“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news.” Luke 2:10
C. H. Spurgeon told a story that comes from the north of England in the nineteenth century.
A pastor went one day to visit a poor woman from his congregation in order to take some money from a fund that the church maintained for helping people in need. The pastor stood at her door with the money in his hand and knocked, but there was no answer. He knocked again. No answer. The pastor assumed that the woman was not home, so he left.
The following Sunday, the pastor saw this lady at church. He told her that he had come by her house with a gift, but that there was no one home. “When did you call?” asked the lady. “It was about noon,” he said. The woman looked embarrassed. “I was at home,” she said, “and I heard you knock, but I did not answer because I thought it was the man calling for the rent.”
There are many people who will not respond to Jesus Christ because they are convinced he is calling for the rent. Their whole idea of Christianity is that they will be told what they need to do, what they need to be. They feel that Christ is going to lay on them a whole list of demands. So when Christ knocks at the door of their heart, they do not respond.
Christ comes, not to demand the rent, but to pay the bill. He comes as the Savior. Christ did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that through him, the world might be saved. That is good news!
Have you closed your heart to Christ out of fear of what he might demand?
