The Difference Jesus Makes

Have you ever stopped to consider how different the world might be if Jesus had never been born? Although some unbelievers consider Christianity and Jesus Christ to be a menace to society that should be removed as soon as possible, they do not realize how much Jesus improved the fate of humanity with his life and teachings. Humans still treat other people harshly, but when they do, they do it outside the scope of what Jesus taught and expects.
 
James Allen Francis said this about Jesus: “He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a  family or owned a home. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself.
 
“He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his garments, the only   property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race.
 
“All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that have ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life.”
 
Jesus makes a difference. He values each person’s life, and he expects us to value life as well. He taught us that people in need are worth helping, and he expects us to do that. Jesus upheld the value of marriage and family, and his followers are to do the same. And Jesus transforms our lives by his grace. Christmas is a time to celebrate God’s grace in our lives. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
 
Working together to win together at Christmastime,
Tyler

---