Contributed by Paul Wallace on Sep 20, 2006
* The city of Boston recently renamed its Christmas tree in Boston Commons a "holiday tree."
* In their 260 pages of newspaper insert promotions, Target, Kroger, Office Max, Walgreens, Sears, Staples, Lowe’s, J.C. Penney, Dell and Best Buy failed to mention Christmas a single time, according to
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Denomination:
Wesleyan
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 21, 2008
based on 4 ratings
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LOVE OF CHRIST: "WE DON’T BELIEVE"
Fred Craddock once told the story of Oswald Goltar. He was a missionary sent to preach the gospel in India near the end of World War II. After many months the time came for a trip back home. His church wired him the money to book passage on a steamer, but when he
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based on 1 rating
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YOU CAN HAVE MY ROOM
Wally was a 7th grade student who was bigger than any of the other students in his Sunday school class. His mother had been an alcoholic when he was born, and as a result, Wally just did not have all the mental capabilities that the rest of his classmates had. But somehow he
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Denomination:
Christian/Church Of Christ
Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 12, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 1,800 views
"Simplify your life. Dont waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Dont destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the
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Contributed by Warner Pidgeon on Jun 21, 2011
based on 1 rating
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PREACHING AND TEACHING
Joseph Trenaman found that listening to more and more material in a lecture seemed to interfere with learning from the earlier lecturing.
A class listening to 15 minutes of lecture remembered 41% of what was presented; those listening to 30 minutes remembered 23% of the
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Denomination:
Anglican
Contributed by Ed Wood on Feb 18, 2003
based on 33 ratings
| 2,221 views
Earl Allen’s book, Sign of the Star, relates the Suffering Servant to the Christmas story. Allen wrote: “Near the cradle of Bethlehem stands the cross, God’s Christmas tree—you can’t make anything else out of it. The blood of Jesus Christ has been the red ribbon strung from that first coat of skins
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Denomination:
Baptist
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
| 1,258 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 Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 2,266 views
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 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 Elijah Stepp on May 11, 2008
Illustration:
(From Speaker’s Sourcebook II by Glenn Ven Eckeren)
Perhaps you heard about the church that planned to have the “No Excuse” Sunday Service….
Their advertisement for their “No Excuse Sunday” read as follows….
Cots will be placed in the foyer for those who say "Sunday is my only day
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Denomination:
Independent/Bible
Contributed by Sermon Central on Dec 17, 2003
based on 1 rating
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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
| 4,088 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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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
Sermon Central