Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The cost of Christmas.
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Is not the giving of ourselves to one another more precious than the value of the things we can buy for one another?
JAM 1:17 Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.
1CO 4:7 For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
You must believe in the virgin birth.
You must believe that He came to save men from their sins.
You must believe that He will come again to reign as King of all the earth.
For Mary, the cost of saying “Yes” to God’s plan to bring His Son into the world meant she, a virtuous woman from a good family, became pregnant before marriage and faced the cost of out-of-wedlock pregnancy in that very strict culture.
It cost Mary and Joseph the comforts of home during a long period of exile in Egypt to protect the little babe.
It cost mothers, in and around Bethlehem, the massacre of their babies by the cruel order of Herod.
It cost the shepherds the complacency of their shepherd’s life, with the call to the manger and to tell the good news.
It cost the wise men a long journey and expensive gifts and changed lives.
It cost Zacharias a physical problem of becoming mute because of not having faith in the promises of God concerning his son.
Throughout human history, because of the birth of Christ, it cost the early Apostles and the early church persecution and sometimes death.
It cost missionaries of Christ untold suffering and privation to spread the Good News.
It cost Christian martyrs in all ages their lives for Christ’s sake.
It cost family members the principle of dividing from their families.
More than all this, it cost God the Father His own Son — He sent Him to the earth to save men.
It cost Jesus a life of sacrifice and service, a death cruel and unmatched in history.
REV 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.
2CO 9:15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!