You are Loved!

Every Christmas God announces to every one of us three words that are so important to hear, “

I LOVE YOU!” I love you so much that I gave you My Son. I knew you needed to be rescued from the consequences of your sin, so out of love I sent My One and only Son from His exalted place in Heaven to rescue you.

As you begin to understand the magnitude of this gift, you’ll see that it is so much more than just a baby in a manger in Bethlehem.

There are many reasons God sent his Son. His Son would reveal his nature. His Son would accomplish salvation. His Son would bring Him glory. But the sweetest reason God sent his Son is that He loves us. If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a cell phone your picture would be in it. He knows us perfectly. All things are open and laid bare before him: our darkest secret, our deepest shame, our stormy past, our worst thought, our hidden motive, our vilest imagination, even our vain attempts to cover it all up and appear to be something we're not. He sees all this, and yet he still loved us enough to send his Son.

So how do we measure the value of God's gift in terms of cost? It says in 1 John 4:9, "He sent His One and only Son into the world." That was costly! He left His throne in Heaven where the angels praised Him and He was exalted to enter the womb of a teenage girl where he was born on the dirty floor of an animal stall and laid in a feeding trough - because there was no room in the Inn.

God's gift has the ultimate practical value in that it gives us life. "Life" in this sense doesn't mean physical existence, it means spiritual life; eternal life with God that starts now. Jesus said it this way: "I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). What a promise! Not just life, not just existence, but life which means something; life that has worth, life with a purpose, life which has value, a life with eternal consequences and benefits.

God has given us the costliest gift imaginable, but just like all the gifts you'll be given on Christmas day, you have to receive it and open it and use it. Have you done that?

Merry Christmas,

Pastor Brian Richard