Contributed by Jim Kane on May 25, 2004
based on 26 ratings
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A common source of challenge in life is commitment as illustrated in the following story:
The church choir director was frustrated with the sporadic attendance of all the choir members for rehearsals for the Christmas Choral Concert. At the final rehearsal he announced, “I want to personally thank
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Denomination:
Church Of God
Contributed by Jim Kane on Jan 12, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 1,132 views
I did some checking this past week on the history and origins of Christmas and from the on-line encyclopedia, Encarta, I read, “… most scholars believe that Christmas originated in the 4th century as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice… Although the Gospels describe
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Denomination:
Church Of God
Contributed by Peter Loughman on Dec 21, 2007
I once worked with a guy who would, every year, place a call to a local florist on Christmas Eve and order two gift baskets, one for his teenage daughter and one for his wife. It was a quick call, lasting about twenty five seconds. The florist would always ask what he wanted in the baskets and he
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Denomination:
Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Kevin Barron on Dec 29, 2012
Steve McGuire, our retired county judge, mentioned to me the other day that when someone wishes him “Merry Christmas,” he will sometimes tell them, “I wish you a happy birthday for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!” He has seen, like all of us need to see, that Christmas was not just the lights
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Denomination:
United Methodist
Contributed by Johnny Creasong on Dec 18, 2006
based on 1 rating
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Dorothy Rodefeld is known in Madison, Wisconsin, as the "light lady" because of the elaborate Christmas displays she builds each year at her 19th century farmhouse. Last year, however, Dorothy’s nativity scene was robbed.
Among the missing items were a shepherd and a wise man. But it was the loss
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Denomination:
Church Of God
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007
based on 1 rating
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The fields of Flanders were no place to be on Christmas Eve, 1914. Thousands of British, French, Belgian and German troops were dug-in and planning yet another day’s carnage. None of them would have guessed that the “War to End All Wars” would continue nearly four more years and ultimately cost
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Contributed by Bob Joyce on Oct 10, 2007
Dr. Thomas Holman at the University of Washington in Seattle did a study some years ago with his colleagues. They developed a “life’s events scale” where they determined a numerical value for the different things in life that cause us stress.
The loss of a spouse = 100 pts.
Divorce = 73
Getting
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Todd Stiles on Dec 14, 2006
You see, our presence is really the best way to reveal our love. (Don’t worry, kids, I’m not encouraging your parents to boycott presents, but I do want to make a point.) And I can say this from experience, for when I was a kid our home was burglarized just before Christmas one year. Man, was I
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Don Hawks on Dec 30, 2007
A man who was a school teacher reflected upon a Christmas experience. He said, "At Christmas the kids always brought me gifts. They brought them in different types of boxes but after a while I was pretty savvy about what the gifts were. There would be a thin handkerchief box. I knew it was a
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Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Sermon Central on Dec 18, 2003
based on 1 rating
| 1,170 views
What might we do in our families to celebrate Christmas as a holy day? Of course, we remember that its date was first set purposely to coincide with the Roman festival of the returning of the sun, so that it was indeed initially a pagan holiday. In order to celebrate it, however, the first
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Contributed by Aubrey Vaughan on Dec 20, 2007
A recent survey in the Times reports. The Saga Populus survey of 10,000 over 50s found widespread concerns about the celebration of Christmas. Some 85 per cent objected to councils replacing ‘Christmas’ lights with ‘winter’ lights and 84 per cent were dismayed by the replacement of nativity
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Brian Harvison on Sep 30, 2008
Perhaps the most effective way to demonstrate God's values and Christ's love to others is to invite and welcome guests into our homes.
I can’t help but think of the movie Christmas Vacation. The Griswalds are having Christmas at their home this year; that means everybody will intrude in a way on
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Sermon Central on Oct 16, 2003
based on 5 ratings
| 3,571 views
CELEBRATION OF THE INCARNATION
“Perhaps we need to call December 25th the Celebration of the Incarnation, to greet each other with Incarnation greetings – instead of “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” we could shout, “God chose flesh!” “God became one of us!”
“The Feast of the Incarnation is
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Contributed by Jeffery Russell on Dec 17, 2007
Did you hear about the middle school in New Jersey that canceled a field trip to a performance of “A Christmas Carol” because some might be offended by the play’s Christian themes? As columnist Cal Thomas points out, this is not really even a Christian story, though it does contain elements of
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Denomination:
Baptist
The symbol of Christ in mistletoe.Collins notes, “The name implies that the plant sprang to life from bird droppings on tree branches. The inspiration behind the plant’s christening, though true, might seem a bit crude and distasteful today, but to the people of the first and second century it was
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Denomination:
Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Contributed by Charles Wallis on Dec 22, 2008
Perhaps the economy can teach us something…
Tom Ehrich “Economy puts Christ back into Christmas”
“so a lifestyle built on credit-funded excess doesn’t look like adult behavior. Large houses look different now. So do large wardrobes, large travel budgets, large parties. The question many are
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Denomination:
Pentecostal
Contributed by Dave Kinney on Mar 15, 2009
BETTER THAN A LIGHT
It was Christmas Eve 1946, King George the Sixth, reined over Great Britain. They had been bombed; they were broke and barren of any hope of the future. That Christmas Eve night he got on the radio to make an address to his nation. These were that last known words he spoke to
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Denomination:
Baptist
Contributed by Fred Sigle on Dec 20, 2007
When my son Steven was 5 years-old, he wanted a Ghost Buster Proton Pack for Christmas. I don¡¦t think the MERCHANTS in the small town of Bowie, Texas where we lived even heard of such a thing. So Brenda and I drove 55 miles to Wichita Falls, Texas in search of this gift for Steven. We went all
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Denomination:
Christian/Church Of Christ
Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 31, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 1,700 views
Lin Smalec writes, "I read recently about a children’s Sunday School class that heard the Christmas story and sang the beloved Christmas carol, “Silent Night”. They were then asked to draw what they thought the nativity scene might have looked like. One little fellow did a good likeness of Joseph,
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Denomination:
Independent/Bible
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