Does Christmas shopping ever leave you empty?  Do you ever feel like Christmas shopping is not enough?  That there must be more to the Christmas season than just buying lots of stuff to give away on Christmas Day?

Well, there is a very important aspect of Christ*mas that is often left out of our celebrations nowadays.  It is Christ*mas stopping.  An angel put it to Joseph this way:  “You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”

Have you done your Christmas stopping yet?  It’s not too late.

* When Zacchaeus, the tax collector, met Christ, he stopped cheating on people’s taxes.

* When the woman caught in the act of adultery was brought to Christ, she stopped sleeping around.

The first (and most ignored) teaching that Jesus gave us was: “Repent.” Perhaps it is time to do your Christmas stopping! Take your self-destructive behaviors, thoughts, and words to the real Christmas tree, the cross, and “Go and sin no more.”

A great joy of Christ*mas is Christ*mas stopping — experiencing God’s great gift of fabulous freedom from wrongful attitudes and actions!