Richard Ellis Talks

Of all the gifts we receive at Christmas, the greatest is the gift of Jesus Christ. Through Him, God has offered us salvation from our sin. And if we accept His offer, we not only receive the present of His Son -- we receive the gift of being in His presence forever.

If being a Christian were a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict you? When we surrender our lives to Christ, we're born again with the Holy Spirit inside us -- and that's a heart transformation that everyone around us should be able to see!

It's no accident that the King of the universe came to earth in the most humble way possible: born in a barn, surrounded by animals, with His first visitors being simple shepherds of the fields. The very nature of His birth teaches us that whether you're born in a barn or live among nobles, Jesus came for all people -- and we're all equal in our need for His redeeming love.

The story of the birth of Jesus is filled not only with THE wise men of the nativity story, but with other wise people who submitted to God's call on their lives. True wisdom comes when a person responds to God's leading with obedience. Only by following Him do we become "wise guys" in the best sense of the word!

How many times have you heard (or said), "Jesus is the reason for the season"? The sentiment is good, but the reality is that WE are the reason for the season -- because WE are the reason He came to the world. He was born for us, He lived for us, He died for us, and He rose again for us -- all so that He could offer us a free gift of eternal life that we never earned or deserved. There is no greater Christmas gift, and all we have to do is accept it!

Did you know that the Pharisees of Jesus' day could have figured out who He was, simply by asking where He was born? But they didn't take the time to ask important questions, and often, neither do we. It's tempting to ignore parts of the Bible that we don't understand, but if we seek God whole-heartedly, He promises to reveal Himself to us through His Word.

The first miracle of Jesus' life was the fact that He lived at all! He did the seemingly impossible when He was born of a virgin, and He continues to do the seemingly impossible in and through our lives today. It's easy to focus only on what's humanly possible, but when God is involved, we can trust that He'll work outside earthly limitations to do things that will bring glory to His name!

Jesus Himself tells us in Scripture that He is the only Way to God the Father. Yet we have a tendency to get in the way of His work in our lives and others' lives, too. When we stop making excuses about why God can't use us and allow Him to work through us instead, we're able to live in the Way that is Jesus and lead other people to Him as well.

You wouldn't feed solid foods to a newborn who can only drink milk. So why do we assume that newborn Christians can digest "spiritual solids" right away? We tend to set high expectations for new believers as soon as they meet Christ, but they need the guidance of mature Christians to feed them spiritual "milk" and help them grow in their relationship with God.

It's one thing to say that we trust God to take care of us. It's another to actually live like we believe it! But we can look back and see evidence that He's provided for our every need time after time, and we can trust that He'll catch us every time we take a leap of faith.