As I look at our world today, I see so many people who are afraid – they’re worried about the future, fearful about the present, and ashamed about the past. These fears act like emotional drags upon their spirit that keep them from becoming all that God has called them to be.

Howard Hendricks, the noted Bible scholar and now retired professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, once said, “The greatest threat to Christianity is not Communism or atheism. It is Christians trying to get into heaven incognito without being involved in sharing their faith with others or serving the Lord with their whole hearts.”

I heard about a little boy who was in Sunday school one day, and he was working away on a piece of paper – just drawing and coloring. So the teacher noticed how diligently he was working on this particular project, and she asked him, “Son, what are you doing?”

Not long ago, I was looking at all the books I’ve accumulated over time. I realized that as great as many of them are, only one has life. Oh yes, they have truth in them; but there is no life in those books.

The great English preacher Francis Dixon asked a young man in his church named Noelle to give his testimony at a revival. So Noelle stood up and gave this testimony:

Perhaps one of the most well-known stories in the Bible is that of Noah and the ark he built. God told Noah that He was going to send judgment upon the earth in the form of a flood. But because Noah and his family were righteous, God told Noah He would save them and gave him plans to build a boat.

I once heard a story about an auction they were having in hell. God said, “Satan, you need to reduce your arsenal.” So they were auctioning off some of the weapons of the enemy. And the one auctioned off at the highest price was the tool of discouragement because it is such a powerful weapon against us.

God wants to live in your heart and transform your life. You see, when you become a believer in Jesus Christ, a wonderful thing happens. The very Spirit of God enters your life and lives within you! And when the Holy Spirit lives within, you’re never the same.

For many years of my life, I was a late-riser. I never liked getting up early if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. In fact, the idea of waking up before the sun rose was almost nauseating to me.

It doesn’t take much looking today to see that the world is in darkness–intellectual darkness, political darkness, and moral darkness. But because Christ has come into the world, we who have lived in the darkness have seen a great Light. On the night when Christ was born, that star punctured the blackened sky and signaled the coming of the Savior. And now God is with us.