The Christmas Story

Merry Christmas!J...

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Pieces of Christmas #12: Welcome to Our World

This is another Christmas song that is making it's way to my "favorites" list.  It is not a Christmas carol or a Christmas hymn. It is more like a Christmas prayer...a conversation with our Savior.2000 years ago, there wasn't much fanfare at the birth of Jesus.  Oh, to be sure, there were angels that made a proclamation to shepherds and later there were wise men that travelled a great distance to bring gifts, but there was also the evil king that wanted this young child killed and was willing to kill all of the young boys in the area...

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Pieces of Christmas #11: The Power of Christmas (part 2)

If you didn't read yesterday's post and watch the associated video, you need to do that now. Click here.This is a song that tells the story.JohnYouTube l...

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Pieces of Christmas #10: The Power of Christmas

This is one of my favorite Christmas stories.  It is not a story about the Christ of Christmas.  It is a story about the Power of Christmas and of the Peace of Christmas.The King James Bible translates Luke 2:14 to read: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men."Later scholars have believed that this is better translated to mean: "...peace on earth towards men of good will." or "...and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests." NIVOften times men of good will find themselves at odds with each other...

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Pieces of Christmas #9: Mary, Did You Know?

It must have been very unusual for the young girl that was the mother of Jesus.  On the one hand, this was a baby like any other baby.  On the other, there has never been another baby anything like Him. Everything about her pregnancy, from the angelic announcement to the immaculate conception, was unusual.  The timing of the birth was inconvenient. The angelic proclamation to the lowly shepherds was unheard of. This birth was different.  This Child was different.This is the Savior! He is the Messiah.  He is the Christ--the...

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Keep Looking Up

I hope that God blesses you with clear skies tonight.It isn't too often that we get to see a total eclipse of the moon.  At just after midnight tonight (CST) in the first minutes of the 21st, the shadow of the Earth will begin to pass over the moon.  I have always found the night sky to be full of extraordinary events that point to the evidence of an Intelligent Designer...that point to a Creator...to God.When I consider your heavens,  the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what...

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Pieces of Christmas #8: Taking the Message to the Mall

What a grand surprise these lunch time shoppers received as a choir breaks into this rendition of The Hallelujah Chorus, bringing the message of the birth of Jesus into the mall's food court---JohnThanks, Bandit.YouTube l...

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Pieces of Christmas #7: Sunday Morning Sermon

I imagine that there are few people that think about Christmas as they read through the second chapter of Paul's letter to the Philippians--especially through these verses.For me, this is the very essence of Christmas.  So often we find ourselves contemplating His great love for us through His suffering on the cross.  We relate to the pain and suffering of the Man Jesus much easier than we relate to the love of God.  We point to the suffering and the sacrifice on the cross and think of how much He loved us. Rarely do we think of...

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A "Pieces of Christmas" Break

I'm breaking from the Pieces of Christmas posts that are focused on the birth of Jesus for a day to share this piece that was written and read at our December meeting of the Ozarks Christian Writers.With all that has been in the news about the new TSA security procedures, this is a funny and creative look at what one might see in airports next week.While my header gives permission to repost my material from this blog, this is not mine and permission to repost it is not mine to give.  Feel free to direct others here if you would...

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Pieces of Christmas #6

Sometimes it can be difficult sorting out the truths from the traditions of Christmas. This little cartoon helps:Johnfor the YouTube link go h...

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Pieces of Christmas #5: more of Jesus and Santa

I think that this video first appeared last Christmas.  The song was written by the singer's father.  I believe that he's the guy at the piano.This time it's a search for Jesus when everybody else seems to be satisfied with finding Santa.JohnIf you want to go to YouTube to watch the video, it's he...

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Pieces of Christmas #4: Jesus and Santa

Towards the end of Macy's Christmas Parade the television announcer said that the most important person of the Christmas season was about to arrive....SANTA CLAUS!Yeah, there is definitely a social controversy over who is the most important person of Christmas.Even if your holiday is more about gifts (both giving and receiving), family traditions and the guy in the red suit, you need to know that there is a God that loves you and provided a way for you and me (the sinful and undeserving wretches that we are) to have eternal life in heaven.It may...

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Pieces of Christmas #3

This year has been a year that has really caused me to examine just how poorly I have been sharing the Gospel of Salvation in Jesus.  I want to be better...not just locally, but in that "Go and make disciples of ALL NATIONS..." thing that Jesus was talking about.I found (was directed to) this website for Advent Conspiracy. Maybe in the coming months...Anyways, as a part of my Pieces of Christmas series, I thought I'd share this video of theirs:JohnLink to full screen vi...

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Pieces of Christmas #2

I found this song last year and posted it just prior to Christmas. I've always like Jackson Browne and can identify with this song. Sometimes I feel far removed from the religiousness of the Christian culture.  I've been called self-righteous. I been called anti-Christian.  I've been told that you can't have certain political views and be a Christian.Perhaps a heathen and a pagan describes me better than I care to admit...but I am still on the side of Jesus.J...

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Pieces of Christmas

It's hard to believe that Christmas is less than two weeks away.  Hannah will be finishing finals this week and should be home Thursday evening.  Aaron will also finish finals this week. Jenny finished hers last week.Since there is always so much that seems to distract us from remembering the birth of our Savior, I thought that I would use these days leading up to Christmas 2010 by posting some simple reminders of why I celebrate on December 25th...and what I celebrate on December 25th.Let me begin with a classic...simple, to...

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Christmas Curmudgeon

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not some sort of Christmas Curmudgeon. I'm going to rely on input from some of my self proclaimed curmudgeon friends/readers...and you know who you are.I'm not particularly grouchy or feeling all bah-humbug or anything. And I don't feel like I'm completely without the "Christmas" spirit--I'm just easily bothered by others that are being pretenders.Let me explain...I started to sense this "curmudgeonly" spirit last Sunday morning. I found humor and irony in our pastor's sermon--that wasn't meant to be humorous or ironic....

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Christmas Writing/Reading

Each winter, the Ozarks Chapter of the American Christians Writers takes a break from our normal workshop/guest speaker format to host two very different kinds of meetings. Our December meeting is set aside to hear many of our members present a 5-7 minute Christmas or winter piece that they have written. January is our speed writing meeting. Several topics or starting sentences are given and then the members and guests are challenged to use the first half of the meeting to write from what they've been given. The second half of the meeting is...

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Overkill?

Yeah, yeah... I know...it's been forever since I've posted. Frankly, I just haven't felt like sitting down and taking the time to organize thoughts into some sort of coherent order that could be followed by the average reader. Sorry.This morning I'm wondering if yesterday's message wasn't a bit of overkill. It's not often that I get to preach at Hopedale. Maybe I've gotten used to being able to preach freely to people that I don't know so well. I think that preaching to people that you really care about is much more difficult...especially...

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What Would Happen If...

I found about about this political candidate from a relative on Facebook (thanks Sharon). Apparently Mr. Phil Woolas is losing his seat because his campaign ads were deceptive and attacked the honor and character of his opponent.What would our Congress look like today if false ads were banned from political campaigns with the consequence being disqualification and not being able to run again in the next election? One thing is certain--candidates wouldn't need to raise so much money to put out the number of lying ads that are out there.Of course,...

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Voting: Your Christian Duty?

I heard that today on a Christian radio network. They said it was your Christian duty to vote.Really? I thought it was your Christian duty to tell people about Jesus. How is it that so many of our Christian "leaders" have become political pawns instead of voices for Jesus? How is it that they give dollars and air time to candidates for office and push for political reform while allowing their neighborhoods and communities to go to hell because they would rather judge them by their politics than share the love of God with them?Maybe it's easier...

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Juan Williams, NPR, Federal Funding

Just wondering...I've read several articles and heard differing media viewpoints about NPR's firing of Juan Williams for comments he made while on a Fox News program last week. I listen to NPR on a pretty regular basis and find that their journalistic approach to reporting is pretty "middle of the road". (That means that the left finds it too conservative and the right finds it too liberal.)One of the funniest things (funny in a weird way, not a ha-ha way) that has come about from the firing of Williams is the sudden desire to punish NPR by cutting...

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

I’ve really struggled with whether or not I should write this post and have decided to go ahead with it. I’ll make the upfront disclaimer that it really isn’t meant to be offensive even though I know that because of its subject matter, it may offend some of my readers. I am just sharing some things that have been in my thoughts this month. I’ll begin by stating several of the things that have brought this topic to mind: *The California Federal Court ruling regarding the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy *The Facebook status that has...

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Practical Christianity: Learning lessons from my younger sister

Wow! It's been more than two weeks since my last post. Just when I thought I was back on the blogging track...well, that didn't last for very long.And tonight's post isn't really my post. It's taken directly from my little sister's Facebook site. In the title I called her my younger sister, and that probably sounds better since she is married with three kids...it's just that I still think of her as my little sister. (Hope you don't mind, Mary.)I also hope that you don't mind that I'm sharing this with my readers. It is inspiring to me and I...

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October

A short time ago the calendar turned another page and we slipped from September to October. October 1st means that it is just 86 days to Christmas, 92 days until 2010 comes to an end, and 1 yr, 3 mos, 6 days until I'm eligible to retire.I'd certainly like to retire when I'm eligible. Realistically, three years of no raises has changed what I anticipated my retirement income would be based on. And the wonderful downturn in the economy has taken its toll on the retirement account. So perhaps it's time to take another look and figure out just what...

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What's it Worth?

Do you believe in Heaven?I know that not everybody believes in heaven. And I know that not everybody's beliefs about heaven are the same. So let's start by saying that if you don't believe in heaven, you can go ahead and skip this post. There isn't anything here that is going to try to convince you of heaven's existence or my idea of what it takes to get into heaven. It's more about what is heaven worth...to you?It's kind of odd that not everybody that believes in heaven, also believes in hell. And there are some people believe that everybody...

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Sent into Battle

Wow. Reading through chapter 10 of Matthew isn't really the kind of stuff that a content middle-class Midwestern American boy wants to hear. Jesus' warning to the troops as he sends them out kind of reminds me of a locker room pep talk before a big game--you know, the kind of speech the coach gives when you're the underdog and are going to get slaughtered.Actually, it might be more like the what you may have heard as the Spartans battled at Thermopylae. The warriors knew they were greatly outnumbered and knew they would probably die in battle,...

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Early Morning Rant

One of the few downsides to my job as an air traffic controller is the crazy schedule that I work. I did a swap with one of my co-workers that had me working the mid shift on Friday night/Saturday morning--not a big deal but I find myself wide awake at just past midnight. I slept from 8 to 12:30 earlier today, spent a few hours at Silver Dollar City with Chris this afternoon, took a little nap when we got home--now I'm awake. After laying awake for more than 45 minutes, I just decided to go with it and get up for a while.Lately, I've been thinking...

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More From Matthew

Matthew 7:13-14"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."I always wonder why we miss these two verses. Oh we see them and read them plainly enough, but why is it that we are surprised to find that we (Christians) are in the minority? How is it that we seemed shocked that the way of the majority is not The Way?It wasn't that many verses ago that Jesus compared us to salt and...

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The Price of Freedom

This past weekend I was doing a little channel surfing and came across the movie National Treasure. It was towards the beginning--the scene in the ice encrusted ship; the scene where they determine that they need to look at the back of the Declaration of Independence.I watched it for a while but I had too much to do to sit for a couple of hours. However, I got to thinking about the Declaration of Independence, the men that signed it, and the principles for which they stood and for which it still stands. There is a line that I think we should...

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