"LET'S MAKE A DEAL"

“...remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (from Acts 20:35)

I’m writing this before 10 a.m. on Christmas Day so there’s still a long way to go today. (I know the posting time indicates much earlier but THAT’S on Pacific time!) We just opened our immediate family gifts. To use the famous line, so far “I made out like a bandit” with some nice clothes, CDs, DVDs, books, etc.

I just HAD to tell you about my 23-year-old daugher Rachel’s creative gift. She handed me a large Christmassy bag filled with decorative paper and newsprint. (t was wrapped in white ribbon. A sign was taped to the ribbon which said, “To Dad: Let’s Make A Deal”. Once I dug my way through the paper there was a converted shoebox. It was all decorated in wrapping paper. The top had 3 “doors” colored in gold that she had created. They were labeled “Door 1” “Door 2” and “Door 3”. I had to choose the Door and that was my gift. I chose “Door 2” which WAS the best one to choose. It contained $30 in one dollar bills!

I then opened the other 2 doors. Door number 1 was a box of “Cheese Its” snack crackers. Door number 3 was a roll of Scotch transparent tape!

Wasn’t that clever?! I think I had more fun with that than anything else this morning.

Sometimes when I’m preaching evangelistically, I explain that when I was growing up in the Catholic Church back in the 1960s, I was told that my works in this life would determine where I would spend eternity. I was also told that I would not find out if I would end up in Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory until I DIED. (In traditional Catholicism, Purgatory is “like Hell” ---no swearing intended, there--- but it is TEMPORARY.) I always thought that was kind of a lousy DEAL. I thought I’d be really miffed if I died and found out I was going to Hell....and even Purgatory sounded pretty lousy. I knew really good people like Mother Teresa went to Heaven, but I knew I wasn’t “really good”.

The reason I JUMPED ON the Billy Graham/Evangelical Protestant message of “receive Jesus Christ as your Personal Savior and be guaranteed a place in Heaven when you die” is that it sounded a LOT better than the Catholic version of eternity. This coming Summer will mark 40 years since I made my “decision for Christ” and let me tell you, it IS a great deal!

Merry Christmas!