It was Christmas Eve, and the Hutchcraft family was acting out the Christmas story. Our daughter was Mary, with a towel draped over her head. Our oldest son was Joseph, bathrobe and all. Our then two-year-old son was the closest we could come to a baby, so he was in the giant laundry basket. I was, of course, an angel dressed in a white sheet, sitting celestially on the back of the couch. And my wife - well, she wanted to be a sheep. So she was crawling around the living room floor with our sheepskin rug draped over her, doing her very best "baaa's." And the doorbell rang! It was two teenage girls from our youth group. Their folks were home getting drunk, and they were wondering if they could come to our house for a little sanity. When they came in, our Christmas players were in full gear, "baaa" and all. The door was open and we invited them right into our Christmas.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Open Door at the Manger."

It was only appropriate that we should say to anyone who came to our door on Christmas Eve, "Come on in." After all, that's what God did when His Son was born that first Christmas. He threw open the door and said, "Come on in" no matter what you're like. He might be saying that to you this very day.

Anybody's welcome to come on in and join God's family. How do we know? Well, for one thing, look at who got the first invitation to "come on in." Shepherds. These guys were considered the lowest of the low-lifes. They were unfit to even be allowed in God's temple. So of all the people God could invite to the first Christmas party, who does He ask to come? Shepherds.

It says so in Luke 2, beginning with verse 8, in our Christmas word for today from the Word of God. "There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them..." The angel made this startling announcement: "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." So Jesus begins His life on earth by welcoming in people that most would say are definitely "not His type."

Maybe that's how you feel; you're not the religious type. Maybe you, like the shepherds, have experienced your share of closed doors, rejection, condemnation, and plenty of loneliness. It could be you've done a lot of things, and made a lot of mistakes, just looking for love and acceptance. And you know you've done a lot of wrong things. But that's the very kind of people Jesus came for!

The people who miss Jesus and miss heaven are the people who think they've got it all together, who are very religious and very good and they think not really in need of a Savior who died on the cross for their sins. But just like He did for those shepherds, whether you were born in church or never been in church in your life, Jesus is throwing open the door to His family and to His heaven and He's saying, "Come on in. I died. I rose again so you and I can be together forever."

The greatest mistake you could ever make would be if you missed what Jesus died to give you. Can you think of a better time to throw open the door of your life to Jesus than Christmastime - the time He left heaven to come here to rescue you? He's waiting for you to reach out to Him and put your total trust in what He did for you on the cross - whatever you've done. This isn't about what you've done. It's about what He's done on the cross for you.

Right where you are, at this very special time, why don't you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours from this day on." Your life will never be the same. I would love to help you right now make that new beginning of making the Savior your Savior this Christmas season.

I just invite you to go to our website and there you can find for yourself how to be sure you've begun this relationship with Jesus. The website is ANewStory.com.

And as we celebrate the day Jesus was born, you can celebrate the day you get born into His family. Go to sleep tonight with Christ in your heart with His peace in your soul. From Him, and from our team here - Merry Christmas!

Visiting people who are in the hospital - I'm guessing that's not your favorite thing to do. A lot of times it's hard to know what to say to the person; especially if their condition is serious. But there are some visits where it's easy to think of things to say - like when you're visiting a new mom or a new baby. All you have to say is, "Aww, she's beautiful!" "Oh, he looks so smart; so alert" or "That's the cutest baby I've ever seen!" See, you're supposed to say these things even if the baby still looks all red and bald and wrinkled. But that first Christmas...well, one of the first people to see Mary's baby did not follow the usual script.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Strange Words For a Christmas Mom."

Following the Jewish custom, Mary and Joseph brought their baby boy to the temple to be circumcised, just eight days after that first Christmas. God had someone waiting for them there - an old man named Simeon who had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the One he called "the Lord's Christ." He actually held the baby in his arms and praised God for sending Him.

But then came those strange words for a new mom. In Simeon's words we find the shadow of great pain for Mary but great hope for you and me. In Luke 2:34-35, our word for today from the Word of God, "Simeon...said to Mary, His mother: 'This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel...the thoughts of many will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul, too.'" That's not exactly what a new mom wants to hear.

But eight days into Jesus' life on earth, Simeon is foreshadowing the end of Jesus' life. The Bible tells us that 33 years later "near the cross stood His mother" (John 19:25). And surely, as Mary saw her boy nailed to a cross and pierced by a soldier's spear, that sword Simeon spoke of must have pierced her soul.

So as we sing our "sleep in heavenly peace" and "joy to the world" carols, let's not miss the shadow looming over the manger. It's the shadow of a cross. But that cross was not some tragic twist of fate. It was the plan of a God who loves you so very much. It was His plan to give you and me a chance to go to heaven instead of hell; to enjoy the relationship with God we were made for but we've missed because we're running our own lives.

And if there had been any other way to erase your sin from God's book and pay for your sin, believe me, God would have done it. But all your goodness, and your religion, and your Christianity can't pay sin's death penalty. Someone had to die to pay for it, and Someone did - the Son of God.

The writer of the classic carol, "What Child Is This" expressed it powerfully: "Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross be borne for me, for you; hail, hail, the Word made flesh, the Babe, the son of Mary."

So you've had your Christmases, you've celebrated Jesus' coming. Have you ever had your Good Friday where you stand at the foot of that cross and say the two words that are the difference between heaven and hell, "For me, Jesus. And I'm giving me to You." That's the only way you can receive the gift of eternal life that He died to give you.

Have you known about Jesus all your life but maybe missed that step? If you've never done that, let this be your Jesus-day. You'll have a lot more to celebrate than just Jesus' coming to earth. This season you'll celebrate His coming into your life. If that's what you want, tell Him right now, "Jesus, I want to belong to You. I am taking for myself what You died for on the cross." What a new beginning this will be for you.

A lot of people have found help in beginning that relationship at our website. And I want to invite you to check it out this very day. It's ANewStory.com.

It wasn't just Mary's heart that was pierced on that awful day on Skull Hill. We can only imagine the anguish in God the Father's heart, watching His Son be broken for you. So you can be sure that God will never forget what you do with His Son.

One of the amusing sides of Christmas is people shopping in departments they never otherwise shop in - generally clueless. Let me give you an example that I can relate to - men shopping in the ladies clothing department. Oh, we're a mess. Now, if you need a good laugh; you're feeling a little down, you ought to go to the ladies garment department somewhere; especially the more personal the item is, the funnier it is to watch men shopping. They're slightly embarrassed, generally incompetent at what they're doing, and it's very important if you're going to go shopping for a woman during the Christmas season that you get the woman's size: your wife, your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, or whatever. And you trust that the tags are right, of course, on the size. You know that a small had better be a small, because you don't know anything. A large had better be a large. Now, you want to know how to sow some confusion and have some fun? (Don't anybody do this, please.) Imagine if someone snuck into that store late one night and just changed the tags around. Well, people would make a lot of wrong choices, all because the sizes were wrong. Now, that doesn't happen to clothes, but it does happen to people, and it takes the Christmas Story to straighten out small and large.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Christmas Rightsizes the World."

Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke 1:52-53. Mary is pregnant; she's carrying the baby Jesus, and we get a little idea of the insight God has given her as she prays this prayer, what is often called The Magnificat. She says, "God has brought down rulers from their thrones, but He has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but He has sent the rich away empty."

You know, Mary has the right sizes on the right people. She has the smalls on the small, and the bigs on the big. You see, the world would call these the big people - those people who are called rulers and rich. But she says, "the rulers have been brought down. The rich have been sent away empty." God's heroes - the people the world calls small. They're identified as the humble, who He lifts up, and the hungry, who He fills up.

You see, what is a big deal to men is a little deal to God - big deal like money, gifts, title, fame. That's a little deal to God. Conversely, what's a little deal to men: "You don't have much money. You don't have much influence. Not many people know you. You're average." See, that's a big deal to God. You hear people say all the time, "Well, I'm just a... I'm just a student. I'm just a mother. I'm just a secretary. I'm just a helper. I'm just a Sunday school teacher. I'm just a laborer. It's just a small church. It's just a little class. I'm just a choir member." With God, there are no "just a's," not in God's value system.

Bethlehem, we're told, was "little among the villages, but out of you (little village) will come the Prince," Mary, the peasant but the Mother of God's Son. Shepherds, the outcasts of their society, the first evangelists. I wonder if you have the two qualifications for God's heroes: humble, which means you are totally depending on the Lord, and hungry, restless to know and serve Him more. God likes to make folks like that big for Him - the humble and the hungry.

Remember to give attention to the people others ignore. They're the big people to God - children, the poor, the powerless. Oh, by the way, don't ever call yourself "just a..." again. God does His biggest things through the smallest instruments. Call big what God calls big. Make sure you've got the right size.