Her face was animated; her eyes glistened with tears; her voice was passionate.  The woman sitting across the table from me at a Celebrate Recovery meeting—I’ll call her Carol–was sharing about her new love.  “I can’t stop thinking about him. People are probably tired of listening to me, but I can’t stop talking about him either!”  If you overheard the conversation without knowing the circumstances, you would have thought that Carol was talking about a new boyfriend or her fiancé; but instead, she was sharing about the new-found love of her life, King Jesus.

She reminded me in many ways of another young woman—I’ll call her Joy–I had heard share at a Capstone Recovery Center small group meeting a few weeks earlier.  “I just can’t get enough of reading the Bible.  I go to sleep reading it.  I want to know everything about Him.  He has transformed my life!”  Adoration, passion, gratitude seemed to exude from Joy’s inner being.  A “baby” Christian, she was “in love” with her new “husband”—King Jesus—whom she had met only a few months before.

As the ministry director of Celebrate Recovery at Trading Ford Baptist Church and a teacher at Capstone Recovery Center, I hear these testimonies often.  New Christians who have met Jesus in recovery from addiction are often exuberant.  You can spot them in a worship service.  They are often the ones with hands raised and tears flowing who sing with such passion that you can’t help but notice them, even though they are oblivious to those around them.

I sometimes wonder why many of us who have been Christians most of our lives lack the zeal and enthusiasm of these babes in Christ.  Perhaps we have allowed ourselves to become lukewarm rather than on fire—a condition Christ warned the church at Laodicea about: “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!  But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!  You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” (Rev. 3:15-17 NLT)

As we approach the day when we celebrate Jesus’ birth, I think it appropriate to take our spiritual temperatures to see whether we are hot or cold or just lukewarm.   Are we so passionately in love with him that we want to talk about him all the time?  Do we love him so much that we want to immerse ourselves in his love letter to us—the Holy Bible?  Or are we merely going through the motions—singing the Christmas carols with a ho hum attitude, more interested in what gifts we are buying family and friends than we are in the ultimate gift—the baby Jesus?

One of the most overlooked characters in the Christmas story is the prophet Anna.  An 84-year-old widow whose husband had died after only seven years of marriage, Anna chose to spend all her time in the Temple worshiping God with fasting and prayer.  Then one day she had the privilege of meeting Jesus, and her life changed!

“She (Anna) came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.”  (Luke 2:36-38 NLT)

Two other people I admire in the scriptures who couldn’t stop talking about Jesus were Mary Magdalene and the demon-possessed man whom Jesus healed.

In Luke 8:1-3 NLT we learn that Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary and that she, along with several other women, traveled with the apostles and used her resources to support Jesus’ ministry.  Later we find her at the foot of the cross and then at the empty tomb.  Because of her faithful love and obedience, Mary was commissioned by Jesus as the first missionary when he sent her to share the good news of his resurrection with the disciples. (John 20:14-18 NLT)

Finally, there’s the demon possessed man who was running wildly through the tombstones—naked and out of his mind.  Jesus healed him of his demons and restored him to sanity.  The man was so grateful to Jesus that he wanted to follow him.  “But Jesus said, ‘No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.’ So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them.”  (Mark 5:17-18 NLT)

What about you?  What is your “spiritual temperature” this Christmas?  I’ve been wrestling with this question for several weeks, and during that time two very different songs from very different eras have inspired and challenged me in my quest.

First, contemporary Christian singer, Zach Williams, invites us to Dr. Jesus in his song “Chain Breaker”:

“If you’ve got pain
He’s a pain taker
If you feel lost
He’s a way maker
If you need freedom or saving
He’s a prison-shaking Savior
If you’ve got chains
He’s a chain breaker.”

Then right in the middle of the song, Williams challenges those of us who are healed to share the Good News of our healing:

“If you believe it
If you receive it
If you can feel it
Somebody testify, testify.”

Testify!  That’s what we are supposed to be doing during this season!  Testifying!

Secondly, “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” one of my favorite Christmas songs, also challenges us to testify.  Although it dates to the Civil War era, it was first published in 1907 by John Wesley Work, Jr., director of the Fisk University Jubilee Singers as a part of his book, “New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fist Jubilee Singers.”   Tradition reports that very early on Christmas morning, long before sunrise, Fisk students would walk through the buildings singing this awesome song:

“Go, tell it on the mountain,

Over the hills and everywhere.

Go, tell it on the mountain,

That Jesus Christ is born! “

As Christmas Day draws near, may we be as excited as Carol, Joy, Anna, Mary Magdalene, the demoniac, Zach Williams, and John Wesley Work, Jr.  May we be willing to “Testify, testify,” with all the enthusiasm we can muster!  May there be no doubt in the minds of those around us that we are passionately in love with the Christ, the Son of the Living God—King Jesus.

What about you?  How is your love affair with the King of the world?  Want to testify?  I hope you will share your comments below.