Christmas reading

It's the Christmas season, of course, and with that in mind, read the following passage from Philp Yancey's book "The Jesus I Never Knew."

Oh, and if you haven't read it, turn off your computer, grab your car keys and head out to the bookstore, buy a copy, and then read it. Right now.

OK?

OK.

On to the passage!

"Nine months of awkward explanations, the lingering scent of scandal -- it seems that God arranged the most humiliating circumstances possible for His entrance, as if to avoid any charge of favoritism. I am impressed that when the Son of God became a human being, He played by the rules, harsh rules: small towns do not treat kindly young boys who grow up with questionable paternity.

Malcom Muggeridge observed that in our day, with family-planning clinics offering convenient ways to correct 'mistakes' that might disgrace a family name, 'It is, in point of fact, extremely improbable, under existing conditions, that Jesus would have been permitted to be born at all. Mary's pregnancy, in poor circumstances, and with the father unknown, would have been an obvious case for an abortion; and her talk of having conceived as a result of the intervention of the Holy Ghost would have pointed to the need for psychiatric treatment, and made the case for terminating her pregnancy even stronger. Thus our generation, needing a Savior more, perhaps, than any that has ever existed, would be too humane to allow one to be born.'

The virgin Mary, though, whose parenthood was unplanned, had a different response. She heard the angel out, pondered the repurcussions, and replied, 'I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said.' Often a work of God comes with two edges, great joy and great pain, and in that matter-of-fact response Mary embraced both. She was the first person to accept Jesus on His own terms, regardless of the personal cost." (emphasis mine)

So, do you want to accept Jesus on His terms? Are you ready to abandon your right to yourself and live wholly -- and holy -- in His grace? Check this link out.