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Background to the nativity story. A Christmas meditation.

“God is creating a new humanity and something incredibly beautiful... Reach out and see the possibility of an amazing future.”

If some glorious spirit from on high, angel or archangel, had loved a race of ants, and had condescended for the salvation of these tiny creatures to assume their nature, and if in that nature he had died for them, you would naturally expect that at the conclusion of his labors and sufferings he would…

There is a measure of reason in appointing the age of twenty-one as the period of a man’s majority, for he is then mature and full grown. It would be unwise to make a person to be of age while only ten, eleven, or twelve; everybody would see that such boyish years would be unsuitable. On the other hand,…

Obedience has to be learned experimentally. If a man is to learn a trade thoroughly, he must be apprenticed to it. A soldier, sitting at home and reading books, will not learn the deadly art of war. He must go to the barracks, and the camp, and the field of battle if he is to win victories and become…

If you were on board a vessel, and had lost your bearings, you would be glad enough to see a pilot in the offing. Here he is on board, and you say, “Pilot, do you know where we are?” “Yes,” says he, “of course I do. I can tell you within a yard.” “It is well, Mr. Pilot, but can you bring us to the port…

I cannot pass over the thirty years of His silence without feeling that here was a marvelous instance of how He humbled Himself. I know young men who think that two or three years’ education is far too long for them. They want to be preaching at once—running away, as I sometimes tell them, like chickens…

If your house were on fire, you would rejoice to hear that the fire engines were coming down the street. You would feel an absolute certainty that they were coming to you, because your house was in a blaze if no one’s else might be. If there were appointed today a commissioner for the relief of such…

According to "Santa's Relativistic Journey" for Santa Claus to be able “to deliver all his presents in one 12-hour night, he would have to travel at 76 percent the speed of light the entire time.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cinderellas-glass-slipper-wouldve-shattered_5681d41de4b06fa68880fcd6?utm_hp_ref=weird-news&ir=Weird+News&section=weird-news…

The Great Courses offers audio and video courses on a great variety of subjects. One that is offered, taught by Professor Bart D. Ehrman from the University of North Carolina, is all about Jesus, but named How Jesus Became God. The first lesson is “Jesus—The Man Who Became God.” The professor has it…

Our culture is in the age of the superhero. Two of the most anticipated movies of the 2017 season were Thor: Ragnarok, and The Justice League. These movies come on the tail of the summer box office smashes Spiderman: Homecoming and Wonder Woman, and the myriad of movies and television series following…

In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.…

In the book Voices of the Faithful Beth Moore includes an interesting story about missionaries to rural China who every Christmas would make a manger and place a baby doll in it in lieu of having a Christmas tree. One day as the husband was explaining the manger to a visiting Chinese friend he meant…

It was recently revealed that King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands has been secretly working as a part-time co-pilot for KLM airlines. Unsuspecting passengers were not aware that the King was among them, flying them to their destination. In Jesus day, the people were unaware that the King of the…

The Japanese have found a good friend for you and it will only cost you $1,600. Pepper is a 4-foot-tall human-shaped robot built by Tokyo-based telecom giant, SoftBank. Pepper’s programming allows it to sense your emotions based on vocal inflections and facial expressions. Pepper can talk, dance, tell…

Christmas is full of traditions. One of the best I have read is from Iceland, where the traditional Christmas present is books. After receiving a book on Christmas Eve, Icelanders spend the rest of the night reading them. The book buying and selling season, spurred by the Christmas Eve tradition even…

San Diego calls its July 4 fireworks display the “Big Bay Boom.” In 2012 they certainly got a big show. A technical malfunction set all the fireworks off at the same time. The result was a spectacular—and spectacularly short—display. For the 15 seconds it lasted, it was quite a show. The three years…

Just before Christmas in 2015, Stephen Roseman posted a picture on Facebook of a dog with the caption "badly burned and disfigured trying to save his family from a house fire. One like=one prayer, one share=ten prayers." Thousands of users responded. The good news is that the dog is OK, but it was not…

Baby Hazel Grace was born at just the right minute on the right day to create a very special combination for her birthday. Hazel was born at 11 minutes past ten AM on December 13, 2014. The result is a unique numerical progression for her birth, 10:11 121314. Her parents Leisha and Shawn said they knew…

The lights we put up each year during Christmas can be a way to point others to the true light of the world. A family from Australia is doing their part by reclaiming a world record by stringing up over 500,000 twinkling Christmas bulbs. Guinness World Records officials confirmed that the Richards family…

Every year PNC Wealth Management keeps track of the cost of purchasing a set of the gifts listed in classic carol, “The Twelve days of Christmas.” The group says though the government’s Consumer Price Index only increased by 1 percent over the last year, the twelve days of Christmas will cost $27,393…

In 2013, 85-year-old James Gray couldn’t bear the thought of spending another Christmas alone in his London Flat, so he placed an ad in the Irish Post asking if someone was willing to spend the day with him. The Newspaper in turn, ran a story on his plea and he was received many offers to fulfill his…

The fool says in his heart, "God does not exist." Psalm 14:1, HCSB The idea of a living, personal God gives men and women the jitters. They sense deep within that they are accountable to Him, but they don't know just what to do about it. C. S. Lewis put it like this: "The Pantheist's God does nothing,…

A Christmas present caused quite a stir at a European Union embassy in Berne, Switzerland. After two separate explosions injured people at the Swiss and Chilean missions, Berne police were not taking any chances. In this case, it was harmless, just a Christmas present—nothing to be alarmed about. --http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BM2RI20101223…

While shoppers rushed in and out of a Missouri department store the day after Thanksgiving, someone stopped at a Salvation Army Kettle long enough to drop in a big gift. When they counted the totals that night, officials discovered five checks for $10,000 each wrapped up inside one dollar bills, adding…