It’s Christmas Eve and I’ve made the annual trek to my family cemetery where my parents rest. I don’t know why I feel drawn to the cemetery on Christmas Eve. My heart is always heavy as I stand over the cold, gray tombstone and remember happy Christmases from the past.
From the cemetery, I could see the house that was my childhood home. Oh how my heart yearned to go inside, sit by the fire and have a nice visit with Mama and Daddy. While standing in the cold on this bright day, I heard a rooster crow, and was reminded of Jesus telling Peter, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.” Luke 22:34.
How many times did I deny Jesus before I finally yielded and accepted him into my heart? More than three, I can tell you that. Only God knows.
All week, I’ve been focused on the short book of Haggai. Two verses keep taunting me. “Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. (6) You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.” Haggai 1:5-6.
These verses could be describing most of us and our culture today. Our mega churches harvest little. We create many of our health problems because we cannot control our appetites. How many people are in the malls today buying clothes they do not need? How many of us work longer hours, make more money, but find ourselves feeling dissatisfied? We will never be filled, never be satisfied until we fill the vacuum in our heart that only Christ can fill.
Dear ones, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I ask you to pick up a Bible and turn to the following scriptures:
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Romans 5:8 “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
Titus 3:5: “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boasts.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 10:9-10 “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
On this Christmas Eve, I pray that all will accept the gift of Jesus into your heart and be satisfied. It is because of God’s perfect gift, I have the hope of seeing my beloved parents again. I visited the cemetery this morning, but I know they are not there. They are in heaven where I too will join them someday. I hope to meet you there. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
