Friday, September 14, 2007
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Amid all the amusement and theme parks clustered in Orlando, Florida, there's one that is pretty distinctive. It's a Holy Land theme park that attempts to bring some of the scenes and the stories of the Bible to life. Our daughter and son-in-law were there not long ago with our two grandsons. And the kids, who are pretty up on their Bible stories, really enjoyed walking through those stories and meeting some of the characters (actually, people portraying some of those characters). The one that impressed our then two-year-old grandson the most was Jesus. A man portraying Jesus stood in the middle of the small crowd and He spoke some of the very stories He told in the Bible. But then came the moment our little guy will not soon forget. Jesus came over and picked Him up, just like Jesus did with the children when He was here. The next day Mom and our little guy were talking about his upcoming third birthday party, and suddenly out of the blue, he said, "I want Jesus at my birthday party."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "No Birthday Without Him."
That's a great idea: Jesus at your birthday party. Talk about a guest of honor! Actually, when it comes to the most important birthday of all, there's no birthday without Jesus. And if there's no birthday, there's no life. Eternal life, that is. The most important birthday of all is the day you get born into God's family. You say, "Isn't everyone God's child?" Not unless they've been born spiritually into the family of the Heavenly Father. They're His creation, but they're only His child by birth.
Jesus Himself put it this way in John 3:3, our word for today from the Word of God. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Obviously, Birth One was the day you were born into your parents' family. No birthday, no life. Jesus is talking here about Birth Two - the day you actually begin to belong to God. No birthday, no life. Whatever "born again" is, Jesus said you cannot enter God's heaven without it, because heaven is only for family - God's family. Anyone can be in God's family, no matter what their religion or their background, but not everyone is, because they've never been born again.
John 1:12 describes just how a person gets born into God's family: "To all who received Him (that's Jesus), to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." It's all about what you do with Jesus. Why? Because the only way to be in God's family is to take care of what keeps you from being one of His kids, and that's called sin. He's an all-holy, totally perfect God. You and I have turned our back on Him - sometimes with a lot of religion in our lives to give us a sense of being okay. That's called false security. We've used the mouth He gave us to hurt people, to lie and to swear. We've used the hands and eyes and ears He gave us to touch and explore what we never should have touched. We've hurt most the people we love most, we've lusted, we've boasted and we've been selfish. All that sin has to be paid for, but Jesus died as our substitute paying for it.
Jesus is the only One who can forgive your sin, because He's the only One who died for it and then rose again to prove He can. He's the only One who can get you into heaven. But you need a birthday - a definite beginning with Him. If you don't have that, you have no chance of being God's child.
You may have had a baptism day, a confirmation day, a lot of church days, but you've missed your spiritual birthday. Which only comes the day you "believe in" Jesus; which means welcoming Him into your life with total trust in Him as your only hope. If you've done that, you know you have. If you don't know, you probably haven't. But you can this very day. Just tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." I would just love to help you along the way to beginning this relationship with Him if you'll just go to our website that is for that really. Go to yoursforlife.net. Or you can call for my little booklet Yours For Life at 877-741-1200.
Today's date could become the most important day of your life if you make it your Jesus-day - your birthday. The day you receive the most awesome, most expensive birthday present of all - eternal life paid for with the life of God's Son.