Thursday, December 18, 2008

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This time of year my wife has a Nativity scene in every room of the house I think. I’ve checked them all, and except for Mary and Joseph, I can’t find any religious folks at the manger. Oh yeah, shepherds and strangers, but no Bible folks. They’re like strangely missing; they’re in the Christmas story, but they’re missing at the manger.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft, and since I’m a Bible guy and a church person, I’m troubled by the people like me in the Christmas story. When the wise men followed the star to Jerusalem, they came to King Herod and asked him where they would find the baby Messiah. Well, Herod called on the guys who really knew the Bible to check out the prophecies. It says, “He called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law. He asked them where the Christ was to be born. ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied” (Matthew 2:4-5 ). They went on to quote the verse that identified the place. Here’s the strange part. The strangers from the East headed for Bethlehem; the religious people, the Bible people stayed right where they were. The people who knew the Bible missed Jesus.

You know, that’s still happening today. People who know a lot about Jesus, but they’re missing Jesus. That’s why the Bible says to church folks, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5 ). You can know all about Jesus, but never actually give yourself to Him, putting all your trust in His death for you as your only hope of going to heaven. That first Christmas, the Bible people were missing at the manger. This Christmas, there are some very good people who’ve never been to the cross to have their sins forgiven. This could be the day that you move from believing things about Jesus to belonging to Jesus.

We’d love to help you do that. Would you go to our website, ALifeThatMatters.org, because God put you here to live a life that matters?

This radio program references: Matthew 2:4-5 , 2 Corinthians 13:5