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certain man, so the story told by Paul Harvey goes, was by no means a Scrooge. In fact, he was just the opposite. He was generous, responsible, kind and caring. But he couldn\'t believe the account the churches told about Christmas—the bit about Jesus being God-man who came to earth to save people from their sins. To him, Jesus was undoubtedly a great religious leader, but as for the rest of the story, he just couldn\'t buy that. It didn\'t make sense to him and he was too honest to deny it.

\"I don\'t want to disappoint you,\" he said to his wife, \"but I just can\'t go to church with you this Christmas. I would feel too much like a hypocrite.\"

It was a bleak, heavily overcast night when the rest of the family went to church to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. After they left it began to rain lightly. Soon the sky blackened even more. The drizzle changed to a downpour. Lightning crackled. Thunder roared. The man watched from the kitchen window for awhile, but returned to his favorite seat in the family room to relax for the evening and read.

Later, he heard a strange noise that seemed to come from his living room. It sounded like the dull thud of snow balls against the window. He heard it again and again. When he went outside to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled against his house. Apparently, they had been lost in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, flew into the large landscape window. They were attracted by the light which they could see clearly.

The editor totally missed the
news scoop of the century.

He couldn\'t let the birds lie there in the storm, so what could he do? He couldn\'t allow them into his house, so he went to his large barn, opened the door wide and turned on the lights, hoping to attract the birds into the barn until the storm passed. But the birds didn\'t understand. He turned out the lights in his house, but they still didn\'t budge. He tried to shoo them into the lighted barn, but to no avail. They just became confused and frightened and scattered in every direction.

He pondered: \"To them, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me, that I\'m not trying to hurt but help them. But how?

\"If only I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to safety. But I would have to be one of them so they could see and hear and understand.\"

Just then he heard the church bells ring and toll out the good news of Jesus’ birth. Suddenly, the Christmas story made sense to him. Now he could understand why God sent his Son to earth as a man—to identify with mankind and show them the way to safety; that is, to God and eternal life.

Because people evaluate most things on the basis of past experiences, it can be difficult to accept anything not previously seen or experienced.

For example, Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first to fly a heavier-than-air craft. They did something that no man had ever done before. The two were so excited they sent a telegram to their sister Katherine which read: \"We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas.\"

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Katherine rushed to the city newspaper office and thrust the cable into the hand of the editor. He read it, smiled and said, \"Well, well! How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas!\" The editor totally missed what could have been, for him, the news scoop of the century.

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And what about Wilbur and Orville\'s minister father—a man who believed in God? Did he have faith in his own sons? Hardly. He was convinced that their desire to fly was heresy!

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Strange creatures we are!

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And what about the religious people who lived in Christ\'s day? Having heard Christ\'s teaching and seen his miracles first hand, did they believe in him? No. One of the tragic ironies was that the very people who believed in God and knew from the Bible that God was going to send a Messiah (Christ the Savior), and were looking expectantly for his coming, didn\'t recognize him when he came. In fact, they rejected him and had him crucified!

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They didn\'t accept Christ because he didn\'t fit into their past experiences and, consequently, their expectations. The Jews expected that Christ would come as a mighty king and overthrow the oppressive Romans and set the people free. Furthermore, in the opinion of the religious people, Christ didn\'t mix with the \"right\" people and, to make matters worse, he blasted the phoniness of contemporary religiosity.

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Thus, most of the religious people of Christ\'s day missed the greatest opportunity anybody could have ever had. They met the Son of God in person and didn\'t know it. They could have received forgiveness for all their sins and been given the gift of eternal life. But because there was nothing in their past experiences with which to associate Christ or his teachings, they refused to believe in and accept him.

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To know and not to do
is not yet to know.

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Many people today believe that Jesus was a great religious leader. But as for their committing their life to him, that doesn\'t gel with any previous experience, so they don\'t believe enough to act on his teachings.

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A wise man once said, \"To know and not to do is not yet to know.\" In other words, to believe and not to act is not yet to believe, for we only truly believe that which motivates us to action.

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The proof of our belief in Christ is in what we do about him. Can you accept that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to earth to identify with mankind and die for your sins? If you haven’t done so before, you can act on this belief by praying and asking Christ to forgive your sins, to come into your heart and life as personal Lord and Savior, and by making a commitment of your life to serve and follow him. You can do this anytime. In so doing, you will receive God\'s forgiveness and the gift of eternal life.

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Don\'t miss this—the greatest gift anyone could ever receive. Accept it today. For a prayer to help you accept God\'s forgiveness click on the \"God\'s Invitation\" button link below.

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