Last Monday, in "When Grace Came Down, Part 1", I asked the question of why anyone would want to hunt down a kill an innocent baby. I received some interesting thoughts from a few of you and I thank you for your meditation on this subject.

Let's remember that when Adam and Eve chose to follow the evil one, they lost their freedom. They lost their direct communication with God. Suddenly they had to work hard, and very soon crime entered the once perfect world. Adam and Eve didn't know what to do. They missed being with our Heavenly Father, and now the evil one caused them to need to work hard and crime started to grow quickly.

Adam and Eve didn't know what to do. They missed being in direct communication with our Heavenly Father, and there was no one who was completely dedicated to god. Not even a small child!

At least the children born to Adam and Eve were not already under attack before they were born...That was reserved for Jesus!

The evil one enjoyed being in charge of the planet and reeking his havoc. He caused Adam and Eve's offspring to follow in his steps of murder, hate and worse. He knew that when Jesus came, his dominion over the planet would end: "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." (1 John 3:8 NIV). Is it any wonder why the evil one pursued Jesus, even at His birth?

For Jesus, that first Christmas was not a time for receiving presents. Rather, He was in danger: "When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,' he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.'" (Matt. 2:13 NIV). Jesus had to flee for His life! His Heavenly Father had to protect him from the evil one who wanted to get rid of Him!

Unfortunately the devil has sown his seeds of hatred throughout all of humanity, and even though the Bible teaches that he was defeated at the cross ("Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." Col. 2:15 NIV), we still see him working through all of us, ever trying to stop even one person from finding freedom in Jesus Christ.

I once had a high school co-op student in my classroom. She was a Christian, but she firmly believed that Jesus didn't belong in the classroom of a public school. One day a student came to me very upset. In order to know how to best broach the situation, I needed to know if this girl was a Christian, and I asked her. My co-op student got very upset and began to yell at me--her supervisor--telling me that I had no right to ask this troubled student if she was a Christian. When I didn't back down, she insisted on bringing this to the attention of the principal of my school, who was not a Christian. The principal told the co-op student very firmly that I had not violated any school law in asking the troubled student if she was a Christian. The co-op student then got upset at the principal for not backing her up. In the end, I had to contact her guidance counselor at the high school, who, incidentally, also agreed that I had done nothing wrong, and she was disciplined for her actions.

This co-op student is just an example of how the devil works through us on a daily basis to try and kill any mention of Jesus Christ. It wasn't enough that he tried to have baby Jesus killed. He wants to ensure that no one will accept Jesus' gift of Salvation. And it seems that he is succeeding, for even today, there are many who do not believe they need a Saviour. After all, they can take care of themselves!

Will we continue to be used by the evil one to sew seeds of discord, to discourage people from learning about Jesus? When we do, we are no better than King Herod in ancient Jerusalem who did everything in his power to kill baby Jesus. Let's stop allow the devil's bad seed to be sown through us. Instead, during this season where we celebrate the birth of Jesus, let's agree to reach out and help people to find Jesus.

May we always help those who need help. We truly are here for them!

Join us on Friday for an important lesson on making room for Jesus in our lives, in When Grace Came Down, Part 3".

In His Love,
Rob Chaffart