As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
In my service for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, one of the things I set out to accomplish this fall was to study the subject of Hanukkah in order to bring special messages on that topic.
With God’s help, I was able to do so in three churches, along with sharing the material in a Bible study group that I teach regularly—and I have greatly enjoyed the experience!
When we think of the story of Jesus’s birth in the little town of Bethlehem, we envision a beautiful and peaceful scene with shepherds and wise men gathered around a manger, worshipping the young Christ. But that’s not the whole picture! Matthew reminds us that the birth of Christ was not only associated with happiness and hope but also with feelings of profound sorrow and deep despair.
“…when Paul writes to Timothy of a solitary Mediator, a single Mediator, with a capital ‘M,’ he’s referring to that Mediator who is the supreme Intercessor between God and fallen humanity. This Mediator, Jesus Christ, is indeed the God-man.” - R.C.Sproul
“I don’t know about you, but that’s what I want to celebrate this Christmas—a gift much greater than the latest department store gadgets and gizmos. In light of this, here are some ways that I’ve found to make the Advent season more meaningful.” - Stetzer
Reposted from The Cripplegate.
The gospel of of Matthew was the first biblical book to be written in over 400 years. And Matthew breaks the centuries of silence with…a genealogy.
He has a strategic reason for doing so—the goal of his book is to persuasively argue that Jesus is the Messiah, and so he starts by tying the person of Jesus to the history of the Jews, and particularly to the lines of David and Abraham.
“Catholics (99 percent) and Protestants (97 percent) are most likely to commemorate the day of Jesus’ birth. Still, significant majorities of Americans of other religions (74 percent) and those with no religious affiliation (82 percent) also celebrate Christmas.” - Lifeway
This is my 2020 Christmas Eve sermon. The video follows this text, below.
We don’t like intrusions into our world from outside. It makes us nervous. It makes us insecure. It makes us scared!
It’s why UFOs fascinate so many of us. Is it true? Could it be real? Is there actually life “out there?”
It’s why movies about Martians and aliens are so sinister. They always have better technology. They always want to hurt us, and they always scare us.
“ ‘We were told that on Christmas Eve we would have the largest audience that had ever listened to a human voice,’ recalled Commander Frank Borman during the 40th anniversary celebrations in 2008. ‘And the only instructions that we got from NASA was to do something appropriate.’” - IFWE
“ ‘Joy to the World’ was never intended to be a Christmas hymn…. Watts wanted the reader to follow the prophetic thread, so to speak, out from the New Testament toward the ultimate future, where the Lord Christ would come, once and for all, to redeem all things.” - Ligonier
“The year was 1863. The victim was Charles Longfellow, the famous poet’s son. However, the injury report from the Union army proved to be inaccurate. …Yet, Longfellow’s mind still lingered on his family’s tragedies.” - Rooted Thinking
Discussion