Listen To What I Say... 10AM

What is the most exciting time of the year for your child? It would have to be Christmas followed by birthdays, wouldn’t it? The Santa Claus song says, “you better not pout, you better not cry, you better not shout I’m telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town. He knows if you’ve been sleeping, he know if you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.”  Christmas is a time when parents give you gifts in spite of the way you’ve been.  The apostle Paul says that God is the same way. Now, I am not saying that God is Santa Claus! But, we have not been good, yet God's grace,  His love for us, which is undeserved, drives Him to give us gifts anyway.  

God reached down to us in our worthless, degraded and rebellious state and worked a miracle. He made us alive with Christ. This is the ultimate demonstration of love, in that “while yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus paid the price of our sin so that we might be made righteous before God through Him. The power of God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead also made us alive in Christ. We who were separated from God and without hope were brought into a personal relationship with God. This is all His work of grace. There was nothing we or any other human could do to change our situation. It is God’s work and it is all of His grace. “We love because He first loved us.” Love made the first move; our love for God is simply a response to His love for us. That brings us back to this season. One in which we are drawn to the Christ-child. The best Christmas gift isn't wrapped under the tree, but the baby laying a manger.