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Dear Friends:

"May Christ be born in you.” This greeting was given by monks in a particular monastery as they passed each other on the pathways during the Christmas season: “May Christ be born in you.”

We are familiar with the concept of being born again, aren’t we? Jesus told Nicodemus that physical birth was not enough. We also need to experience a spiritual birth in order to understand the things of God and in order to become part of God’s eternal kingdom.

But Christ being born in us is more that a one-time new birth experience. We don’t want any baby to remain a baby. We want him/her to develop mentally, to grow physically, and to enter into maturing relationships. So, the monks’ greeting, “May Christ be born in you” implies not only a “born again” experience, but a living and life-giving Presence that matures within us and eventually becomes the dominant personality in our lives.

Jesus talks to the Father about this very matter and says this about us,

“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:26; emphasis mine).

Nurturing the Christ-life within us

If Christ has been born in us and His life begins to mature in us, we should, over time, begin to think, feel, and act as He does. It’s a mind-boggling thought that sets an impossible standard if we try to achieve being like Jesus. Maybe instead, we need to learn how to nurture His life within us and then, over time, Christ-likeness in our lives will result. What are some ways we can do that?

I believe we can pick up some very helpful clues in the Christmas story.

First, there was preparation. Mary and Joseph entered the town of Bethlehem and had to make great effort to find a place for the Child to be born. Though it took much effort, a place was found and was made ready to bring Jesus into this world.

We, too, have to put some effort into preparing for Jesus if we are to have a relationship with Him that deepens into our becoming like Him. That preparation might well include finding and preparing a physical place, as Mary and Joseph did – a place where we can meet with Him in prayer and study and solitude so the transforming power of the Holy Spirit can grow the Christ life within us.

In addition to preparing a physical environment, we need to prepare our inner selves. We do that by entering the place we have set aside for meeting with God, quieting our hearts to hear the Spirit’s still small voice, and being willing to receive the message He wants to give.

Second, there was light. The wise men from the east followed the bright star in the sky in order to find the place where the Christ child was.

It seems that the light of the heavenly star can signify two things to us today. Guidance is surely one thing. God wants to lead us and does so primarily through the Bible and through the nudging of the Holy Spirit within us.

And understanding is the second. God’s Word not only gives direction, but gives us supernatural insight as well -

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130).

That light of God’s Word will give us both guidance and understanding. The Bible, illumined by the Spirit, is our most reliable navigational star today!

Third, there was worship. Both the magi and the shepherds bowed in worship at the recognition of the coming of God into this world.

We make a way for the Christ life to be nurtured in us when we worship - when we simply acknowledge who He is and give him praise, thanksgiving, adoration, and honor. We do this often in the privacy of our own homes and sometimes in the company of other believers. But wherever or however we engage in it, worship is essential to allowing the person of Jesus to mature within us.

Fourth, there was music. Let’s not forget the angels announcing in the sky, singing in the heavens, and rejoicing to see God’s plan unfolding in this world.

Music is part of engaging the Christ life within us. We are told over and over again in the psalms and in the epistles to sing to God, to praise him with music, and to make song an expression of joy in our lives.

Being changed by the Christ life within us

What happens when we make Jesus a priority in our preparation, in our openness to His Word, in our worship, and in our singing?

We begin to know Him.
We start to trust Him more.
We begin to yield our wills to His will.

Then, over time, He becomes more and more influential in our thinking, in our decisions, and in our relationships so that eventually His life becomes evident in our lives. At that point, the Christ is truly born in us. And, as we continue to yield to His life within us, when people look at us, they sometimes get a glimpse of Jesus living through us.

Paul said it this way,

“We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 3:18).

As Christmas approaches, let’s think about not only the birth of Jesus in a manger so long ago, but also about His on-going life at the center of our very beings, His Spirit living inside of us, desiring to be heard and seen in the waiting world.

And, the bonus is that, in this process, instead of our personalities becoming eclipsed by the Christ within us, we become the best version of ourselves that we can be. We begin to be transformed into what God had intended for us to be all along. We lose the insecurities, the enslavements, and the masks, and we become whole beings, living to honor the One who makes us so.

“In the passage of emergence, as the birthing begins, the soul becomes a nativity. The whole Bethlehem pageant starts up inside us. An unprecedented new star shines in our darkness – a new illumination and awareness. God sends Wisdom to visit us, bearing gifts. The shepherding qualities inside us are summoned to help tend what’s being born. The angels sing and a whole new music begins to float in the spheres. Some new living, breathing dimension of the life of Christ emerges with a tiny cry that says, I am.” *

May Christ be born in you this Christmas!

Bev
http://www.beverlyvankampen.com

*Kidd, Sue Monk, When the Heart Waits (New York: Harper Collins, 1990), p. 181.