Two and a half feet of snow had just left a million people without power, and we were there! Wouldn't you know, I had picked my time to be up there in New England when that happened. Well, we checked into the motel before the storm, but now as I stood at the front desk, that phone was ringing incessantly. I kind of felt bad, because the lady gave the same answer every time, "Sorry, no room." Hey, those are tough words to hear.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Christmas Knock at Your Door."

Well, you know, Jesus knows that feeling. And as we celebrate this Christmas Day, let's remember that the night He came, the innkeeper told His dad "No room," and shut the door. Of course it wasn't the last time Jesus got shut out. You know, a lot of us are so busy and running around in our own life, so stressed, we're basically saying, "Jesus, I like you, but I really don't have any room for you."

That happened to Jesus even when He came here. In Matthew 23:37 Jesus said, "I have longed to gather you together, but you were not willing." And that tragedy continues today as Jesus tries to get into a life that He came for that first Christmas; that He died for on Good Friday - maybe yours. He paid such a high price for you. He loves you so much He doesn't want to lose you. He died to pay for the sin that would cause you to be shut out of Heaven.

Actually there is in Luke 13 a disturbing picture of what happens to people because they would not open the door to the only One who could bring them to heaven. It says this: "Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' Then you'll say, 'Well, we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'" These are people who hung out with Jesus; they knew a lot about Jesus. But He will reply, "I don't know you or where you come from. Away from Me! There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," and maybe a mom or a dad, or people you love that went ahead to heaven because they asked Jesus to be their Savior. But it ends by saying, "but you yourselves thrown out."

You don't want to be, and it's not what Jesus wants for anybody. That's why He paid the price for you to be in heaven with Him. You could get that done this day, this, this Christmas He's reaching out to you with this word for today from the Word of God, John 1:12 - "To all those who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God." That could happen for you this Christmas Day. If you open the door to the man who died for you, you can be sure He'll open the door of heaven to you.

If you're ready to belong to Jesus, here's what would help. Go to our website, and take just a very short time to find out exactly how to be sure you belong to the Christ of Christmas. That website is ANewStory.com.

Right where you are right now you can say, "Jesus, from this day on I am yours. I put all my trust in You." Because this Christmas, no room for Jesus means no chance of heaven. This can be your first Christmas with Christ in your heart. Merry Christmas!

There's something really special about having a new baby in the family at Christmastime isn't there, since it's really all about a baby. I remember, you know, for example celebrating with a brand new granddaughter. Well, she didn't do much celebrating that Christmas. She really didn't do much of anything except lie there and look irresistible. Now, in my head, I know that babies are helpless, but being around one for a little while really brings that home. Our little darlin' couldn't eat unless Mommy fed her; she couldn't burp unless someone burped her (that's something that some of us grew up and learned to be quite good at); our baby couldn't move unless someone moved her; her little hands sort of flailed around - absolutely no ability to control what they did. Helpless.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Radical Christmas Victory Plan."

Now try to get your mind around this: the helpless hands of that little Jewish baby Mary was holding in the manger were the hands that created billions of galaxies! The Son of God, the second person of the Godhead, the One of whom the Bible says, "Through Him all things were made" (John 1:3). He comes to our planet in this helpless little package that basically can do nothing for himself. Omnipotence becomes helpless to rescue a world full of dying people. As one song says, "What a strange way to save the world."

Get used to it. It seems to be God's favorite modus operandi. And this radical victory plan - use the weak to do amazing things - can be both an encouragement to you and an explanation for some of your recent struggles. Let's go to our word for today from the Word of God to see the story of that first Christmas from heaven's viewpoint. Philippians 2, beginning with verse 5, tells us that our attitude "should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."

God goes on to explain that, though Jesus was "in very nature God," He "made Himself nothing (now picture that helpless, little infant in a cattle stall), taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness...He humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!"

The great plan of God to redeem our world starts with Jesus as a helpless baby in a cattle stall and culminates with Him nailed to a criminal's cross. But Colossians 2:15 announces the crushing triumph won by that "weakness." It says Jesus disarmed the princes of hell and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross!" As musician Michael Card says, "His most awesome work was done through the frailty of His Son!"

God loves to win through weakness. Then it's a whole lot of God, and hardly any of us. That's why He chooses unlikely candidates and does mighty things through them - which means your inadequacy, your ordinariness may be exactly the qualities that can make you a spiritual hero. According to Jesus, who is it that will "inherit the earth"? The mighty? No - the meek (Matthew 5:3).

And about the struggles you've been going through recently. God will do whatever it takes to help us realize our weakness - to break our death grip on the steering wheel of our life and finally let Him drive - to break that stubborn pride of ours, the self-reliance, our need to control.

The events and the news of things in our lives that have gone on for the last few years, if anything, have ripped from our hands any ability to control what's going on, the illusion of control. And all so we can finally surrender and let His strength come flooding in. Maybe the battles you've been going through have been to take you beyond yourself and beyond things you can fix, you can solve, you can figure out - so you'll get out of the way and let God do what only He can do.

A baby wrapped in rags - a bloodied man, hanging on a cross. Vivid pictures of God's radical plan for victory - winning through weakness so everyone will know that the Lord is God!

We took one of our granddaughters to the Christmas Festival at a theme park when she was two. And she loved it! There were lights everywhere, exciting music performances and a great Christmas parade. But there was one thing that impressed her so much, and she talked about it all year long - the Living Nativity. We got to see a portrayal of the angels' appearance to the shepherds, the visit of the Wise Men, and best of all, Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus in the Manger. From that night on through the year, when we would mention that theme park, the first thing she associated with it was "Jesus" no matter what time of year it was.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Christmas - The Search is Over."

Our granddaughter thought that Jesus should be all year round. She's right. Some of us think about Jesus mostly on His holidays, like Christmas and Easter. A lot of us think of Him mainly on Sunday at church. But He didn't come to be our holiday Jesus or our church Jesus. He came here to make possible a personal love relationship with Him that gives meaning to every day of our lives; not just to be a belief or a religious compartment in our lives.

The event Jesus, the holiday Jesus, the religious Jesus; they're just not enough to forgive your sin, to answer your questions about the meaning of your life, or to get you to heaven someday. You've got to belong to Him every day, not just visit Him occasionally. He told those who belong to Him: "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). And a "never leave you" relationship is the kind of anchor that our soul is looking for. Every other relationship in our life has one thing in common: it's "loseable."

People turn on us, they dump us, they disappoint us, they divorce us, and no matter how deep the relationship, they ultimately die on us. That's why we can never really feel safe in this world, until we anchor ourselves to the Savior who said, "He who comes to me I will never cast out." (John 6:37 ) In Matthew 28:20, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus made the ironclad promise that He alone has the power to keep, "Surely I am with you always."

Now, in a world of things and experiences that are never-lasting, Jesus offers the only thing that is ever-lasting. John 3:36 tells us that "whoever believes in the Son (that's Jesus, the Son of God) has eternal life." See, you don't have to die to see if you have eternal life. You have it as soon as you put your trust in Jesus. The verse then gives the alternative: "Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on Him."

We had no chance with God until Jesus came that first Christmas. Until He gave His life on the cross to take the rap for every wrong thing we have ever done. We can't get anywhere near a holy God with our sin. But Jesus allowed God to dump all our sin on Him that day on the cross, so you could be clean, so you could be forgiven, so you could be with Him forever.

This Christmas season provides a wonderful time to make the Savior your Savior. He's not just for Christmas, but this Christmas season is a tremendous time to finally experience His love for yourself.

Look, if you're ready to make that move, you've already done life without Him and you don't want to do it any more, then I invite you to visit our website. It will help you know if you belong to Him and how you can. It's ANewStory.com. There's a brief explanation of how you know you have a relationship with Him. And you can tell Him right now, "Jesus I'm Yours."

And today, move beyond a religion about Jesus - to this love relationship with Jesus. Move from just believing things about Jesus - to really belonging to Jesus.