F.R.O.G.

Over the Christmas holiday my family and I had the “privilege” of attending the local Christmas parade. We sat, with the sun in our eyes and sweat dripping down our faces for over 30 minutes before the parade even began so that we could get a good seat. Then came the parade, which started with all of our elected officials kind of giving their stamp of approval of the parade. Next coming up the road are beauty queens and princesses all being driven in very expensive shiny automobiles. Then came the marching bands playing joyful Christmas music followed by some local churches trying to remind people of the real meaning of Christmas. Also there were some local benevolent type organizations and local businesses. Almost all facets of our community were represented in one manner or another all appearing to give their “stamp of approval” of the parade.
As I sat there watching all the floats go by enjoying some, not so much others, the end was almost there with the only thing left being the loud fire trucks and the Santa. We decided we would leave to avoid the traffic jam. As we walked away I turned around and I saw all the people waving, yelling and happy almost praising because Santa was finally there and I realized the entire parade was designed to usher Santa into our lives for the Christmas season. We (as a town) put out our very best people, cars, music, fire trucks etc. into ushering Santa into our lives. It got me to thinking. What would our town be like if we all ushered Christ into our lives like we usher Santa into our lives.
Of course you can’t usher Christ into your life the same way you would usher Santa. Santa is about materialism. Christ is about spiritualism. You have nothing to display or even to offer God that is worthy of Him “showing up” in your life. Even Paul who was living what seemed to be an almost perfect life for God had nothing to give that was worthy. He had to give up his position, his wealth, and his career.
So how do we usher in Christ? I’ve come up with an acronym, which will hopefully help us remember. We need to hop right out and do this so I’ve named it F.R.O.G..

Faith / Repentance / Obedience / Gratefulness

So for the next four posts I will go into these four areas in an attempt to learn and teach others how to usher Christ into our lives. I will expound on these areas as God leads me. Not to exhaust their meaning but so as to give us knowledge in these areas so that we can develop a proper relationship with Christ in every part of our lives.