Luke 2:15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
How many times have you heard the words “seeing is believing?” I cannot count the number of times I have heard this phrase. And I like to see the evidence. Show me the money as the saying goes. A photo is good, and video is better. If I do not see something, there can be an element of doubt which will creep in and nag at me.
The problem with being a Christian is we must have faith in something we can only read about, pray about, but have not witnessed with our own eyes. Left to ourselves, we would continue to have doubt. And where doubt creeps in, faith can struggle and/or be lost. So how do we keep the faith? We have faith which is given to us freely by God the Father. His Holy Spirit fills us to overflowing. And it seems that we do whatever we can to drain that faith out from ourselves. Okay, that covers us, but what about others we know? Do you suppose they have the same thing going on in their lives? My guess is that we are not alone. So, what can we do about this problem? I have this idea that I want to share with you. It is simple, yet it also requires a leap of faith. I want you to do just as the Shepherds did. Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened. I would love to do that in a literal sense but that is not practical for all of us. What we can do to carry out this suggestion is to invite someone you know to go with you to Christmas Eve service at you house of worship. I do not mean as a blanket invitation. I mean as a focused, directed, personal one-on-one invitation. If each and every one of us were to take that leap of faith and ask someone in our lives to go to church with us, just think of what could happen. We offer an opportunity for others to hear the word of God with a friend at their side. We offer God the opportunity to use us to reach out in love to others. And we remove a huge barrier that keeps many from going to worship services. We take away the fear of being alone in a strange place. We give them the comfort of our friendship and companionship at a time when they may need it most. We open doors to a life that may have been closed or forgotten. We let the Holy Spirit have an opportunity to fill their hearts. A general appeal usually falls on deaf ears. But a personal one-on-one invitation can move mountains. Let us all take the time to share our Christmas Eve with someone. “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
PRAYER: Father in Heaven we are asking for Your blessings on our efforts to reach out in love to others this season. We are asking for You to guide us to those who need to hear Your good news. Let our efforts to reach out be pleasing in Your sight. For in all that we do, may all praise, glory, and honor be to You O Lord our rock and our salvation. These things we ask in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
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