During the Christmas
season, as Christians, we celebrate that greatest gift God ever gave to
man, and that was sending His son Jesus to bridge the gap between sinful
humanity and His pure holiness. Society
often gets caught up in the commercial and materialistic aspects of the
season, primarily the gift giving. Whether
you are on the upper or lower tier of the economic ladder, the most
valuable gift you will ever receive is when you accept the free gift of
salvation that God offers through accepting what Jesus did on the cross.
We can accumulate all the worldly possessions in existence, but
they will only satisfy for a little while, and will eventually fade, rust
or wear out. Our time here on
earth, whether you have lived 10 years, 50 or 100 years, is only a blink
of an eye in comparison to eternity.
We are going to live forever and ever….somewhere.
As God is pure holiness, and the Bible states that our
righteousness is as “filthy rags”, that tells me that we can never be
good enough to get into heaven on our own merit.
I think about how great a man Billy Graham is and how revered he
is. As good as he is, Billy
Graham would be bound for hell if he only relied on his good works and
deeds to get into heaven. It is only through the accepting of Jesus as his personal
saviour that even he is assured of eternal life.
The greatest gift you could ever give your brother, sister, mother or
father is when you tell them that you accepted Jesus as your Saviour.
The greatest inheritance you could ever leave your children is not
money, or big houses or insurance polices, but the fact that one day they
will see you again in heaven. If you have not made that decision, please don’t disappoint
your family and risk all of eternity separated from God My bible clearly states that God is a God of love,
mercy and forgiveness, but He is also a God of judgment.
God clearly states in the Bible He loves us and that Adam sinned in
the beginning resulting in separation from man and God. God initiated sacrifices in the Old Testament, which
symbolically atoned for sin through the shedding of blood of animals.
Ultimately, the blood of animals could not save us, but was a
foreshadowing of Jesus. As
there must be punishment for sin, God decided to send the ultimate
sacrifice in sending His own perfect and sinless son to die on the cross
and pay the penalty we deserved. The story didn’t end at the cross
however and the good news is that Christianity is the only religion that
has a RISEN savior who is continually interceding on our behalf.
By trusting in what Jesus did and accepting Him as our Saviour, my
bible states we are made right in God’s eyes.
When I accepted Jesus into my heart, I said a prayer much like the
following. If you would like to accept Jesus into your heart right now,
I invite you to say this prayer: “Oh
God, I acknowledge that I have sinned against You.
I am sorry for my sins. I
am willing to turn from my sins. I
openly receive and acknowledge Jesus Christ as my Saviour. I confess Him as Lord. From
this moment on I want to live for Him and serve Him.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
A
final note, this will be Legacy’s final article in CMP Magazine.
We feel fortunate to have been associated with such a fine and
well-produced magazine. Our
ministry has decided to embark on a newsletter, which we will be sending
to all our friends on a quarterly basis. If you would like to be on our mailing list for this free
newsletter, I invite you to go to either our website at www.legacyministries.com
and send us an e-mail with your name and address, or call or write at the
number and address shown below for Legacy.
We love you all very much.
In
Christian Love,
Tim Perry for Legacy