WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17th: GREATEST GIFT (cont)

The Greatest Christmas Gift
"This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ." - Frank McKibben


"And what a difference between our sin and God's generous gift of forgiveness. For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this other man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God's bountiful gift. And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but we have the free gift of being accepted by God, even though we are guilty of many sins. The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God's wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:15-17 (NLT)

So far this week, we have been looking at Jesus being the greatest gift of all. We have looked at the hope that He provides and the truth that we all need this hope in an often hopeless world. Today, I want you to think about some of your reaction to that. What do you do with it? What have you done? A couple of months ago, I was cleaning out my garage. I noticed a small bag with a Christmas scene on it. It was a gift bag. As I was getting ready to throw the bag away, I noticed that something shifted in the bag. I looked in and noticed a gift card to Home Depot. Crazy!!! What a waste. I could have used this card many times over the past year but what good did it do sitting in a bag in my garage?
What good is a gift if you don't even open it? Even worse, what good is a gift that you don't even use? Not much. Even if the gift is valuable and you could use it every day, it doesn't do any good if your just leave it in the bag.
So what about this "gift" that God has given you? The gift of Jesus. Have you opened it? Have you accepted it? Have you used it? If you haven't yet, I want to talk to you about it. If you are not sure how to accept it, let's talk.