Birth of Christ

Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese. A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus.

And nothing says Christmas better than that. This is Sam from the Mask on Journey Podcast, and our goal with the podcast has helped you to try to find your way in this difficult world. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

Where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination, and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Welcome back to ManTalk Radio. I'm Roy Jones, the white guy, and Will Hardy is on vacation for a much-needed rest, and we just wish Will a very merry Christmas and just a great holiday. We've got a guest tonight with us, Son Horton. We're going to talk a little bit about the Christmas season, and continue our broadcast and discussion from last week. We're going to ask Son. Son, welcome to the show first. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. Our listeners may recognize Son.

He was with us a few weeks ago. The day I wasn't able to be here for recording for our last show around trail life. Son's very active in trail life, having a big impact in young men's lives. Son, thank you so much for joining us on this topic.

Son, what I'd like to do is lead off with a question. What does Christ's birth mean to you in your life? I was just thinking about having my own children, and the promises, just the future I want them to have, the hope, just the birth, just the miracle of it alone, and the joy that I would have. The birth of Christ, to me, was all of that. The hope, the promises, the expectations.

Not even expectations, just what He could bring to the world. And when I think of Christ and how God knew His purpose when He had Him, I'm in awe that someone would know that their son would have such great purpose that would change the entire world. And how proud I would be, even though that I would know He would go into a fierce battle, but that battle we won to save all of our souls. That's what Christ's birth means to me, just the impact that He had, the shedding of His blood, the forgiveness of our sins. The Genesis was that in the manger, the humble birth. There wasn't any pomp and circumstances besides the angel singing. No one knew about this, but what He would do is, again, I'm just still speechless about it, again, put it to words. Well, there's no doubt bridging the gap was the most important thing for all of us that have accepted Him, to restore the fellowship, as we talked about on the previous show, for us as fathers of Christ. To have that restored fellowship with God, just amazing.

And just to think about the sacrifice, so well put, Son. Son, you made a point about all the pomp and circumstance and the different things going on. I guess you're referring to the commercialization that we are experiencing.

And I'm going to jump to that right quick, if you don't mind. How has that impacted you as a follower of Christ, and seeing all the commercialization of Christ's birthday and affected your thought process in terms of having to be deliberate or not deliberate? How has that affected you and your family?

Before children, Apher and I were married for probably 9, 10 years before we had children. I mean, we had all the decorations. I went total Griswold on the Christmas lights around the house.

I mean, I spent hours and thousands of dollars probably on all this stuff. But then when my son was born, and that's how I was saved. Because I was like, I thought I knew what a man was until my wife said, we're going to have a son. And I had no clue how he was put together. I thought if I could just do the right things and say the right things and be a good person, I'll get to heaven.

I was like, I haven't even read the manual. And how am I going to lead my son to be a man and not make the mistakes I've made? So when I looked at Christmas, I was like, it's not about all this stuff. It's not about how much better my house looks than your house. It's about what's on the inside. And I was talking to the Trail Life Truth last night. Even if we didn't have the pizza, we didn't have the cake, we didn't have the presents, we need to have Christ here. This is all about his birth. And if you don't have Christ in it, all this stuff will just fade away. And so that's what, you know, this Christmas, last few Christmas, we tell them the story of Jesus' birth. We haven't even put up a tree, as a matter of fact, quite yet. And the presents are not the priority. We just want them to have in their heart the confidence of where they're going before they put a price tag on that.

And there's no price tag that could ever be put on it. The grace is, you can't earn it. And so my kids, I don't tell them about Santa Claus.

I tell them about what you earn is not important. It's what Christ has given us. And that's what we focus on during the Christmas time. That's good, Son. Son, based on what you shared just a few moments ago, I'm taking it to you a little bit later in life when you accepted Christ as your Savior.

Correct. I was, golly, that was 2007, when my son was born. I thought I knew Christ, but I knew of him, but I didn't know him. I grew up, and my mom was Roman Catholic, not really practicing. And then we bounced around different denominations, different churches. My dad would take us to Sunday school, but he never stayed. And so I knew of an angry God that would be held against me if I did something wrong, but I didn't know of a loving God. My grandmother, we walked down this hot road in North Carolina when I was probably five years old, and I remember a flattened frog and all the roadkill that happens during the summer, and she would tell me that, one day I'll be gone, but I will always be watching over you, and that there's a loving God, and seek him. And so I still remember that, but when I went through life, I didn't really hold on to it. And I had some ups and downs, and I got to a point where I couldn't find the answers. I would turn to the worldly things, you know, to try to find peace. But then when I was having my son, I was looking around for men that went through storms. They didn't have to lean on alcohol or some of the other stuff that's out there. And I found that those men went to church. So that's where I was heading towards.

I was like, you know, what do they have that I don't have? And that was Christ. So you mentioned your father would drop you off, but not stay. What did that look like, son, in terms of, was he just not a follower of Christ? He knew that you needed to be in church, but he wasn't leading.

Is that what you're saying? It's complicated. It's always complicated. You know, my father, his mother died young. So he had a stepmom. And his father became a Presbyterian reverend. So he was immersed in the Word. He was immersed in church. But something about it, he didn't see the importance of it in his life. He wanted us to be exposed to it, but he wasn't active in it. So that's probably how I got the lackadaisical approach. You know, if I show up to church once in a while, I'll be good.

Right, right. Did he ever make a decision before? Is your father still living?

Yes, he's still living. And we've had talks about it. And he's basically agnostic. He's indifferent to the whole thing. Wow.

Well, I'm sure if he takes a hard look at you, son, and the impact that Christ has had in your life, that'll be our prayer that God will just wake his heart up based on what he's seeing in you. Absolutely. And that's the thing. I have to be consistent with it. I'll have my ups and I'll have my downs, but where I go is what's important, not where I stay.

Right. Well, when we get a chance, we'll have to talk a little bit more, maybe in a different program. But that's one of the things that I'll share. From my standpoint, Christmas growing up was a celebratory time, but it wasn't for the right reasons. It was about getting gifts, that sort of thing. And unfortunately, memories that go along with that, which we'll hold for another program, but holidays weren't celebrated properly the way they should have been from my dad's standpoint.

Because he never had it taught to him, so he was basically doing it in a way that shouldn't have been done. But hey, son, so let's swing back here. We've only got a few more minutes. And thank you so much again for joining us. But let's go back to another question here, too, for you. How can we overcome this commercialization trend that's going on in our society and really share the true meaning of Christmas to our friends, to our community, to people around us at work?

What would be your thoughts there? I think just open up about what's in your heart. Everyone just says, how's it going? Everyone says, I'm fine. But it's not the truth.

If you open up what's in your heart and tell them your experiences, then they give a meeting to it all. You don't need all this stuff. You don't need all the lights and the candy and everything to make you happy. You've got to find that joy. And the only way you can find that joy is really to be still and to listen and to look. And you look for those people and look for those circumstances that can give you that joy and peace.

And normally, if you look hard enough and you're still enough, you can see it's Christ. Nothing else can fill you. You can buy everything, and that's called hoarding, right? And then if you let it all go, the purpose of it all is to find that peace and to understand that even if it all goes away, are you still going to be joyful in the moment? And that's what people need to keep, that joy.

That's not materialistic. Yeah, it's eternal joy. You know that your eternity is assured. Well, Son, we thank you so much for joining us, and we wish you the very best and a Merry Christmas, brother. Merry Christmas.

Thank you very much. TAWCMM would love to have you join their community of men for breakfast every first and third Friday of every month. They have Bible discussions and fellowship after the best breakfast in town. The meeting location is at their gracious Host Church, First Christian Church in Kernersville, 1130 North Main Street in Kernersville.

They have a hard start at seven o'clock and a hard stop at eight o'clock. First time visitors eat for free. Join your hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Meet us at the summit starting February 4th, 2022. You're invited to a special two-day event. TAWCMM presents the Summit Conference, a conference so big we need two days for it all. Day one kicks off at 630 p.m. with a special co-ed event at the First Christian Church in Kernersville. Then you'll get to hear a message from speakers Lee Strobel, Jerry Boykin, and Bishop Larry Jackson. Day two is a men's one-day conference from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. They'll have a multitude of speakers like Lee Strobel, Jerry Boykin, Bishop Larry Jackson, Pat Teague, and Bishop Charles Flowers.

For tickets or more information, visit TAWCMM.com. Don't miss your chance to meet us at the summit on February 4th, 2022. Welcome back to ManTalk Radio. We've got another guest with us today. Adam, are you online with us?

Hey, good evening, Roy. Hi, Adam. I hope you're doing well. I am doing well, and you?

Doing very good, thank you. Adam, folks, is sitting out in Colorado. Got any snow out there yet, Adam? There was snow this last weekend, but no snow right now.

Well, it goes and comes pretty quick in the area, from what I understand. Well, hey, first of all, Merry Christmas, Adam. I hope you're doing well, and looking forward to having a few minutes here with you. Adam, the previous guests, we've talked about what Christ's birth means to them.

If you don't mind, I'm going to take this a little bit different approach with you on this call. I want to just kind of find out from you, how did you grow up, Adam? Just for our listeners, how did you grow up? Were you in a believer's home, or did you come to know Christ later in life? And then we'll talk about around Christmas and how that was as you were growing up, if you don't mind.

Sure. Yeah, I grew up in a, both my parents were at home, so I'm mom and dad, so I was thankful for that. Both mom and dad were believers, and encouraged us, and took us to church as young kids, and they were very involved and active in the church, so that was modeled for me about the importance of church, and the community of church, from a very early age, was in the church and very active with my family.

That's great, Adam. So then let's come back to the question about what Christ's birth means to you. Now that we have a little bit of context about your walk with Christ, what does Christ's birth mean to you? And if you don't mind sharing, when did you actually come to be a follower of Christ?

Good question. So I actually have a couple of small kids, and one of the things that during the season with all the media and everything that's big and exciting about Christmas, we take the time with our kids, and so what we try to, one, model and then two, talk to our children about is the importance of Christ and Christmas. So from a biblical perspective, Christ fulfilled a whole lot of Old Testament scriptures.

He fulfilled Isaiah and a lot of the Minor Prophets. The way that he came, outside the Bible, from what others have done research on, it's a very accurate event of his birth, and so trying to remind our kids and remind ourselves that it's not about what we're getting for Christmas, or making sure that everybody else gets something, a gift for Christmas, but ultimately it's about Jesus' birth. And we piggyback that with our kids as we walk through some of the Advent stuff that we do with our family. Christmas is certainly a highlight of Christianity, but I don't know if one's better than the other, but certainly it's just as critical to the faith of Easter as we talk with our children and try to remind my wife and I. Certainly he had to come in the manner that he came, however, Easter came, and we ultimately have an opportunity to be in a relationship with him through Easter. So that's what it means to me and what I try to at least say and try to remind myself, despite all the chaos that happens in the world of reminding about, did you get a Christmas present? Oh yeah.

Yeah, we'll talk about that. And then your second question was about accepting Christ, and I accepted Christ in the first grade. I took a, I felt and talked with my pastor and family about, I felt like I had a good understanding. Certainly still today I'm growing and learning and relearning.

Yeah, aren't we all? It's a journey. You're exactly right, Adam. It is a journey, and it's an individual relationship, right? It's an individual relationship, and that's where, listening audience, that sometimes we want to measure ourselves against other followers of Christ, and we need to be sure and not do that because it's your personal relationship.

As long as you're talking and walking with him daily and reading his word and having fellowship, he will manage your relationship individually just like any other parent does with each child. It's unique and personal and special. So Adam, back to that point about the commercialization piece, about, as you just mentioned, about who's bought what gift or who am I getting a gift from. By the way, I hope you bought me a nice Christmas gift this year so you can give that to me. It's in the mail. Yeah, okay, good, good.

I'm just kidding. I'll take you out to lunch in January, and we'll call it your Christmas present. Okay, as long as I get to choose a restaurant, that'll be good.

All right, that sounds good. So just picking at you, you know that. Speaking around the commercialization, Adam, how has this affected your own personal walk?

And it shares like you're being very deliberate. I think having young children, it requires you to be very deliberate about remembering the whole reason for the season, as everyone says. How has it affected you and your walk and your thought process with this whole commercialization piece around Christmas and the fact that we really don't even celebrate publicly, that is, you know, with these stores and on TV. And now, I even saw one of the drugstores the other day had a, their new commercial is the wrapping season. They don't even speak to it as Christmas season. And then they're taking and leading you into a profanity, a thought process by each of the little skits that they have on there. So how has this affected your thought process, and what are you doing to kind of keep yourself in tune with what you want it to be?

Right. So one thing that, especially as my wife and I had children, we have tried a rhythm at Christmas to do a little advent. And a tip for next season, if you're close to a Trader Joe's, there is an advent calendar that's got 24 pieces of chocolate.

The good part for me is it's only a dollar, so it's 99 cents for this advent calendar. And so there's, so for us, the last couple of years, we've been able to get one of these calendars, actually a couple of them for the children, and every once in a while they share with me. But so they get excited, you know, the 24 days leading up to Christmas, and we just take the opportunity to, you know, before we have chocolate, let's talk about what our church does to advent, wreaths, and sort of mentally preparing.

So every night as the kids are reminded about their chocolate treat, we get the opportunity to do that. So that's something we've, a rhythm we've tried to do in our house to sort of get us ready. We do try to tame down some of the commercialization, some of the characters, some of the traditions that have sort of floated into mainstream.

We try to manage that, not judging ourselves or anybody else, but trying to find the balance of are we spending too much talking about one character or another. At the end of the day, let's make sure we're talking about Jesus as much, if not more for sure than some of the other activities and exciting stuff that happens at Christmas. So the Advent piece, that rhythm has been really a good rhythm for us. That's excellent.

I can see that would be a very effective tool. So how would you, to our listening audience, Adam, what you've shared about the Advent exercise, which is an excellent way to walk your children through the season of Christmas, what other things come to mind if you had the opportunity to share with our listening audience, or you do have the chance to share now, come to mind that you would like to say about Christmas and how to share their story, the individual stories so that people will really get the meaning of Christmas to those around them. One, it's an individual perspective initially, right, for us to remember and for us to take the weight, similar to when you're partaking or somebody's partaking of communion, to sort of reflect on why do we get to, most of us have the opportunity to have the 25th of December off of work, and why do we get that, and if we can internalize that and digest and understand that, then the opportunity, just like the Gospel, is taking the chance to share in that excitement, sharing that joy with those around us.

So that's something I'd encourage the audience to do is, one, make sure you're focused on where you need to be focused, and then two, it's an exciting time, it's a birth, it's new life. It is leading towards Easter, so it's a great opportunity with all the festivities and excitement going on to have conversations with neighbors and friends and co-workers about the Christmas season and about what it means to you. You know, as an adult, I reflect back oftentimes about growing up around Christmastime and then the difference it is today versus back then right when we were growing up about how it was truly celebrated, and even if people weren't Christ followers, they still celebrated Christmas and were just fine with it. Merry Christmas, all those things. One of our guests earlier had said about being bold in our walk and being bold in our positioning, and basically I think that's what we need to take away for this Christmas is we really need to be bold. You're being bold with your children, you're being bold in your workplace, and you're being bold in your community, and that's what this is all about, folks, is to share the love of God through His Son, Jesus Christ, and that He is the bridge and was born to be the bridge, as shared earlier, and for our Heavenly Father so that the fellowship was restored with Him, and then you have to accept Him and follow Him in order to have that fellowship restored.

It's not just a matter of knowing who God is, not just a matter of believing God. You have to truly acknowledge and bring Him into your life, and that's the great part about Christmas. We have that choice. Without Christmas, we wouldn't have had that choice, right, Adam?

That's right. Well, Adam, as we're coming to a close here, any final parting thoughts you'd like to share with our listeners? Just remember, while it sounds cheesy, remember the reason for the season, for Jesus Christ, who came to live the perfect life and done on the cross for our sins, so that we could be in heaven with them as we believe in Jesus Christ. It's great to be thankful. Good to hear from you, Roy. You too, Adam. I hope you folks have a great rest of the year, and again, Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for your time, and Happy New Year to you guys, and I look forward to seeing you here in just a few weeks. God bless, Adam. Thank you for joining us.

Folks, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. As we wrap up today's show, be assured that TAWCMM, Talking and Walking Christian Men's Ministry, is building a community of men that are Christ followers with a desire to be servant leaders in their homes, communities, churches, and work environments. Check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings. Drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future. Thank you for joining us on Man Talk today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk. This is the Truth Network.