Some of the greatest revelations I’ve had came to me while I was routinely doing my duty: mowing the lawn, cleaning my car, pumping gas, not while I was praying or preaching. That’s the way it was with the shepherds on the night Jesus Christ was born. The Bible tells us that they were “abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8). There are not many more boring jobs than watching sheep sleep at night.

They were faithfully doing their everyday job when suddenly their duty was turned to excitement. The angel of the Lord appeared and told them the Savior of the world had been born and where they could find Him. The shepherds had an experience they talked about the rest of their lives. But it all took place when they were faithfully doing their routine job.

“A faithful man shall abound with blessings” (Proverbs 28:20).

Last week Anita and I had our grandchildren over for the night. 8-month old Gideon got sick and we had to call his parents, but we had a delightful time with almost-6 year old Raegan and her sister, Ruby. At bedtime we read them a couple of bedtime stories and prayed with them. 4.5 year old Ruby was laying on an air mattress on the floor, with her grandma by her side. I first kissed Raegan good-night, then got down to kiss Ruby good-night. While I was down there I also kissed Anita good-night (a good model for the girls to see). Now, Anita was a little more welcoming with her kiss, so we prolonged it a bit. That was all Ruby could stand. She proclaimed with disgust, “Yuckk!”

“Yuckk!” was the reaction I used to have toward all those people who seemed to be a little bit radical with their faith. I was a bit perturbed by their zealous behavior, their praying in public and always shaming others by their holier-than-thou appearance. And then I had an encounter with God that changed my life. I was now in love with God myself. And I didn’t think it was Yuckky anymore once I had tasted and seen that the Lord is good, after all.

I read about a ship that crossed the international dateline on Christmas Eve. At one minute past midnight they suddenly gained 24 hours. They skipped December 25 – Christmas Day – completely, and it suddenly became the morning of the 26th. I read that all the passengers and crew on board felt sad because they had missed Christmas.

There is more than one way to miss Christmas. You can miss it by being too pre-occupied with preparations of food, decorations, and gift buying. You can miss the joy of Christmas by fretting over those bills that will become due next month, or fearing that people won’t think our gift is good enough. And you can miss Christmas by being choked by bad memories of Christmases past. Sometimes we can miss Christmas because we’re like the Innkeeper and have made no room in our hearts of Jesus.

You’ll never miss Christmas if you make room for Jesus in your heart. It will be a Merry Christmas every year.

What scares you most? What ISIS might do here in America? That there won’t be enough money for retirement? That your loved one won’t stay interested in you? That your place of employment won’t be there next year? That the next President won’t be who you want? There is plenty to scare us in this world.

In the Christmas story, four times the angel Gabriel appeared and said, “Fear not” (Luke 1:13, 1:30, 2:9-10, and Matthew 1:20). This was because “They were sore afraid“. Angels must be really scary. Seeing a real angel must be like seeing a UFO. Its pretty clear they don’t look like little naked cupids. And I’ll bet they don’t look feminine. They sound pretty macho and scary to me.

Through the angels God is saying to us over and over, ‘You don’t have to be afraid of Me. I love you.’ We should fear the Lord out of reverence for who He is, and what He can do, But He doesn’t want us to be terrified of Him or afraid to ask for His help when we need it.

This Christmas God is inviting us to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

One sunny spring day, four high school boys couldn’t resist the temptation to skip classes. The next morning they explained to a teacher that they had missed her class because their car had a flat tire. To their relief, she smiled and said, “Well, you missed a quiz yesterday, so take your seats and get out a pencil and paper.” She waited as they sat down and got ready for the quiz. Then she said, “First question: Which tire was flat?”

We can deceive others and get away with it for awhile. But you can never get away with lying to God. In Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira thought they were lying to Peter and the other believers. But the apostle said to Ananias, “You have not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:4).

Truth is crucial with God. When we lie, we offend Him. And sooner or later He will uncover every falsehood – if not in this life, then at the judgment.

Someone once said: To avoid lying, do nothing that needs to be covered up.

Evangelist Oral Roberts went to Formosa (now Taiwan) to hold a healing crusade while Chiang Kai-shek was in power. Every night armed soldiers lined the inside of the auditorium. Oral preached and prayed for the sick, but there were few results.

Then one night a woman with a large goiter came to be prayed for. Oral prayed for her and instantly the goiter disappeared. Suddenly, the soldiers around the building grabbed their rifles and rushed the platform. He thought, “Well, this is it. They’re going to send me home in a pine box.”

The soldiers jumped on the platform and examined the loose flesh of the woman’s neck. Then they turned to Oral and through an interpreter said, “Brother Roberts, pray for us.”

A miracle had settled the issue. It had cut across the cultural barriers and touched the hearts of the people. It opened their hearts to God’s healing power and it also opened their hearts to God’s saving power which is the greatest miracle of all. Perhaps God wants to open the hearts of your friends by working a miracle. Will you give God a chance to do that?