I love Christmas. It’s always been my very favorite time of year. Don’t get me wrong. If we’re talking about weather, summer wins. No question. Warm breezes, cookouts, and sunshine beat the gray winter doldrums any day. But Christmas to me was never about the weather. It was about the feeling.

Self-denial isn’t something we really like to talk about. Our enemy has convinced us to fear it, so we naturally resist it. But he has a reason for influencing us toward self-preservation. If we do not diligently—purposefully—resolve to deny our flesh, we will end up denying Christ.

And he identified it and said, “It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has…

He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because…