Tuesday, December 20, 2016
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It was Christmastime and two-year old Timmy was sitting on his aunt's lap. He was ready to get down. His Aunt Gayle gave her usual requirement for letting him go, "You can't get down until you say the magic words." In case you've forgotten, the magic words are "pretty please with sugar and honey on the top." Right. Except for this time. Timmy turned to his aunt and he simply replied: "Unto you is born this day a Savior which is Christ the Lord."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Those Christmas Magic Words."
You know what? Those really are the magic words; especially two of them – "unto you." And that's the part so many good people have missed. Maybe you. See, Jesus is coming close to you this Christmas so you don't have to miss Him any longer, because if you miss Jesus, you'll miss heaven.
Jesus' coming was personal – it was very personal. It was unto you. You can sit in church your whole life and you can miss making Jesus personal for you. You can know all about Him, you can go to His meetings, give to His causes, agree with everything He taught, even do a lot of good things for Him and somehow you never have that moment when you grab Jesus with both hands to be your Savior from your sin. Picture those people stranded on their rooftops some years ago in that aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and that rescuer that came down the cable to save them. He was their only hope, and they grabbed him like he was. They wrapped themselves around that rescuer from above, and they held on with everything they had.
That's what you've got to do with Jesus. When did you do that? Maybe you don't remember an exact time, but if you don't know you did that, you probably didn't. You know if you've told Jesus you're pinning all your eternal hopes on Him – just like a person knows whether or not they're married. This is a conscious choice. You know if you did it or not.
Your sin is just too serious for any amount of religion to erase it. It took Jesus pouring out His life on the cross to pay the death penalty for your sin to rescue you. If there had been any other way, if any amount of goodness or religion could get you to Him, would He have ever gone through that?
He becomes your Savior when you grab Him like those hurricane victims grabbed their rescuer. Two words are all the difference. They're found in Galatians 2:20, our word for today from the Word of God. "I live my life by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Those words – "for me." Has there ever been a time when you, in your heart, stood at the foot of Jesus' cross and you said, "For me. Lord, what You did here was for Me and I'm giving me to you."
If not, you stand at risk of being in the group of church folks that Jesus described in Matthew 7:21. He said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven." These people go on to talk about all the Christian things they have done and the Bible says, "then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you.'" (Matthew 7:23) I don't ever want you to hear those awful words. Neither does He.
That's why you've been given this opportunity to finally make Jesus your personal Savior. For you He was born. For you He died. And now He's calling to you to come to Him. Don't miss Him. Here on the edge of celebrating His coming to earth, He will come into your life. Just tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours from this day on. I believe You died for me and I'm giving me to You right now."
Do you want that? Do you want to be sure of it? I would just ask you to go to our website ANewStory.com. Let your new story begin there, because that's where you can find the way to be sure you belong to Jesus before this day is over.
This could be your personal Jesus-day; the day that changes everything – the day that changes your eternity.