If Christ Had Not Come

Several years ago, a group of historians met and asked a number of intriguing questions. What if the Moors had won in the great historic battle in Spain? ...

The Hard Side of Epiphany

From the editor:

January 6th is Epiphany—the day that many Western Christians commemorate the visitation of the Magi to Jesus. With that date just ...

The Christmas Plunge

From the editor:

Who doesn't love reflecting on the amazing story of Mary, a teenage girl swept up in something so unexpected, so epic? The Incarnation ...

A Tiny Gift—Strangely Wrapped, Silently Delivered

Text: 2 Corinthians 9:15
Topic: How God wrapped the indescribable gift of Jesus.

From the editor:

It's not yet Thanksgiving, but we suspect you are well ...

What Child Is This Who Came Not to Bring Peace?

From the editor

One of the more popular texts in the Advent and Christmas season is Isaiah 9:1–7. Preachers love to explore the beauty of our having ...

Angels: A Song of Peace

Introduction

We've been looking at Christmas songs preserved for us in Scripture. Some, like Zechariah's song last week, are completely foreign to most ...

If Jesus Had Never Been Born ...

Text: John 1:14–18
Topic: What the world would be like if Jesus had not been born

Introduction

Several years ago, a group of historians met and asked ...

The Bad News About Jesus ...

Introduction

Charles Swindoll has written a rather telling poem about what many feel on the day after Christmas:

'Twas the day after Christmas, When all ...

The Love That Brought Him

Introduction

One of the greatest Georgians who ever lived was Bishop Arthur Moore, the beloved Methodist bishop of our state. Bishop Moore once said that ...

Christ's Birth and Your Birth

Introduction

On the wall in my church study, I have a precious photograph that was taken in a hospital room a couple of years ago. It's a picture of a ...

Christmas Through Heaven's Eyes

Introduction

Jesus did not deserve to be hung on a wooden cross to suffer for the sins of the human race. While that's exactly what the Christmas story ...

The Neglected Joseph Davidson

Text: Matthew 1:18–25
Topic: The Christmas story from Joseph's perspective

Who was Joseph?

I think I had better introduce myself. My name is Joseph ...

Christmas 365 Days a Year

Introduction

We often talk about the night before Christmas, but what do you think about on the morning after Christmas? I've been thinking about this ...

Great Expectations

Introduction

There is a lot of hype to the holidays. We buy presents; we attend countless parties and holiday events. We travel to see relatives. We ...

Make Room

Introduction

There is a wonderful story that comes out of the treasury of Jewish humor about a family from the lower east side of New York City. The ...

A Perfect Christmas

Introduction:

There was a church in the northern part of the United States that had held a Christmas pageant for forty-seven years with the same director. Perfection ...

God's Christmas Grace

The world system that you and I are part of has been celebrating the holiday called Christmas. And on that holiday, people have benefited by it. Gifts ...

The Sleepy Invasion

The stage was set. It was finally the fullness of time. The world had long been in prison, caught in a web of sin and death, controlled by a network of ...

For Those Who Are Disappointed

Will you agree with me that the Christmas season is the most , time of the year? Would you also agree with me that the Christmas season can be the ...

Levi's Genes

Everybody knows the genealogies are the biggest yawn in the Bible. "Rehoboam begat Abijah, and Abijah begat Ralph"I mean it warms your heart about as ...

Grace at Christmas

Those of us from a western culture somehow take all of our techniques and apply them when we come to a genealogy. If the Bible were all genealogies, we ...

Christmas 365 Days a Year

We often talk about the night before Christmas, but what do you think about on the morning after Christmas? I've been thinking about this wonderful ...

Martin Luther's Christmas Sermon

Jesus Came to Be the Light

About twenty years ago a house near the entrance of our subdivision kept their Christmas lights burning long into January, even though the Christmas season ...

Blood in Bethlehem

Two weeks ago NPR carried a story about plans to spruce up Bethlehem, the dusty little Palestinian town of Jesus' Nativity. Tourists take the bus from ...

A Wonderful Night

W. Would you look at those stars! There's Orion and the Pleiades, a shooting star ... and another one! Aah, I will never get tired of looking at the night ...

Christmas As the Angels Saw It

The words we are going to read from Scripture were probably part of a hymn sung by the early Christian believers. You'll notice that the first line of ...

The Purpose of Christmas

First John 1:1—4:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands ...

God's Marshmallow Test

Back in the 1970s a research team of psychologists from Stanford University performed on a group of 4 an experiment they called the "marshmallow test." ...

A Tiny Gift- Strangely Wrapped, Silently Delivered

Introduction

Since the Christmas season began, one word has fallen from our lips more than any other. Maybe you haven't stopped to think about which ...