Open Your Gift

Preface
All you could hear was the wind howling and snow beating against the
windows. Dinner was being kept warm in the oven. Tom, a thirty-two-year-old
father of two, was late. At 8: 09, the doorbell rang. Tom’s wife, Anne, opened
the door. She collapsed when the police officer informed her there’d been an
accident. In his rolled over car, Tom was found unconscious. The EMS couldn’t
revive him. Tom was gone. Gone forever.
Anne barely made it to their bedroom, sobbing not being able to breathe.
However, shivering and cold, she reached for a sweater in the top of their closet.
An unopened present under the sweater, fell to the floor. It said “To Tom, Love
Dad.” Why hadn’t Tom ever opened it? Curious, Anne ripped open the box.
Inside was______. You fill in this blank.
What is the greatest gift you could ever receive? Take a minute right now, and
make a list of the greatest gifts someone could give you. Really think about it. It
can be anything and cost any amount of money. Write it down, fold it up, and
keep it. You’ll need it at the end of the book.
What if I told you that God has given YOU, the Greatest Gift Ever Given. And
it’s a free gift (Romans 5:15&18). It’s just sitting there, waiting for you to open it.
Have you opened it? Or is it unopened, and shoved to the back of your closet, like
Tom’s present? Don’t leave God’s Gift to you unopened. Tomorrow may be too
late. Open it today!



Chapter One

What is the greatest gift you could ever receive? That question will be
answered by the end of the book. But before we dive into this, we need to
take a look at the integrity of the
main source of this book, the Bible (God’s Holy Word). You may ask how did we
get the Bible. God tells us in 2 Peter 1: 20 & 21:
“knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private
interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy
men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (NKJV).
Did these men of God write what they wanted? No, they were “moved
by the Holy Spirit.” God is the Author of the Bible, with holy men of God
writing down what God told them to. That’s why the bible is called God’s Holy
Word!
You may though still ask, how accurate is the Bible? God defends His Word,
the Bible, in Hebrews 4:
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (verse 12, NKJV).
Further, we read what God thinks about His Word, the Bible, in Psalm 138:
“. . . For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” (verse 2, NKJV).
Wow! God Himself endorses the Bible!
If you still have doubt, here’s one more verse about the Bible. In Titus 1: 1&2,
“Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the
faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with
godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised
before time began,” (NKJV).
Men may lie to you, but God cannot lie…His Word, the Bible, is truth. Another
verse in Hebrews 6: 17 & 18 also states God cannot lie:
“Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise
the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two
immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have
strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set
before us.” (NKJV)
Now let’s dive into God’s Word, the Bible, and see what the LORD describes us
as? He describes us as His sheep of His
pasture in Psalms.
“For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.” (Psalm 95:7, NKJV)
“Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who has made us and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” (Psalm 100:3, NKJV)


The LORD is our Shepherd, who takes care of our every need ( Psalm 23, NKJV).
The LORD describes further in Isaiah how He is our shepherd.
“He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.”(Isaiah 40:11, NKJV).


However, in Habakkuk 1: 13, it says that the LORD is Holy:
“You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
And cannot look on wickedness…”(NKJV).
God cannot look on wickedness because He is Holy. Are we Holy by nature? Can we ever be good enough so the LORD can look on us someday in heaven? No, because we ALL have sinned and we are NOT holy. In Romans 3 it states: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”(verse 23, NKJV). And in Galatians 3:22: “But the Scripture has confined all under sin,…”(NKJV).
Just think how easy it is to sin. Have you ever told a lie, even a small one…so someone didn’t get hurt? Did you ever drive over the speed limit because you were late? Have you ever been mad at someone…about anything? What sins you ask? So you’ve lived the best life you could live….been good to your family…been good to your neighbors…but what about how God sees sin.