Why I Believe in Santa Claus: The man. The message. The Master

By Maury Davis

"A beautiful telling about a generous man and the principles of giving that every modern Christian needs to know." - Andy Andrews, NYT bestselling author of THE NOTICER and THE TRAVELER'S GIFT

I believe in Santa Claus. He was a compassionate soul, generous, loving, and unwavering in his belief. He was a man with a message only seeking to serve the Master. He changed the world.

The Man. The story of a man, born to plenty, but orphaned to an incredible life of service. Nicholas learned the secrets to giving by leaving treasures in the stillness of night. Known as the kind bishop, the Christ Kind, SinterKlass, and eventually Santa Claus, he is a manifestation of the spirit of giving that inspires us each holiday season to bless those in need.

The Message. The key to blessing, abundance, and joy is found in the Word and modeled in Nicholas’s life. He found the key and shared it with the world. God wants us to give cheerfully, to give secretly, to give in worship, to give correctly, and ultimately to give fearlessly in absolute faith that He will meet all of our needs.

The Master. The ultimate gift, sent to a dying world, paid the price for our sins. Jesus lived a life of compassion, consistently showing His followers that blessings lie in what you are willing to give. More than the reason for the season, His generosity and instruction are the heart of a life well lived.

Do you believe?

Maury Davis, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church Nashville, has served for almost twenty-five years, preaching a message of grace and favor to the thousands that sit under his ministry every week. Known for vision casting and creating an atmosphere of excellence, his church’s international ministry has partnered around the world, building over 2,000 churches in Kenya, and schools and orphanages in India, Thailand, and many other nations. He has taken seriously the call to reach the lost. Through the years, Maury has developed a heart for training and equipping the next generation of pastors to better lead their congregations and grow their churches. Visit him at maurydavisministries.com or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BelleBooks
• Release date: Nov 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781611946925

Book preview

Why I Believe in Santa Claus

The Man. The Message. The Master.

by

Maury Davis

Copyright

Published by MDM Books, a division of Maury Davis Ministries

PO Box 331911

Nashville, TN 37203

maurydavisministries.com

ISBN: 978-1-61194-670-3

Copyright © 2015 Maury Davis Ministries

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Cover design: Debra Dixon

Interior design: Hank Smith

Winter Night (manipulated) © Juliasha | Dreamstime.com

Dedication

It was in a Sunday School class Christmas party at Calvary Church in Irving, Texas, that I heard for the first time a skeletal explanation of the story of Saint Nicholas by Dr. Kerry Barnes. It was one of those moments that I sat amazed and thought . . . I need to know the rest of the story.

As you read through the pages of this book you have to know that I am grateful for Dr. Barnes sparking my interest.

If I were to dedicate this book to anyone, it would be to my mom, Barbara Davis, who made every Christmas special. She really was the epitome of Santa Claus to our family and would appreciate more than most the Biblical insights Saint Nick discovered, developed, and still has deployed even to this day.

Introduction

I don’t remember when I stopped believing in Santa Claus. There was no pivotal moment in the 1st grade school cafeteria when an enlightened six-year-old spilled the beans over sandwiches with no crusts and pudding. There was no middle-of-the-night special operations initiative that attempted to catch Santa Claus in action and instead found exhausted parents piecing together a new bicycle while snacking on his cookies and drinking his milk. Somewhere in my childhood, the realization that Santa Claus did not exist slowly grew in my mind like an ever-creeping vine until I knew what I thought was the truth, and Christmas became a day where we gave a few gifts and received so many more.

After I stopped believing, Christmas, even without Santa Claus, was an incredibly special day where, instead of school and schedules, there were lavish homemade feasts and never ending football games. Christmas was about the coconut cream pie and the Dallas Cowboys in my home. I don’t remember when I stopped believing in Santa Claus, but it would be many years before I started believing again.

On Christmas day in 1975, my mother woke early at our family’s lake house. Like she did every morning since coming to know the grace of Jesus, she sat with her Bible and a cup of hot coffee, preparing the house for the family that would soon awake. She looked at her impeccably set table, the individual Christmas ornaments she had spent weeks crafting, marking each carefully with a name to lay at each place at the table. My seat would be empty that year for the first time. It was our first Christmas apart. It was my first Christmas in prison.

That Christmas, I sat in a five foot by nine foot jail cell. After almost a year of serving time and giving my life to God, I was thankful for the peace in that morning. Quiet times in that environment were extremely rare. I spent most of my time in prison that year out in the hot Texas heat, picking cotton or hoeing rows of corn until the blood ran out of my hands. On Christmas morning, I laid my Bible in the center of a cardboard box and set the first fresh fruit I had seen in a year on each side of it. With nothing but my Bible, an apple, and an orange, I read with pure gratefulness the story of the birth of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of Luke. It is a distinct memory for me. I didn’t know at the time the pain my mother was feeling. I didn’t know she cried out to God for comfort, asking what she was supposed to do without Maury on Christmas. I didn’t know she was worried about what I would do all alone, without any family or festivities to celebrate. I didn’t know until years later that the Lord spoke to her spirit saying, Barbara, do not worry. It’s your first Christmas without him, but it’s his first Christmas with Me. My Christmas was complete. I was celebrating Christmas with the Creator.

It has been forty years since that Christmas, and God has redeemed the time in ways only He can. I have spent almost thirty years celebrating His birth with my children and grandchildren. We have our own traditions. We put Jesus first at Christmas. We attend candlelight communion with sincerity and fervor. We show compassion to those who need it. But we still sign most of our gifts From Santa.

When you think about it, Jesus and Santa have a few things in common. Both see us when we’re sleeping and when we’re awake. Both keep lists, albeit one allows you entrance to the eternal destination of heaven, while the other only gets you a Red Ryder BB Gun. Both share a day. Both bring joy. Both are real.

I don’t remember when I stopped believing in Santa Claus, but I do remember when I started believing again. Santa Claus was a compassionate soul, generous, loving, and unwavering in his belief. Let me tell you why I believe in Santa Claus and why there is a place for him, within the purpose of Jesus, in every Christmas.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas,

—Maury Davis

Part One

The Man

Chapter One

I ENCOURAGE you to leave your concepts of a jolly man in a red suit, the epitome of materialism, behind before you continue. Somewhere, you will need to be able to separate your preconceived notions of a boisterous gift giver from your knowledge of a humble bishop. Santa Claus exemplifies so many truths and so many principles of giving that can bless our lives. Santa Claus, the real Santa Claus, operated within the purpose of the Master, only seeking to give glory to God out of acts of simple obedience. But before we can understand the message of his life, we must first get to know the man. Santa Claus is real. Let me introduce you to him.

THE EXACT DAY is debated, but near the end of the third century after the death of Jesus Christ, a devoutly religious Greek couple, Theophanes and Noona gave birth to a son. They called him Nicholas, which means victory of the people in Greek. Nicholas was born in the Roman Empire in the city of Patara on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The area is now known as Turkey. At the time, Turkey was rich in Greek heritage and culture.

Nicholas’s parents were devoted to their Christian faith. From a very young age, Nicholas was so pious that he observed the fast days of Wednesday and Friday each week. Theophanes and Noona were extremely wealthy and taught Nicholas principles of God in stewardship and compassion. They taught him to love one another and to be kind to all classes of people. After all, our entrance in life is simply determined by a birthright, by a decision from God to put us in a specific place in a specific time.

Nicholas was a student of the book of James. His parents taught him that faith without works means nothing. They endowed him with a work ethic and a personal conviction to do the work of the Lord for those around him. Nicholas often focused on scripture concerning faith. In James, he read:

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

But someone may well say, You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. (James 2:14-26 NASB)

Nicholas believed that the works of the Lord would follow his faith. Faith and works would become the central themes of his ministry. His parents told him stories of Jesus teaching his disciples and performing miracles. Nicholas listened carefully to the stories and developed his own knowledge and relationship with God, understanding unconditional love at a very young age. Nicholas loved God. He knew God.

Nicholas was fascinated by the miracles in the Bible and saw hurt all around him. The people lived with what God had not given them: fear, worry, doubt. He yearned for God to come back and perform miracles again. He longed to see signs and wonders among the people of his country. He did not understand why a God that was the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow was not still performing the miracles he had grown up learning about. Nicholas’s mother and father showed him that miracles were still being performed, but that they looked different because Jesus was no longer in an earthly form. He learned that miracles were still being performed through the Body of Christ. The sons and daughters of Christ, the believers, they were the hands and feet extended of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit to continue His works in a tangible way.

When Nicholas was still quite young, his parents died in an epidemic, leaving him a long legacy of faith and enough wealth that he would never have to work or have any material needs for the rest of his life. Upon being orphaned, Nicholas was sent to live with his uncle, also named Nicholas, the Bishop of Patara. Nicholas’s uncle was equally devout to his faith and even apprenticed Nicholas, shaving his head as a sign of obedience and submission when he became a reader.

As a reader, Nicholas was incredibly valuable to the church as literacy was rare and esteemed in the times. He was the second highest of the minor levels of clergy. Nicholas was responsible for reading the scriptures or text, other than the Gospel, in the services and rites. Nicholas regarded his position with great respect and was diligent in his study of the Word. Because he did not have to work, he sought God about a direction for his life. He prayed that God would use him to perform the works of the Lord and show the Father to those around him. It was at that time that Nicholas heard the calling of God. Similar to the story of Peter meeting Jesus in Matthew, Nicholas dedicated his life to giving up what he had in an effort to serve the Lord.

As Nicholas grew up, he studied the Word in great depth, striving to imitate the character of God and follow the commandments in the Bible. His uncle ordained him as a presbyter, or a priest, to the people. Nicholas spent his days studying his faith and watching out for the poor and those in need. In an effort to deepen his knowledge of Christ, Nicholas often went on pilgrimages to the Holy Land in search of knowledge, reverence, and peace so that he had wisdom and discernment to find the needs of the people and the resources to meet them. He never wanted to miss an opportunity to show Jesus to someone around him.

On one such journey, legend has it that Nicholas was traveling by ship on his way to the Holy Land across the sea. He wanted to take his time on an Egyptian ship so that he could rest and pray in peace, enjoy the journey, and prepare for the devotion of visiting the historical sites. After he fell asleep one night, the Lord warned him in a dream that a storm would approach the next day. In the morning, Nicholas went up to the deck of the ship to counsel the sailors and passengers that a storm would be arriving, but not to fear. Upon his words, a storm arose with dark skies and great winds that rocked the boat, threatening the journey, frightening the sailors, and sickening the passengers. Everyone aboard was afraid and feared for their fate. In a failed attempt to control the ship, the sailors rushed about in chaos, trying to steady the ship, resulting in the death of one of the crew members. Remembering the story of Jesus calming the wind and the waves with a simple command, Nicholas began to pray. Slowly, the wind quieted down, the waves became smaller, the rain stopped, and the storm subsided. The people were amazed. With the works of the Lord as an example, Nicholas went to the fallen sailor, laid his hands upon him, and prayed a prayer of resurrection. The sailor opened his eyes, with no injury or pain, and went about his work.

Nicholas’s pilgrimages were a time of reflection and prayer. As much as he helped the people around him, there were moments when he had to get away to a quiet place to recharge and seek God. Nicholas spent approximately three years living in caves with a group of monks that founded a monastery and a church in honor of Saint George, a Roman soldier who would later be martyred for Christ. Still to this day, the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church