Words of Faith

Dear Church Family

At this beautiful Christmas season we often read those familiar chapters from Matthew 1, 2 and Luke 1, 2 regarding the birth of Jesus. As we read the Christmas story, there are several ways we can respond to the Christ Child.

One response was given by the inn keeper who said there was no room in the inn. Today in the world (and in America) there are millions of people who cannot find room for Christ. All the accommodations in their hearts are already taken up by other crowding interests. Their response is not necessarily atheism, nor defiance, nor even hostility (like King Herod) but rather a feeling of being able to get on reasonably well without Jesus Christ.

However, another response was completely different as found in the Gospel of Luke. It came, in the temple, from an elderly priest named Simeon. he took the Christ child in his arms and said, "My eyes have seen Your Salvation" (Luke 2:30) Simeon's answer was the response of commitment that the Lord would have us make.

The Apostle Peter said, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

It has been said that some of the saddest words on earth are: "We don't have room for you" -- "No room on the team" -- "No room in my business" -- "No room in my heart or my life" etc. Jesus knew the sound of those words. He was still in Mary's womb when the inn keeper said, "We don't have room for you."

Even today Jesus is given the same treatment! He goes from heart to heart, asking if He might enter. Sometimes He hears the words of the Bethlehem inn keeper: "Sorry too crowed. I don't have room for you here." Other times someone throws open the door of his heart and invites Him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in Me. In My father's house are many rooms" (John 14:2)

What a delightful promise He make us; we make room for Him in our hearts, and He makes room for us in His heavenly home!

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Love in Christ

Faith

Thought:

We don't attend church to change the world. We attend church to ensure that the world doesn't change us!

[At Calvary] ... "we find the intersection of time and eternity in a Cross on which God dies in the person of a man, and a man rises from the dead in the person of God.     (Blaise Pascel)