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A "Personal" Gift
by Pastor Bill Pevlor

I was born and lived my early life in Miami, Florida. Until age twelve, when my family moved to Wisconsin I really didn't know what snow was like. In Miami it was just some white stuff depicted on holiday TV specials and Christmas cards. A lot of my relatives had some first hand experience with the white stuff and I had heard them talk about snow, but I had no concept of what a marvelous substance snow was. I had to experience it for myself.

A relationship with Jesus is like that too. You can hear glorious stories of the many great things Jesus did and said during His short life on earth and in the lives of people you know, but it will have no tangible effect on your life until you have a "personal" encounter with Jesus yourself.

In the days leading to Christmas, people will be confronted with Jesus more than at any other time of the year. There will be nativity scenes, Christmas carols and cards that illustrate His birth. Most will even go to church. Even so, many will not experience the fulfillment that is found in a personal relationship with Jesus. To do so requires personal involvement on their part. It requires a personal endeavor of faith.

It can be difficult to put faith in a person you've never met. To those who doubt, the Bible offers a revelation of the existence of Jesus. The Old Testament predicted the birth and various aspects of Jesus’ life. The New Testament relates the fulfillment of those prophecies and gives eyewitness accounts of His life, death and resurrection. The Bible has been tested time and time again. Every time it has proven to be historically accurate. It is the most reliable of history books. When the lives of biblical characters are compared with other records of history, they match. Why would it lie about Jesus, its central character?

In the early 20th century, there was a group espousing a theory they referred to as the Christ-myth. It was their contention that Jesus was invented solely as a peg on which to hang the myth of a dying and rising God. If the Christ-myth assumption were valid, you would find Jesus only mentioned in Christian writings. However, as with many other biblical characters, there is an abundance of non-biblical evidence to the existence of Jesus of Nazareth.

Many Roman historians (Cornelius Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, etc.) mention Jesus and the early Christian church in their writings. Religious writings and a wide array of personal correspondence, dating back to the time of Jesus, also refer to Him.

Flavius Josephus, a highly regarded Jewish historian wrote about Jesus: "Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principle men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten-thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day."

This passage and other Jewish evidence are especially valuable because of the hostility between Jews and Christians at the time. It would have been easy for the Jewish side to question the existence of Jesus, but they never did.

Jesus did live on the earth as the Bible claims. The baby born in Bethlehem reigns as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords today. As true as that may be, all the evidence I could present to you is of no value unless you combine it with faith (Hebrews 4:2).

You have just read an article about Jesus. You have, no doubt, heard other people talk about Jesus. You may have even read what the Bible has to say about Him, but to really know Him you must experience your own personal relationship with Him. It’s like my familiarity with snow as a child in Miami. I’d seen pictures and heard wonderful stories, but I never really understood snow until I had a personal encounter with it.

This Christmas, personally receive, by faith, the greatest gift ever given to you; forgiveness of your sins and eternal life through God's only Son, Jesus Christ. If He seems distant and somewhat mythological, I promise, with a little honest seeking, you will find an actual person, a needed savior and a true friend.

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Victorious Faith Ministries
219 State Street, Algoma, WI 54201
Phone: 920-487-5775