An Amazing Sacrifice

An Amazing Sacrifice - by Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org

 

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.-Philippians 2:7

 

I heard a story about a mother who was telling her little girl that Jesus lived in her heart. The little girl put her ear to her mom's chest and said, "I'm listening to Jesus in your heart."

 

"Really?" the mother said. "What are you hearing?"

 

She said, "I think right now He's making coffee."

 

When someone becomes a Christian, Jesus Christ literally takes residence in his or her heart. Colossians 1:27 says, "And this is the secret: Christ lives in you" (NLT). Then in John 1:12 we read, "But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God" (NLT).

 

So it is accurate to say that we must receive Christ. And it is accurate to say that Christ lives in our lives after we receive Him.

 

In fact, Jesus said in John 14:23, "All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them" (NLT). So when you become a Christian, Christ literally comes and makes His home with you.

 

I think we've romanticized the Christmas story, depicting Mary, Joseph, and the newborn Jesus with halos while the animals look on in reverence. Everything is bathed in blue light. It's a beautiful scene. But that isn't the way it was.

 

God sent His Son from the glory of Heaven to be born in the most unsanitary conditions imaginable. It was cold and damp-an unwelcoming place. But to me, that doesn't diminish the Christmas story. In fact, it enhances it to think of all God left to come to us. What an amazing sacrifice it was.

 

Jesus left His home in Heaven to make a home in our hearts. He was born so that we could be born again. Is Jesus at home in your heart today?