[CS-FSLUG] "No Birthday Without Him"

[Fred Miller]

A WORD WITH YOU
By Ron Hutchcraft
#4553 - "No Birthday Without Him"
John 3:3 

Listen to the audio broadcast!
http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/ramhurl?p=pnm&f=/rhm/sounds/awwy/awwy4553.rm

        Amid all the amusement and theme parks clustered in Orlando, Florida, 
there's one that is pretty distinctive. It's a Holy Land theme park that 
attempts to bring some of the scenes and the stories of the Bible to life. 
Our daughter and son-in-law were there not long ago with our two grandsons. 
And the kids, who are pretty up on their Bible stories, really enjoyed 
walking through those stories and meeting some of the characters (actually, 
people portraying some of those characters). The one that impressed our then 
two-year-old grandson the most was Jesus. A man portraying Jesus stood in the 
middle of the small crowd and He spoke some of the very stories that He told 
as recorded in the Bible. But then came the moment our little guy will not 
soon forget - Jesus came over and picked Him up, just like Jesus did with the 
children when He was here. The next day Mom and our little guy were talking 
about his upcoming third birthday party, and suddenly out of the blue, he 
said, "I want !
Jesus at my birthday party." 

        I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No 
Birthday Without Him." 

        That's a great idea - Jesus at your birthday party. Talk about a guest 
of honor! Actually, when it comes to the most important birthday of all, 
there's no birthday without Jesus. And if there's no birthday, there's no 
life. Eternal life, that is. The most important birthday of all is the day 
you get born into God's family. Isn't everyone God's child? Not unless 
they've been born spiritually into the family of the Heavenly Father. 

        Jesus Himself put it this way in John 3:3, our word for today from the 
Word of God. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless 
he is born again." Obviously, Birth One was the day you were born into your 
parents' family. No birthday, no life. Jesus is talking here about Birth Two 
- the day you actually begin to belong to God. No birthday, no life. Whatever 
"born again" is, Jesus said you cannot enter God's heaven without it, because 
heaven is only for family - God's family. Anyone can be in God's family, no 
matter what their religion or their background, but not everyone is, because 
they've never been born ... again. 

        John 1:12 describes just how a person gets born into God's family: "To 
all who received Him (that's Jesus), to those who believed in His name, He 
gave the right to become children of God." It's all about what you do with 
Jesus. Why? Because the only way to be in God's family is to take care of 
what keeps you out of being one of His kids. And that's sin. He's an 
all-holy, totally perfect God. You and I have turned our back on Him - 
sometimes with a lot of religion in our lives to give us a sense of being 
okay. That's called false security. We've used the mouth He gave us to hurt 
and to lie and to swear. We've used the hands and eyes and ears He gave us to 
touch and explore what we never should have touched. We've hurt most the 
people we love most, we've lusted, and boasted and been selfish. All that sin 
has to be paid for, but Jesus died as our substitute paying for it. 

        Jesus is the only One who can forgive your sin, because He's the only 
One who died for it and then rose again to prove He can. He's the only One 
who can get you into heaven. But you need a birthday, a definite beginning 
with Him or you have no chance of being God's child. 

        You may have had a baptism day, a communion day, a confirmation day, a 
lot of church days, but you've missed your spiritual birthday. Which only 
comes the day you "believe in" Jesus - which means welcoming Him into your 
life with total trust in Him as your only hope. If you've done that, you know 
you have. If you don't, you haven't. But you can ... this very day. He's let 
you live another day so you could have another chance. Just tell Him, "Jesus, 
I'm Yours." If you want that, I want to send you my little booklet about it 
called Yours For Life. Just let me know you want it. 

        Today's date could become the most important day of your life if you 
make it your Jesus-day ... your birthday. The day you receive the most 
awesome, most expensive birthday present of all - eternal life paid for with 
the life of God's Son.

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.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bounce?b=871

OR, to request your free copy of "Yours for Life," click here:
http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bounce?b=872

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please visit YOURS FOR LIFE: HOW TO HAVE LIFE'S MOST IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIP 
at:
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Or, call 1-888-NEED HIM.

"A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft is a daily radio challenge, with 
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-- 
"Ballmer is no more designed for the art of persuasion 
than the Abrams tank is for delivering meals on wheels."