Our Daily Bread                              November 27, 1994
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Read: Micah 5:1-5



                            "What If?"

                        When the fullness of
                         the time had come,
                         God sent forth His
                        son, born of a woman,
                         born under the law.

                         - Galatians 4:4

Several years ago a group of historians authored a book called "If - Or
History Rewritten." Some of the "ifs" those scholars considered were
these: What if Robert E. Lee had not lost the battle of Gettysburg? What
if the Moors in Spain had won? What if the Dutch had kept New Amsterdam?
What if Booth had missed when he shot at Abraham Lincoln? What if
Napoleon had escaped to America?

The attempt to reconstruct the past on the basis of these "ifs" was only
a historian's game. But apply it for a moment to the central event in
history - the birth of Jesus Christ. It was foretold with pinpoint
accuracy hundreds of years before by the prophet Micah. The greatest
"if", therefore - the most startling question to the imagination - is,
"What if Jesus had not been born as predicted?"

Such an "if" staggers the mind. It is like imagining the earth without a
sunrise or the heavens without a sky. Yet this "if" must be taken
seriously, especially at Christmas, because our world is oblivious to
the true meaning of Christ's coming.

On the first Sunday of Advent, try to think of the world without Christ.
What would history have been without Him? And at a personal level, what
would your life be without Him? Thank God that there are no "ifs" in
history.

- Haddon W. Robinson

              If Christ had never left His throne
                   To enter time and space,
              We'd have no hope beyond the grave,
                  No knowledge of His grace.

                           - Sper

  The Bible in One Year:  2 Corinthians 4-6

  Quote for the Day:  A world without Christ would be
  a world without hope.



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