December 1, 2007

Dear Friend,

“Someone was thinking of me!” my mother-in-law said.

Indeed, someone had been thinking of her. In preparation for her week-long visit to our home, someone had carefully cut out several crossword puzzles from the daily newspaper. My mother-in-law loves to stay mentally sharp by completing a crossword every day, and when she walked into the house, she was delighted to see several puzzles ready for her to solve.

It is nice to know that someone has been thinking of you, especially when “thinking of you” includes a carefully-chosen gift, even a gift as small as a daily crossword puzzle.

The true meaning of Christmas is that someone is thinking of you—not just anyone, but God himself.

Long before the first Christmas, God was thinking of you. He was thinking about your lost and fallen condition. He was thinking about your complete inability to save yourself from your sins. And he was thinking about the deadly wages of your sin, which would separate you from God forever.

God was thinking about all of that, and also about what he could do to help. He was thinking about sending just the Savior you need to rescue you from sin and give you eternal life.

When the time was right, He sent His own Son to be your Savior, and with His Son He sent all the other gifts of salvation. So as you read the Gospel story—from the manger to the cross and the empty tomb—you are able say, “Someone was thinking of me!”

In fact, someone is thinking of you, because God is still thinking of you right now, as the thoughts of His loving heart turn toward you. God is thinking about all of the ways that He still wants to bless you.

The same God who is always thinking of us also calls us to think of others. And when we do think about them, our first thought should be their great need for the Gospel. They need the same gift that we have received: the infinitely thoughtful gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is always thinking about other people and how we can give them the Word of God. Through broadcasting, events, and publishing we are sharing the gift of Jesus Christ with thousands of people every day. 

In order to do the Gospel work to which God has called us, we need you to think of our listeners. We need you to pray that God will bless our ministry to them. And we need you to support that ministry through financial giving.

Your year-end gift will enable us to continue telling people that God was thinking of them when He sent His Son into the world at the first Christmas.

Then, when they hear the Gospel and believe in Jesus Christ, they will be able to say, “Someone was thinking of me!”
 
In Christ’s service,

Philip Ryken,
Bible Teacher, Every Last Word