Letter from PIF: If We Could Give You A Gift

I got this letter from a Christian band called Paid in Full over their email newsletter...Read, contemplate, and Enjoy!

If we could give you a gift ...
The stores are filled with shoppers clawing over each other to get that perfect gift. What are you going to get? What do you want?

If we could give you a gift we would give you Hope.

It just seems to us that there's not a whole lot of hope around lately. In fact, we recently had someone tell us that our music is not depressing enough for her.

There are a ton of emo artists out there singing about how tough life is and why things suck so bad. We can identify with some of their music because we've all been there. Life isn't easy. But, we don't want to focus on that stuff. We'd rather focus on Hope.

Hope is what makes us go on. It's what pulls us out of bed everyday. Hope is what gets us through the toughest times and rotten situations.

Some of you reading this just like our music but you're not all that into "God stuff." Maybe you've been burned by a church or turned off by some "Christian" who has imposed a set of legalistic, performance-based dogmas on you. Or maybe you just watch tv and you see angry "Christians" marching and screaming and you don't want any part of that. Frankly, neither do we. The Hope we would give you as a gift would not be hope in any of these man-made institutions. We'd introduce you to the author of Hope.

Is there anything we can do to persuade you to look directly at Jesus? Is there anything we can say to get you to look past all the weird stuff people do in His name and look directly at Him?

Have you ever had someone trash talk about you behind your back? Ever have someone misrepresent you to others? Don't you wish you had the chance to have people make decisions about you based on what they've found through interacting with you directly? Jesus wants, Jesus deserves, that same chance. We're convinced that if you look into His words and His life directly that you will be impacted by Hope.

This Christmas we pray that you might consider the Jesus that we know. Consider the Jesus that never forced himself on people; never demanded his rights. Consider the Jesus who spoke words of love and forgiveness to whores, cheats, drunks and politicians alike. Consider the Jesus who called to fisherman, accountants, doctors and tradesmen to follow him. Consider the Jesus who went to the cross. Discover His mission.

May you discover Hope this Christmas season. May you look past all the trappings and look directly at Jesus Christ.

Peace,
Josh, Swiff, Joe and James