Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
 
Why do the extreme Moslems do what they do? To appease Allah. Why do the Jews claim the Holy Land? For the honor of Jehovah Yaweh. Why do the Native Americas treat the earth and nature with sensitivity? The belief their gods are in nature. What about the acts of Hindus? To appease the gods. What makes Christian’s tick? It is the awareness of a personal relationship with the Divine Being who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and brings a renewed spiritual aliveness by putting one’s faith in Jesus Christ.
       
There is a spiritual hunger in the hearts of all men. Many will run to evil, false, or made-up spiritual powers. Most of the wars today in our world are the results of spiritual conflicts.
       
What is the biggest difference between all the other world religions and Christianity? All other religions are man’s way to appease and relate to God. Christianity however shows God coming to mankind and initiating contact. All other religions try to be good enough to make it to gods, or to be acceptable. Christianity shows we cannot be good enough; therefore, Christ came to die for us as sinners, and we accept Him by faith and are saved by His grace shown to us in taking the punishment for our sins. When we believe that and understand, we see now salvation is from God and it is not of ourselves. We can’t boast about how good we are, but how wonderful God is in sending us Jesus Christ who is life.
 
When John the Baptist pointed out who Jesus was what did they do? Most did not fall and worship Him. Most did not leave everything and followed Him and devote their lives to Him. Most did not want to learn what He said so they could obey Him. Instead, they set out to crucify Him, rejected Him and put Him to death to do away with Him.
       
Most Jews today adamantly reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah. That is what John said. But hold on, most Gentiles reject Jesus Christ too. This is not a race thing, nor a nationality thing. It is a spirit thing. Most native Americans reject Jesus; most African’s reject Jesus; most whites reject Jesus; most Asians reject Jesus. Most people reject Jesus.
         
We are not a Christian nation like the Muslim’s think we are. We are individuals who for the most part like a little bit of Jesus and a little bit of religion, but don’t desire personal repentance and acceptance of Jesus as their Savior and their Lord whom they will follow.
       
This spiritual life is not the same as physical life. God goes in and does the spiritual surgery taking away our sin. I’m not sure how He does it, other than through faith -by believing in Christ’ righteousness and love, we come by His dying for our sin and yielding to follow Him. The Holy Spirit then comes into our lives and seals us. He will begin to change us from within. The rest of our physical life is living with the Spirit, having a new divine communication system. Words from the Bible are seen differently than before. Now God is with us and in us.
       
That makes for a good year and wonderful eternity. We celebrate His coming into our world and celebrate His coming into our lives.  
 
Dale