Who Am I - Casting Crowns

Casting Crowns - Does Anybody Hear Her

Six Magnets To Pull People To JESUS- Day 5

Day 5: A Jesus Who Died and A Savior Who's Alive

Last time we discussed the third magnet to pull people to Jesus - a positiveness they'll want. Many times others will be watching when you are going through the worst storms of life. When they see you, they should see hope like a lighthouse in a storm.

Last time we also discussed the fourth magnet to pull people to Jesus - a rock to build a life on. Jesus offers the people you know something solid to build their life around. You have the information on which their eternity depends. You have the Rock they could build on that will withstand every storm. You can be a magnet to pull people to Jesus!


Do you focus on the crucified and risen Savior?


The fifth magnet to pull people to Jesus is a Jesus who died for them. 1 Peter 2:24 says, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." He took our place on the cross and died for us. Make much of the cross!


Charles Spurgeon once said, "When the church has not been ashamed to put the cross in the forefront, she's never had to be ashamed. For God has been with her and Jesus has drawn all men to Himself. A Living Savior men may love but a crucified Savior they must love." If they perceive that He loved them and gave Himself for them, their hearts are stolen away. Take them to the cross and let them stand at the foot of a blood red cross and say "For me. For me." That is the soul of your message. Don't encumber the Gospel with other things, because the importance lies in the cross and an empty tomb.


The sixth and final magnet to pull people to Jesus is He's a Savior who's alive. We have been born again to a Living Hope and that hope is a person. When Jesus walked out of His tomb, He said to the women "Go tell the disciples and Peter." Peter was one of the disciples, but Jesus knew that Peter had denied Him. He knew that Peter felt like it was over. The one disciple He personally met after he came out of the tomb was Peter himself. When Peter knew Jesus was alive, it turned his life around. Jesus is a living Savior.


You don't have a religion to give them, you have a person. If Jesus can conquer death, He can conquer anything they're fighting in their life. This is not about a religion, beliefs, or rituals; it's about a person death could not hold. Stick to Jesus because it's all about Him. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." Some people believe that we should spend a lot of our time and energies on culture wars as there are many battles. The early Christians believed that in the horrible morality of their day, which was worse than ours. They didn't picket and they didn't lobby. They just preached a crucified and risen Savior, and it rocked the empire.


With the eternity perspective, you look at the people in your world and you see not just co-workers, friends, or neighbors, but you see the future inhabitants of hell. The people in hell will look like the people you see every day. You have the decisive information that can take them from the list that says "lost" to the one that says "saved." Move beyond your fear to be a rescuer, and bring people to Jesus. God has placed you among people whose lives are at stake and you are His assigned rescuer. Would you be more afraid of what will happen to them than what might happen to you, and bring them out while there's time?


You could be a two-legged magnet playing a decisive role in where someone you care about will be for all eternity. They are not creatures of time; they, too, are creatures of eternity!

Six Magnets To Pull People To JESUS- Day 4

Day 4: A Positiveness They Want and A Rock to Build a Life On

Last time we discussed the second magnet to pull people to Jesus - a story they can't deny. If you know Him, you have a story to tell. Explain what Jesus has done for you and the difference He has made in your life. Every Christian has a personal story of hope telling what their life would be like if it weren't for Jesus. Listen to their story to win you the right to tell your hope story, then embed in your hope story the love story of Jesus.

Do you realize you have something they need?


The third magnet to pull people to Jesus is a positiveness they'll want. 1 Peter 3:15 says, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." They will be attracted to the hope that you have, the Jesus glow in you, and to an unsinkable positiveness. Many times others will be watching when you are going through the worst storms of life - bad news from the doctor, financial trouble, trouble with your kids.


Let them see a Jesus that works in the darkest hour and a positiveness they'll want. There's no excuse for a crabby Christian, a sourpuss saint, or a bumbed out believer. When they see you, they should see hope like a lighthouse in a storm. There should always be hope shining out from you. They'll want to know where that comes from, and the darkest time is when hope will shine the brightest out of your life.


The fourth magnet to pull people to Jesus is a rock to build a life on. 1 Peter 2:6 says, "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." This describes a wonderful characteristic of Jesus because a cornerstone means something to build around. Jesus offers the people you know something solid to build their life around. Everybody you know is a candidate for hope.


Everyone needs a rock to build their life on, and Jesus offers that. Colossians 1:16 is a great place to begin to share the Gospel and it says, "All things were created by him and for him." USA Today did a national survey and they asked people, "If you could ask a supreme being one question and be guaranteed an answer, what would you ask them?" "What happens after you die" was at distant second. Number one by far was, "What is the purpose of life?"


People everywhere need a cornerstone to build a life on and you know where that cornerstone is. They were created by someone and they were created for someone. They will have a hole in their heart until they know that someone, and you know Him and they don't! You have the information their eternity depends on while the people around you are building sand castles that will go down with the next high tide. You have the Rock they could build on that will withstand every storm. You can be a magnet to pull people to Jesus because you can tell about the Rock on which they can build their life.


Tomorrow, we will discuss the fifth and sixth magnets to pull people to Jesus.

Six Magnets To Pull People To JESUS- Day 3

Day 3: A Story They Can't Deny

Last time we discussed the first magnet to pull people to Jesus - a life they can’t argue with. The main reason people don’t come to Christ is what they’ve seen in Christians. When you represent your Savior, a person ought to feel more important not less important when you’ve talked to them. Offer Jesus gently with respect and live a life they can’t argue with.

What's the Jesus difference?


The second magnet to pull people to Jesus is a story they can't deny. Talk about the One "who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." We call it a hope story - a story no one else on this planet can tell. You're the only one who has your hope story, and people need to know what difference Jesus has made in your life. When seeing a product advertised on T.V., people want to know the difference that product makes. What they want to know about Jesus is not necessarily the things you believe and about all the meetings you attend. They want to know what difference Jesus makes.


Find out their story. You know enough about them to know where the hurts are in their life, where the holes are in their life, and what the concerns them most. There are things you know Jesus can do something about. Bridge from their story to begin to tell your hope story. Don't just tell about how your relationship with Jesus began, but explain what Jesus has done for you and the difference He has made in your life. Your hope story doesn't explain the Gospel.


No matter how good you've been in life, you have a hope story. Every Christian has a personal story of hope telling what their life would be like if it weren't for Jesus. Tell about what your stressful times would be like without Jesus. Tell about what kind of mom or dad you'd be if there were no Jesus. What kind of husband or wife would you be? How are the lonely times, the depressing times, and the hospital times different? Start with their story, move to your hope story, and then you tell His love story.


The best way to present the Gospel is to embed it in your hope story. You might say, "You know, things did not change until I realized that my real problem was that I was away from the God I was made for. I hijacked my life from Him. It wasn't His choice to be away from me, but I had decided I could run my life better than God. The Bible calls that sin and I realized that there was a death penalty for running my own life. There was no way I could ever have a personal relationship with God unless that wall between me and God came down and that death penalty could be paid. God loved us so much He sent His Son to pay our death penalty. He died, but then He walked out of His grave. He's alive! The day I grabbed Him like a drowning person would grab a rescuer and put my total faith in Him, is when this change I told you about began." They'll listen to your hope story and they'll listen to His love story.


Your hope story is all about the Jesus difference. If you know Him, you have a story to tell. Listen to their story to win you the right to tell your hope story, then embed in your hope story the love story of Jesus.


Next, we will discuss the third and fourth magnets to pull people to Jesus.

Six Magnets To Pull People To JESUS- Day 2

Day 2: A Life They Can't Argue With

What do others see in you?

The first magnet to pull people to Jesus is a life they can't argue with. 1 Peter 2:12 and 15 says, "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us...For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men." The main reason people don't come to Christ is what they've seen in Christians. God says that if you do good, you can silence ignorant talk and live as free men. Live as a servant of God to win the respect of a hostile world.


One of the later emperors of the Roman Empire was a man named Julian the Apostate. He was really frustrated with the Christians. He said they were impious because they rejected the Roman gods, but more than that, they were under-cutting people's reliance on the empire. He depended on people turning to the empire for help. He said Christians were undermining the empire because they were doing so much good for people. They were living a life you can't argue with.

Think about those around you. Care about their kids, their hospital stay, the death in their family, their financial need and their loss of a job, their fears, their frustration, and the pain of their past so you can get them to care about their heart. Live a life and show a difference that they can't argue with. What would make you stand out as a different kind of person in your environment? Where you are, what would be an unusual, positive quality? Build them up instead of tearing them down. Have true generosity, being all about them and not all about yourself. Ask yourself this question: "What could I ask Jesus to do in me that the people around me would have to notice?"

They will be attracted to your Jesus if they get a better mother or father, a better son, a better friend, a better employee, or a better employer out of you being with Jesus. If Jesus does something they can see that really touches their life, you have a life they can't argue with. Remember to do it with gentleness and respect. There's an awful lot of people who try to represent Jesus and they're neither gentle nor respectful. When you represent your Savior, a person ought to feel more important not less important when you've talked to them. They ought to feel cared for and not torn down.


Offer Jesus gently with respect and live a life they can't argue with.


Tomorrow, we will discuss the second magnet to pull people to Jesus.

Six Magnets To Pull People To JESUS

When you're doing earth with a heaven heart, you see every person in your world as a forever person and not just a creature of time. You understand that they're headed for one of two destinations. 1 John 5:11-12 says, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." The good news is that the people you know in your community who are on God's lost list could still change lists if they had a rescuer - somebody who's within the reach of that person to literally be a magnet that pulls them to Jesus Christ.


Day 1: Introduction


Will you tell about your rescuer?


In a world that is looking for a life of significance, is there anymore significant impact you could have in your little time on earth than to take some people to heaven with you? That is your eternal destiny. You are a child of the High King of heaven, and God has chosen you so you would tell about Him! 1 Peter 2:9 says, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." Declare His praises to the people in your world.
Philemon 1:6 says, "I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." You won't fully understand life as a Christian until you start sharing your faith. If you just consume everything and keep it to yourself, there are things you'll never understand about Jesus.


Your own love for Jesus grows when you start to tell people about Him. 1 Peter 3:15 says, "In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." Your bond with Jesus grows as you join Him in the work that He came and died for. God will break through where you are because somebody is willing to be the messenger.

The following are five reasons you should be willing to tell about your rescuer:

• It's the overflow of your love relationship with Him. The experience of a life with Jesus Christ makes us want to tell all about Him. He's somebody you love and the only one who ever loved you enough to die for you and walk out of His grave. He gave you the power to change. There's always going to be something new He's done for you, because when He's Lord of your life, He's always showing you new areas of your life that He wants to change.
• You can't be ashamed of the name. It can be easy to talk about God, your church, or even family values. When you start sharing about what has happened in your life, Satan makes you stop at the name of Jesus. Don't choke on Jesus' name. All the power is in Jesus' name, not just God's name. If you want to find out where somebody is spiritually, start to talk about what Jesus has done for you. You can't be ashamed of His name, because he hung on a cross not ashamed of you.
• You are depending on a God takeover. God has promised that He will move in with words and with courage. No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him, and God can deliver His truth through your personality. It doesn't matter if you're an introvert, an extrovert, or a culvert, God will use the personality He's given you to deliver His message. You're the one He picked for the people you know. There's destiny involved in your relationships, where you work, and where you live. You are depending on this being a total work of God that has been planned from eternity past; you plan on a God take over.
• You are amazed by your message. All day and every day in heaven, the people who work with God are saying, "Worthy is the Lamb! Worthy is the Lamb!" The only thing Jesus brought back from earth was the scars. Seeing those scars, they keep singing "Worthy is the Lamb!" They can't get over what Jesus did and they are amazed. Speak of Him because you never lose the wonder that the Son of God died on a cross for what you did.
• You have a heart for their eternity. Think about the fate and the eternity of people that you're with every day. What will be their eternal destination? Their final destination can change from hell to heaven today. Jesus was shut out from the presence of God the Father as He took their everlasting destruction, going through their hell on the cross.

Next, we will discuss the first magnet to pull people to Jesus.

Moment 25: My Shopping is Done

Believe it or not, that glorious moment will come—when you slump in your chair and proclaim exuberantly, “My shopping is done!”

Your Christmas shopping, yes—your spiritual shopping—maybe not. See, most of us spend a lifetime shopping for some lasting meaning, some lasting love, and lasting peace. It may be this Christmas that your soul is tired of shopping in relationships, religion, experiences that never fill the hole in your heart.

Life’s endless spiritual shopping trip ends at the feet of Jesus Christ—the One the Bible says you were made by and made for (Colossians 1:16 ). In God’s words, “You are complete in Him” (Colossians 2:10 ). “Complete” is what has always been missing. You’ve been incomplete because God’s been missing because you’ve been running your own life. Jesus died for your sin so He doesn’t have to be missing anymore.

If you’d like to begin this personal relationship with Jesus, come today and do your shopping at His feet. You'lll find whatever you have been looking for in abundance, and only for you. Your shopping for love and peace and meaning can be over today.

Moment 24: The Ghost of Christmas Past

Well, it’s time for stingy old Ebenezer Scrooge to show up again on TV and find himself confronted with the frightening Ghost of Christmas Past.

We’re all haunted, though, by our own ghosts from the past, and Christmas can make them even more haunting. Broken relationships, broken hearts, and broken promises. The nagging guilt of our past mistakes just keeps coming back.

But that’s why Jesus came. In announcing His birth, God said, “He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:22 ). All the sins of all your past were paid for when God’s Son died on the cross. When He said, “Father, forgive them” on that cross, He was including you. If you’ll trust Jesus to be your Savior from your sin, He will forgive every sin of your life and set you free.

If you want to begin your personal relationship with Jesus, someone’s been waiting to come into that relationship. He has been waiting throughout your life. This can be your first Christmas to be free from the ghosts of the past, because Jesus has set you free.

Moment 23: Alaska in Your Heart

Christmas must be kind of hard in Northern Alaska—it’s basically dark the entire Christmas season!

Then again, maybe it’s pretty dark for you this Christmas. It’s like Alaska in your heart. Maybe you’ve lost someone, or the future’s uncertain, or you feel guilty over some mistake you’ve made; maybe a deep loneliness or depression. You’re handling by yourself what you were never meant to handle alone. God wants to move in closer to you than you’ve ever experienced in your life.

Here’s what the Bible says happens when Jesus comes. “The people living in darkness have seen a great light” (Matthew 4:16 ). Jesus is waiting to do that for you. He died to close the sin-gap between you and God. All the lights went out for Jesus at the cross so you would never be alone in the dark again.

A religion won’t do it; you need a relationship with Jesus. If you want to begin one, just ask Him to come into your life. He is ever ready to come in search of His lost sheep. It’s been dark long enough. It doesn’t have to be dark one more day.

Moment 22: Batteries Not Included

Christmas morning isn't quite as much fun if you miss the small print on that toy "batteries not included." It looks great, but it's powerless to do what it's designed to do.

So are we. There's this person we want to be and the person we really are. The dark side of us wins too often; our selfishness, our negativity, our depression, our anger. And we end up hurting most the people we love most. Not because we want to, but because we're powerless to change. It's like the batteries to be the person we need to be just aren't included.

And that's why Christmas, and that's why Good Friday and Easter. One Bible writer spoke for all of us when he said, "What I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do… Who will rescue me? Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:15 , 24). Jesus died to rescue you and me from the power and the penalty of our sin.

If you're ready for a change - the kind only Jesus can make possible - begin your relationship with Him. DOn't worry if you fall again and again, just remember that Jesus came to save you from the clutches of sin, He is ready to forgive you. This Christmas you can give the people you love a brand new you.

Moment 21: Enjoying the Season, Missing the News

I was at a Christmas pageant where the angel was standing on a platform over the shepherds’ heads. He got as far as “Fear not…” and fell right onto the shepherds. The angel never got to the good news part of Christmas.

Like you, maybe. That first Christmas, the angel said, “I bring you good news…today a Savior has been born to you” (Luke 2:11 ). You can celebrate Christmas this year but never really get to the good news. It’s all about a Savior—for you. That’s good news for the same reason it’s good news when a rescuer goes into a burning building to save someone. Someone will die otherwise.

When it comes to the death penalty for all of us who have run our own lives, the “someone who will die” is you and me...except for the Rescuer. A Savior came for you. Jesus died for you to rescue you eternally.

Moment 20: Assembly Required

There are two words that I hated to see on any toys we bought for Christmas, “assembly required.” Great! I get this box full of pieces, but I have to figure out how they go together.

Kind of like our lives, huh? We’ve got all these pieces in our life, but how do they go together into something that makes life make sense? In a recent survey asking people what question they would most like to ask God, by far the largest response was, “What’s my purpose here?”

Christmas is a great time to finally get the answer to that all-important question. The Bible tells us our Creator’s answer. Speaking of Jesus, it says, “All things were created by Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16 ). You were created by Jesus and for Jesus, and life won’t make sense until you belong to Jesus. Because He died to pay for your sins, He can remove the wall between you and God, and you can anchor your life to the relationship you were made for.

If you’ve never begun your personal relationship with Him, and you want to, this Christmas is the best time. Invite Him into your lives and let Him anchor you to the relationship you dreamed of. He makes all the pieces into something incredible.

Moment 19: The Christmas Trip You'll Never Forget

Every year, our Indian Malankara Orthodox Church, Mumbai Diocese send some delegates to visit Israel, that trip is a dream come true for most of us. Some years ago, my friends' dream came true for Christmas—a chance to visit Israel. And as he climbed that hill the Bible calls Skull Hill…the place where Jesus died for me and you. And as he told me his experience this is what I felt...

It’s a trip I pray that you’ll make this Christmas in your heart. You can have lots of religion, Bible, Christianity and still miss your personal visit to the cross of Jesus Christ.

There are two words that decide your eternal future…that remove the sin-wall between us and God. They’re in the Bible verse that says, “The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 ). “For me.” Has there ever been a time in your life when, in your heart, you walked up to Jesus’ cross and said, “Jesus, You’re dying there for me to pay for the sinning I’ve done. And I want You to be the Savior for me.”

If there’s never been a time like that for you and you want to belong to Jesus, ask Him to come into your lives this Christmas. He was born at Christmas to die for you. Don’t miss Him.

Moment 18: Christmas In A Four Letter Word

Our kids will all be home this Christmas...whatever it takes. More than any day of the year, Christmas is about being home.

Except for the Son of God. For Him, Christmas meant leaving home. Leaving the grandeur of heaven for a tiny speck called earth. He knew His life among us would begin in a stable and end nailed to a tree He had created.

Jesus left home so you could come home...maybe this Christmas season. Home to God, the One you were made by; the One you've sinned against by running the life He was supposed to run. There are no more important words you'll ever hear than these words from the Bible, 

"God so loved the world" - loved you - "That He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16 ).

It's time to come home. You've been away long enough. Your heart's been looking for a long time. It's Christmas...come home.

Moment 17: The Two Little Words That Change Your Christmas

It’s amazing what a difference two little words can make. For example, “I do”, “You’re fired”, “You’re expecting.”

There are two little words in the Christmas story that can make the difference in where you spend eternity. I’ll leave those words out first. “Today a Savior has been born, He is Christ and Lord” (Luke 2:11 ). Now listen to it with the two life-changing words, “A Savior has been born to you.”

Suddenly the coming of Christ is an intensely personal event. This Savior is for you. “Savior”—that’s a rescuer—someone who risks his life to save someone who’s about to die. And we were—spiritually.

The sin of your life carries a death penalty, which Jesus paid when He died on the cross. But only you can make Jesus a Savior “to you.” It happens when you, in your heart, stand at the foot of His cross and say the two words that change everything, “For me. You’re dying for me, Jesus. I’m taking You, for me.”

A Savior has been born to you.

Moment 16: Listening to Linus

It’s a Christmas TV classic…”A Charlie Brown Christmas.” After Charlie Brown’s frustrating search for some real Christmas, Linus walks onto the stage dragging his blanket, the spotlight hits him, and he proceeds to quote from the Bible’s account of Christmas 1.

“I bring you good news of great joy. A Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11 ). That really is good news! Why? For the same reason the arrival of a firefighter would be good news if you were in a burning building.

You were about to die…and the rescuer has come. Now, that’s what Savior means. Jesus has come to rescue you and me from the death penalty of our sin by His death on that cross. No one has ever loved you like that. But only you can make Him your Savior by putting all your trust in Him as your rescuer.

If you have never done that and you want to, accept Him. This can be your first Christmas with Christ in your heart.

Moment 15: The Train, The Transformer, and The Miracle

It’s Christmas! That means it’s time to help set up my friend's antique electric train. Of course, the train just sits there until we’ve set up that black box called the transformer. It takes all that high voltage outside and brings it down to where we can use it.

There’s probably never been a time when we have needed God’s power more to make our marriage work, to be what our kids need us to be, to rise above the stress, or to overcome our dark side. On Christmas, Jesus Christ came to us as the Divine Transformer to bring the power of God within our reach.

And the Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ). The things in you that you’ve never been able to change, Jesus can change. The you that you know you need to be, Jesus can make you. He died on the cross to forgive your past, and when you get Jesus, you get the transforming power of God.

If you want to begin this life-changing relationship with Jesus, accept Him, let Him be your transformer. At the dawn of a new millennium—let Him bring forth a new you!

Moment 14: Not the Same Without the Tree

There’s a moment that officially begins the Christmas season at every house—the night when father and son bring home the Christmas tree. Christmas would be incomplete without the tree.

That’s sort of how God feels about Christmas. It’s incomplete without the tree. Not the evergreen with the decorations; the one on Skull Hill. That brutal cross where God’s Son completed the mission that began that first Christmas.

In God’s own words, Jesus “bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24 ). Our sinful running of our own lives carries an eternal death penalty, which God had every right to let us pay. But God loves you too much to lose you. So He sent His Son, by way of a stable, to pay your sin-bill on that tree.

And nothing matters more to God than whether or not you put your trust in Jesus to be your Savior from your sin. If you’ve never begun this life-giving relationship with Jesus, God will never forget what you do with His Son.

Moment 13: Coming Home for Christmas

For us college students who are staying in hostels who are counting down the days; for military around the world who are away from home defending their country , “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” is probably one Christmas song that goes right to the heart. If you ever want to be home, it’s Christmas.

This longing for home runs deep in the human heart, and ultimately it’s a longing for the person who gave us our life in the first place. Speaking of Jesus, the Bible says we were “created by Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16 ). Our whole life we’ve been looking for a home where our heart would feel loved and safe. And no relationship, or accomplishment, or religion has ever filled that hole in our heart.

Maybe this Christmas would be your time to finally come home to the One you were made for. Jesus literally died to remove the sin that makes a relationship with God impossible. And now, in this season—His season—He is coming where you are, inviting you to experience His love for yourself.

This Christmas, your heart will finally be home.

Moment 12: Battlefield Peace

It was World War I on Christmas Eve. The German and British troops were dug in just hundreds of yards apart. Suddenly, the voices of German soldiers drifted across the lines, singing “Silent Night”…followed amazingly by hundreds of British soldiers joining in the carol. Imagine, “Sleep in heavenly peace” in the middle of a battlefield.

Actually, no one has the power to bring peace in the midst of a battle like Jesus does. And increasingly, our world feels more like a battlefield—including the unsettling battles in our own personal lives. The Bible tells us that peace is a Person. Speaking of Jesus, it says, ‘He Himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14 ). That peace is the bringing together of us with the God we’re away from. Our sin has left us far from Him, so there’s never really any inner peace until we let Jesus bring us home to Him.

If you’ve never done that, this would be a wonderful time to begin your relationship with Jesus Chris.

Moment 11: The Gift that Makes You Cry

We all children have this little competition going on every Christmas…who can get that sentimental nostalgia gift that will make our parents cry? We usually succeed.

But no gift I’ve ever received touches me more deeply than the one God gave me. I’m blown away when the Bible says, “God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son” (John 3:16 )…gave Him to die on a cross, to absorb all the guilt and all the hell of all my sins. He did it for you, too.

To understand how much you mean to God, put your name in that Bible verse. “God loved ______ (put your name there) so much that He gave His one and only son that if ______ would believe in Him, then ______ will never die, but have eternal life.” God sacrificed His Son for you!

Isn’t it time you belong to this Jesus who gave everything so you could?

Moment 10: The Christmas Goodbye

Recently, some friends' one-year-old baby had to be evacuated by air to a children's hospital. Mom thought she’d be able to fly with the little guy, but at the last minute she learned she couldn’t go with him. Her cell phone photos tell the story: a little boy in the window of a chopper, crying for his mommy, and mommy watching with a broken heart as he took off.

After he came home, I told her, “You know, that day you shared a little piece of the heart of God the Father, when He saw His Son being taken away to a place He couldn’t go with Him.” The Bible describes God’s Christmas sacrifice this way: “God loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10 ).

See, God loves you and me so much that He allowed His Son to be taken away and nailed to a cross to pay for the sins that keep us from Him, and His love demands a decision on our part. Will we pin our hopes on Jesus, or however politely, just tell Him no?

Because God will never forget what you do with His Son.

Moment 9: The Gift Card Question Mark

What to buy for certain people! For a lot of Christmas shoppers, the answer is gift cards! They can go to the store later and buy whatever they want for the amount of that card…if the store is still around when they go there. That was a big recession question last Christmas—will the store still be there to stand behind what was paid for?

A lot of religious people are facing the same kind of issue when it comes to what their religion promises—eternal life. That’s the big reason we do what our religion expects. But the Bible warns that “there is a way that seems right…but in the end, it leads to death” (Proverbs 16:25 ). People are going to go before God on Judgment Day with their religious card in their hand, expecting that their religion will give them heaven, and find that no religion can get us into heaven.

The Bible says, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11 ). That’s because only He paid for the sin that will keep us out of heaven. So, your only hope of heaven is putting your total trust in Him as your Rescuer.