Black Friday is over. Cyber Monday is upon us. One article caught my eye, promising you could survive Christmas if you do all your shopping online. “Survive”
connotes a dim view of the holidays. Though I do not always succeed in following it myself, I know a recipe for Holiday happiness?—a Mary Christmas.
Though this analogy may be old, it never gets tired. While Jesus' visit to the home of Mary and Martha was not Christmas, it was as special as any holiday. And while
Martha focused like a scud missile on dinner preparations, Mary made a beeline
for the best spot in the house, at Jesus’ feet. While Martha was stewing in the
disappointed expectations of a perfect meal, Mary was consuming the abundance
of fruit that fell from Jesus’ lips. Martha busied herself with ‘every’ thing
while Mary quieted herself with ‘one’ thing.
As we begin preparations for this year's Christmas
festivities, let us not allow disappointment with secondary things—family, food, presents—to steal our joy from that which is primary. Jesus came to earth “that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). Don’t allow a “Martha” mentality
to steal your “Mary Christmas.”
What you probably won’t read on the front page of today’s newspaper is that while the trapped miners in Chile waited for their rescue, they were listening to recordings of sermons, Bible studies and Christian music, thanks to the efforts of Chilean engineer Igor Bravo, a member of First Baptist Church of Santiago. Bravo realized that though the miners' physical needs were being met, their spiritual needs had been overlooked. So he called his pastor for help. They engaged the support of Radio Harmonia, a Christian broadcasting station in Santiago, which was able to provide MP3 files of pastor Adrian Rogers' sermons and Bible studies in Spanish along with Christian music.
Then Bravo sent down 33 New Testaments, and miner José Henríquez, began leading Bible studies for the miners each evening. The Bible study started out with 5 men and ended with 20 participants. Bravo said the other miners called Henriquez The Pastor. Only three of the 33 trapped miners were evangelical Christians but since that time, two more have made professions of faith in Jesus.
For days, weeks and months to come, news commentators and pundits will be telling the stories of the 33 men who survived 69 days nearly a half-mile below the earth—I am confident a made-for-TV movie is already in the works! Sociologists and psychologists will study them for the next 10 or 20 years, trying to discover what it is in the human psyche that allowed them to survive emotionally and psychologically. But we know the true story—the presence of Jesus illuminated the darkest hours of those miners’ lives.
“Recovery Group” programs put people in two categories: ‘victims’ or ‘survivors.’ In recovery group vernacular, a victim is someone who is still trying to cope with the problem. And a survivor is someone who has come to terms with it, and learning to take one day at a time.
Not bad—But neither term is an appropriate self-identification for a believer. Born again believers in Jesus are neither victims nor survivors. They are ‘over-comers.’ Jesus said “I have overcome the world.” He didn’t say “I have survived this world.” (And He certainly did not say “I am a victim.”)
Paul had a revelation of this truth—writing in his letter to the Romans: “We are more than over-comers” (8:37). The Greek word for the phrase “more than over-comer” is simply the word “over-comer” with the prefix “hyper,” meaning 'extra active!' We might say super instead of hyper. Now here's a mystery: Jesus says “I have overcame” the world, but Paul says we have “super-overcome” the world? How can it be?
When Jesus went to the grave taking the sin of the world He overcome death. But when Jesus rose from the dead he was more than an over-comer of death—His resurrection brought about a whole new creation. And the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead has raised us too. We have not only overcome death, but more than that—we have overcome the power of sin. No longer victims of sin and Satan; no longer just surviving in a fallen world—we are super-over-comers.
Though this analogy may be old, it never gets tired. While Jesus' visit to the home of Mary and Martha was not Christmas, it was as special as any holiday. And while
Martha focused like a scud missile on dinner preparations, Mary made a beeline
for the best spot in the house, at Jesus’ feet. While Martha was stewing in the
disappointed expectations of a perfect meal, Mary was consuming the abundance
of fruit that fell from Jesus’ lips. Martha busied herself with ‘every’ thing
while Mary quieted herself with ‘one’ thing. 
