[CS-FSLUG] "Something Broken at Christmas"

[Fred A. Miller]

A WORD WITH YOU
By Ron Hutchcraft
#4685 - "Something Broken at Christmas"
Isaiah 61:1 

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        With two teenage boys who love football, one Christmas gift is sure to 
be a hit - a new leather football. And when it's a rare 60-degree Christmas 
morning, you're not just going to sit around the Christmas tree and admire 
that ball - you're going to go right outside and do what you're supposed to 
do with a football. So the three men of the house were quickly out of the 
house and in the middle of the street, passing that football back and forth. 
I was back for a long one - the pass was right to me. And I caught it - right 
on the end of my little finger, like the Christmas klutz. The emergency room 
is not where you want to spend a chunk of your Christmas, but that's where I 
was - with a special souvenir of that Christmas - a broken finger. 

        I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about 
"Something Broken at Christmas." 

        Take it from me, it is no fun having something broken during 
Christmas. Especially if what's broken is a relationship you really care 
about. Or your family is broken. Or your heart is broken. All the "joy to the 
world" around you just seems to make the hurt even worse. And often the 
Christmas season brings painful reminders of the things that have hurt us the 
most. 

        You need to know that the One whose birthday we're celebrating knows 
about what's broken and He knows how much it hurts. He cares about the pain, 
He cares about the loneliness, and He really understands. Remember, this 
Jesus who came that first Christmas was, in the words of the Bible, a "man of 
sorrows and familiar with suffering" (Isaiah 53:3). He was misunderstood and 
abandoned. He was betrayed, falsely accused, even put to death. So while 
everyone around you may be celebrating and totally unaware of how you're 
hurting, you need to know that Jesus is moving close to you today, and He 
wants to do something very powerful for you this Christmas. That's why He's 
led me to talk about this today. His Word says, "The Lord is close to the 
brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18). 

        In Isaiah 61:1, our word for today from the Word of God, the Son of 
God says, "The Lord has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted." He really is 
the fixer of broken hearts, broken lives, and broken people. Because He came 
to do something about what's at the root of all our brokenness. There's a 
reason we use each other, hurt each other, and let each other down. 
Something's very wrong in our world - something's very wrong in us. It goes 
back to our living with our back to the God who put us here. We simply aren't 
living as we were made to live - God's way. We have this deadly disease of me 
called sin that's ignored God over and over again. And sin is a killer of 
everything beautiful - everything that matters. 

        In fact, sin killed Jesus. He absorbed our death penalty for our sin 
to remove the wall between us and the God whose love we need so much. And the 
broken things in your life are a painful reminder of your deep heart need for 
a love and a security that you can't lose. Only God can give you that. 

        So the body of Jesus was broken to repair the broken relationship 
between you and God - so He can move in and fix and forgive what's broken 
inside you. In fact, this very day, the one who came on Christmas is coming 
to you, offering you this opportunity for Him to come into your life with His 
love. But you have to open the door to let Him in. 

        This could be your Jesus-day - the day you finally experience what it 
is to belong to the one who loved you enough to die for you and was powerful 
enough to conquer death. Just tell Him, "Jesus, I've lived without you long 
enough. You died for me. I can trust you. I'm yours." And please let me send 
you my little booklet Yours For Life. It will help you know you really belong 
to Him. 

        What a Christmas this could be. What a new beginning! Being broken can 
drive you into the loving arms of Jesus Christ where you can finally be 
whole.

If you're not sure you belong to Jesus, and you would like to make sure today, 
Ron would like to send to you a free copy of the booklet, "Yours for Life: 
How to Have Life's Most Important Relationship."  To read it online, click 
here:
http://www.yoursforlife.net/

OR, to request your free copy of "Yours for Life," click here:
http://www.gospelcom.net/rhm/yours/yflorder.html

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"A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft is a daily radio challenge, with 
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Copyright (c) 2004, Ron Hutchcraft. Permission to distribute this material via 
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Copyright (c) 2004, Ron Hutchcraft. Reprinted with permission. "A Word With 
You" is a radio outreach of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.

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