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Articles by Betty Hassler

A Son Is Born

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Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:11, NIV

December 21, 2012, is the end of the world. Or so the Mayan civilization thought! But, then, my son Scott believes the same thing. He turns 40 on December 20.

Scott quipped, “Mom, I hate to take down the whole world with me, but everyone knows life ends at 40!”

When friends discover our first child was a Christmas present, they usually offer their condolences: “Poor child. He’s never had a “normal birthday.” But his mother is very glad her son was born at Christmas time.

I’ll have to admit I got a little carried away in those preceding months comparing and contrasting myself with Mary, Jesus’ mother. At least I had a “known” husband and father. I didn’t have to endure scoffing and bewilderment at my pregnancy.

My trip to the hospital was nothing like Mary’s trip to Bethlehem. I’ve often said the greatest miracle in the Bible was Mary riding that donkey (or walking) in her ninth month of pregnancy! And my delivery was pristine clean, unlike a birth in a cow’s stall (not to mention medication that made the birth less painful).

But, like Mary, I experienced the miracle of carrying a child in my womb, wondering about God’s plans for this baby. I delivered a child with ten fingers and toes, whose tiny face I could not get my fill of seeing. I was captivated with him in a way I had never felt before.

And like Mary, those first few hours and days were tough. Had all gone well, I would have taken my baby home decked out in a red Christmas stocking made by the hospital auxiliary. Instead, Scott spent his first week in a nursery ICU. He was a couple of weeks premature and had some breathing issues and jaundice. By the time we took him home, the stockings were gone. It was December 27.

Christmas Day, 1972, dawned cold and gray. Tears flowed as I thought of our little Christmas present wrapped in a hospital gown.

Forty years later (where did the time go?), Scott remains a Christmas gift from God, a constant reminder of God’s grace in our lives. Having a baby at Christmas is special. Each of Scott’s birthdays has been an opportunity to make real the story of another child’s birthday—the birthday of a King.

Do you want to know what God is like? Just look at His Son: giver of grace and truth, sacrificial love, and eternal life.

Blessings for your Christmas season,

Betty

The Greatest Mystery Ever: What the Cross Tells Us About the Future

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I love a good mystery. My favorite mystery writer is Mary Higgins Clark, and I’ve managed to collect all but a few of her entire works. But the greatest mystery ever told is why God chose to redeem mankind through Christ’s death on the cross. This week we’ll explore the mystery of the cross—foolishness to the unsaved but the power of God to those who claim Him as Lord and Savior (I Cor. 1:18).

 

What the Cross Tells Us About the Future

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 

1 Corinthians 15:19

IMG_3400We began the week thinking about the mystery of the cross. If you can explain how the death of one man on one day in history paid the penalty for sin for all mankind for all time, then perhaps you are the world’s greatest sleuth. My compliments!

I’m guessing, however, you’re as mystified as the rest of us. And speaking of trusting God, it is, after all, by faith that we are saved (Rom. 3:28). And even our faith is a gift of God!

We also began the week by asserting that your decision about the cross is the most important one you’ll ever make. Just as Christ promised that He was going to prepare a place for us in His eternal home, He also promised that unbelievers are cursed and will be sent “into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). This is the bad news that precedes the good news.

If you haven’t made the decision to accept Christ’s saving grace as payment for your sin, check out the ZMI Family Ministries Website and read “How to Have Peace with God.” zmiinternational.org

If you have made this decision, I hope to meet you in heaven. I know it’ll be crowded, full of people from every nation and tribe, no matter how long the earth remains. But I’ll find you. Your place has been reserved for you (Jn. 14:1-3). The Book of Revelation describes heaven as a place of no death, mourning, crying, or pain. Everything will be made new (Rev. 21:4-5). What a future awaits us!

If you want to know more about what will happen when Christ returns for us, read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:3. After these verses Paul went on to warn us not to be unprepared for that day. “Let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet …Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thess. 5:8-11).

I hope you’ve found this week’s Doses encouraging. If so, share them on your Facebook page or with a friend who might need a little assurance right now. Until I see you in heaven,

Preparing for the great day of the Lord,

Betty

The Greatest Mystery Ever: What the Cross Tells Us about Us

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I love a good mystery. My favorite mystery writer is Mary Higgins Clark, and I’ve managed to collect all but a few of her entire works. But the greatest mystery ever told is why God chose to redeem mankind through Christ’s death on the cross. This week we’ll explore the mystery of the cross—foolishness to the unsaved but the power of God to those who claim Him as Lord and Savior (I Cor. 1:18).

 

What the Cross Tells Us about Us

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 

Ephesians 5:1-2

IMG_3402When we think of the cross, we can easily get mired in the view of ourselves as sinners, unworthy of God’s love or Christ’s sacrifice. After all, Christ died to save us from our sins. The New Testament is pretty graphic in its portrayal of us before we became Christians: impure, idolaters, jealous, selfish, angry, liars, and so on.

Paul says any of us might give our lives for a good person, but no one would willingly sacrifice himself for an enemy. But Christ died for us while we were sinners! (See Romans 5:6-8.) But that’s not the last word on the subject. Good news! God must think of us as VERY worthy to have gone to so much trouble to save us. In fact, He must think we are the pinnacles of His created order—the cat’s p.j.’s you might say!

If the cross proves our value to God, our response must be one of thankfulness. In a familiar story from Christ’s life, a woman with a bad reputation bathes Jesus’ feet with perfume. When the other banquet guests scorn her actions, Jesus replies, “Well, guys, those who have been forgiven little, love little. She must love me a lot!” (See Luke 7:36-50 for the full account.)

Do you love much? Our gratitude quotient says a lot about whether we feel a need to praise and honor Jesus for His sacrificial death and saving grace. If you’re glad you will spend eternity in heaven instead of hell, perhaps a little kingdom service might be in your future, as well. In fact, we are saved in order to do good. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10).

Salvation is past (when you accepted Christ), present (as you continue in Him), and future (when we all get to heaven, hallelujah!). Meanwhile, we are to shine like stars in the universe (Phil. 2:15) as we point others to the light of life (Matt. 5:14).

Are you shining? If not, try an attitude of gratitude. Focus on God’s love, Christ’s offering of His body and blood, the significance of the cross, and your future in glory. That ought to cast a blinding light on the next person who comes your way.

Living in the light,

Betty