving God. He gave the breath of life to our first parents in Eden. He gave deliverance to the Hebrew slaves. And he gave the judges, kings and prophets to help the people know how to live. Part of the prophets’ message was the coming messiah. They said the “anointed one” would lead the nations in a new era of righteousness and peace.

Christians believe Jesus appeared first to atone for our sins. He was God’s first and finest Christmas gift — the one John announced as “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

The apostle Paul insisted that God not only gives us salvation, but also the things we need and enough to share with others who lack (2 Corinthians 9:8). Our natural tendency is to be selfish and to acquire more and more things. The Christian gospel confronts us with a challenge to emulate the God who gives as an antidote to our self-centeredness. One way we give is by supporting the work of Christ in our churches. We certainly have no shortage of good causes in our nation, and many worthy of support, but I’m convinced believers should give to their churches first of all. The old preachers used to talk about the church as God’s “storehouse” based on the tithing challenge of Malachi 3. From this storehouse the money is used to fund community outreach and ministries.

Beethoven last appeared publicly in Vienna in May 1824 when he directed the Ninth Symphony. By this time the composer was deaf and had to turn at the conclusion to see the standing ovation that he couldn’t hear. He gave the world something beautiful that he himself couldn’t fully experience.

By supporting our churches we give our world something worthwhile, the value of which we might not fully realize until we meet God face-to-face.