Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Over the years, we've always tried to keep the real mission and meaning of Christmas in front of our children. Taking food and clothes into New York City to give to homeless people there put a whole new face on Christmas. Only a few miles from our home we were face-to-face with the tragedy of people without anyplace to call home. I remember the time when I went into the city to talk with some homeless people for my youth broadcast - to try to open my listeners to a needy world. One man was living on the street, near a major bus terminal. His house was a large, tattered cardboard box. He actually allowed me to crawl inside that box with him, and it was heartbreaking that a box was home. At Christmastime - well, at any time - it's a tragic thing to be without a home.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Homeless No More."
You know it's possible to be living in a mansion this Christmas, and still be homeless - in your heart. You see, in our hearts, there is this homing instinct that keeps us looking for a love that will fill the hole in our heart, a relationship that will give us one safe and secure place in this lonely, disappointing world. But our lives are littered with the temporary "boxes" that we hoped would give our heart a home but never did.
But Christmas is so very much about finally finding home. It's only possible because the Son of God, in the words of the Bible, "became flesh and lived among us" (John 1:14). When He came, there was "no room" for Him to be born. In a sense, Jesus entered the little "box" we live in - for one incredible reason. He left His home to bring us home. First, to the relationship we were made for, that we've been looking for all these years. As the Bible says, you were "created by Him and for Him." We're homeless because He's our home and we're away from Him.
In reality, we are spiritually homeless by our own choice - we've chosen to live our lives our own way instead of His way. Maybe you've tried to find shelter where you could, but every other "home" has let you down - whether it's a relationship, an experience, an accomplishment - even a religion. It took the greatest act of love and sacrifice in history to make it possible for you and me to find home - including our eternal home in heaven when we die.
It's described in 1 Peter 3:18, our word for today from the Word of God: "Christ died for sin...the righteous (that's Jesus) for the unrighteous (that's you and me), to bring you to God." Home at last, because Jesus died to pay for every sin of our life, the sins that have cut us off from home and left us homeless in our heart. But, oh, what it cost Him. He loves you too much to lose you. He wants you to be with Him forever. So He gave everything He had to bring you home to God.
Jesus didn't leave His home just to relate to you or me, or even to reach us - He came here to rescue you. To save us all from a spiritually homeless life and a spiritually hopeless eternity. And this Christmas season, you can finally be home if you'll respond to what Jesus did to rescue you by putting all your trust in Him to be your own personal Savior from your own personal sin. He died for you. Isn't it time you gave Him what He died for? Isn't it time you stopped looking for home and finally found the home that your heart is starved for?
Reach out to Jesus - tell Him, "Jesus, it's Your way, not my way, from now on. I'm grabbing You as my rescuer from my sin with all the faith I've got." If that's what you want, I hope you'll check out our website as soon as you can today. You'll find there some special Christmas messages, and most importantly, you will find there a description of how you can be sure you belong to Jesus Christ. Or I'll be glad to send you my booklet, "Yours For Life." You can call the toll-free number and ask for the free booklet. The number is 877-741-1200.
Now, you may have been very far from Jesus all these years - or you may have been very close, full of Christianity, but missing Christ. But at Christmastime - the time He left home to bring you home - you can finally experience the love you were made for. And finally, you will be homeless no more.