Christmas Is for Those Who Hate It Most

Matt B. Redmond has written what I consider a significant article by the same title I named this article. I encourage you to go read it.

The reason I say it's a significant is because of the reason for Christmas. I know we say that Jesus is the reason for the season. This is true. It's a bit more thoughtful to point to the gospel and recognize that the incarnation of Christ is central to the gospel. But Christ Himself said that "[He] came not to call the righteous but sinners" (Mark 2:7). It is the righteous who seem to know best the meaning of Christmas.

But we all know that the Holiday season is a time of great sorrow for many. They aren't sorrowful because of the celebration of the coming of Christ. They are sorrowful because particular needs are made poignant by the excess of commercial celebration that fails to assuage the ills of this world. These people have no particular love for the season of Christmas. Yet it is precisely for these people that Christ came.

From Matt Redmond's article, a list of people for whom Christ came:

Jesus’ first recorded worshipers were not of the beautiful class. They were poor, ugly shepherds, beat down by life and labor. They had been looked down on over many a nose.

• Jesus came for those who look in the mirror and see ugliness.
• Jesus came for daughters whose fathers never told them they were beautiful.
• Christmas is for those who go to “wing night” alone.
• Christmas is for those whose lives have been wrecked by cancer, and the thought of another Christmas seems like an impossible dream.
• Christmas is for those who would be nothing but lonely if not for social media.
• Christmas is for those whose marriages have careened against the retaining wall and are threatening to flip over the edge.
• Christmas is for the son whose father keeps giving him hunting gear when he wants art materials.
• Christmas is for smokers who cannot quit even in the face of a death sentence.
• Christmas is for prostitutes, adulterers, and porn stars who long for love in every wrong place.
• Christmas is for college students who are sitting in the midst of the family and already cannot wait to get out for another drink.
• Christmas is for those who traffic in failed dreams.
• Christmas is for those who have squandered the family name and fortune—they want “home” but cannot imagine a gracious reception.
• Christmas is for parents watching their children’s marriage fall into disarray.

We celebrate with gifts, and such bear the mark of Christmas in that Christ is the greatest gift. However, Christmas gifts with no message of the coming of Christ are given in vain. Give a gift of hope this season to someone who really needs it - someone who may not be particularly comfortable to be around because of their lowly state. But it is for such as these that Christ came.

...and read the whole article.

HT: Justin Taylor

Christmas Elfs Are Here!!!

We do disco!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

We do the Charleston!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

We do country!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Concert Video

A week ago I finished editing the video for the Christmas concert series at my church presented on December 7, 8 and 9. I've made the DVD and have uploaded the video. Most of the video is on GodTube, but it's a little buggy. However, YouTube has a nice feature where I can string several videos together in a playlist. I can even create a custom viewer. I've got all the video uploaded now to YouTube. So, if you have an hour and a half to sit back and enjoy a Christmas Concert over the Internet, now is your chance.

Here is the lineup:

Title	0:00:21
Pastor Skip: Opening Prayer	0:01:06
Prelude 1	0:02:51
Prelude 2	0:04:18
Slegh Medley	0:03:48
Joy	0:03:29
Glorious Impossible	0:05:07
O Come All Ye Faithful	0:02:30
Bell Carol Medley	0:04:55
O Holy Night	0:05:43
Carol Medley	0:06:29
John 1	0:05:11
Jesus Messiah	0:06:53
For Unto Us	0:04:14
Sound of the Round	0:04:29
He Came All This Way	0:04:28
Jeff Spry: Gospel	0:06:10
Skip Cartin: Gospel	0:05:35
In Christ Alone	0:05:03
How Great Is Our God	0:07:01
Halleluiah Chorus	0:06:41
Total Time	1:36:22

Here is the video:

Video Editing and Other Things Not Explicitly Christian

I've been spending hours upon hours monopolizing the computers at my house to capture, edit and process video of our church's Christmas program a few weeks ago. This is the first draft of the first piece. There are actually two instrumental preludes prior to this one. I may leave this as it is, but it includes video from a camera that saved its video information in files fit for a mac. Since I use a Bill Gate's machine rather than a Steve Jobs machine, I had to convert the files and it lost quality in the conversion which is particularly evident in this sequence. When I complete the DVD, I'll save all the final cuts to uploadable files and post them - probably on GodTube.

This is a medley of sleighing songs. While our program always recounts the birth of Christ and the significance of the incarnation and ends with a few songs of worship for the season, we like to start with a song or two that approaches the season from a lighthearted aspect. As such, these are songs that are not explicitly Christian. Of course, neither is the book of Esther. The fullness of the season is Christian, however, and that includes romance, flights of fancy and children playing. Enjoy...

Relative Time and Truth Games

How does Santa Claus deliver all those presents? It's more than just magic, it's science.

I like to play truth games with the kids. Paul is a little young to get the game, but Luke and Hope get it; and they participate very well. Daddy's truth games challenge the perception of reality. Sometimes I play by reacting to cartoon characters on the kids' programs as though they were real. I've also done the same with Santa Claus. The truth game is to figure out how Santa Claus delivers all those toys in just one night without losing sight of the fact that it's purely fiction.

My speculation is that Santa Claus is able to simultaneously fly and get around very quickly because he, his sleigh and reindeer are in a gravity well caused by the mass of all those toys at the center and the weight of the imaginations of all those kids who believe in him at the perimeter. This is why Santa goes away if kids don't believe in him anymore according to all the legends purported by the infallible Hollywood. He's simply unable to create the necessary gravity well.

Of course Santa doesn't exist. I know this empirically because no present has ever ended up under my tree that didn't come from someone I knew. There are atheists or even agnostics who may read this and conclude that the same sort of criteria can demonstrate the futility of believing in God. However, I argue that the physical and historical evidence as well as the philosophical derivation of bivalent logical calculus overwhelmingly demonstrates the necessity of a Creator. I won't go into all these now. That's not the purpose of this post.

Christ told His disciples to be the light of the world. He himself was the light of the world, born in a feed trough in a suburb of Jerusalem. This is a light that is still being shed in new parts of the world. Pray for Paulas in Nepal and his YWAM team as they have taken the gospel to a village where it has never been taken for Christmas. it is no truth game to assent to the truth of the gospel and have faith.

Even scientists play truth games and lead some theologians astray. The same scientists who will argue for the "big bang" theory will also argue that distant light from stars have taken billions of years to get here. Yet the big bang theoy has a flaw in its treatment of the speed of light and time dilation. Not understood is the relationship of space to the proximity of objects experiencing extreme time dilation and the passage of light through this space. I've always asked myself why this hasn't been fully investigated or if it has why it hasn't been seriously regarded. The answer is that scientists have been playing truth games.

I've investigated light and time dilation in bits and pieces, but Answers in Genesis has published a recent article which sums it up nicely. Just like Santa Claus, it's a matter of what you believe: As long as the belief in scientific myths like the big bang and the constancy of time are ascribed to, naturalism will persist. The truth, however, doesn't need our assent to be true. It is astonishing the distance light has traveled, but it needn't have taken billions of years to get here. Christ came from even beyond the boundaries of this temporal universe and he arrived precisely on time - the true light of the earth whose gift came to all at once: a gift that lay not under a tree, but hung on it affixed there with nails and adorned with ribbons of scarlet. A host of angels waited idly by for a command they would not receive as they watched the Light dispel the darkness of sin from among men.

Magi Infiltration

I've always wondered about the magi. Who were they, really? I've read speculations and seen them on Bible-lite TV programs. The scholarship most likely correct by my estimation is that they were men of Persia tasked with the handling of great knowledge and consulted for the same.

I've heard speculation about this star. I've heard it speculated that it was some astrological conjunction rather than an astronomical anomaly. According to the text of the Bible the star was seen in the east which would have been in the opposite direction from which the magi had to travel. They knew they had to travel west for they were from the east. The star moved until it lay over Bethlehem. The magi had already come to Jerusalem. The difference is a mere 5 miles. The "star" was perhaps not even astronomical if one could distinguish the difference between it hovering over Bethlehem and were it to hover over Jerusalem. So how did they arrive at the conclusion that this star was going to lead them to Judea?

Well, it's always cool when you learn something new. I believe they had knowledge that this was going to happen. I just read this article which notes that the Hebrew prophet Daniel, during the exile, was appointed chief of the Magi in Persia. Read Daniel 4:9; 5:11. A true prophet of God... Would he not leave information of the future coming of the messiah? It's too cool how God used the exile to glorify the incarnation of His Son and bring prophesy through the gifts as to His status as king, priest and savior.

Exhibiting True Joy

Tonight I'm singing in a Catawba Valley Community College Community Choir Christmas presentation in Hickory. (Okay - that's a lot of Cs) This is the first of it's kind. The primary director (there are six), Mike Kirby, calls it the "Christmas Colossus". We have about 250 people in the choir accompanied by the Western Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, the Statesville Senior High School Drum Corps and a hand bell choir - about 350 musicians in all. (My band director from way back in HS is the first horn player. He also played at our church concert. I still call him "Mr. Merritt". He was my music mentor and introduced me to many of the different styles of music I enjoy today as well as the physics behind harmonics and music theory.)

Mike Kirby is a Christian. The other two vocal directors probably are also. The director of the orchestra may not be. As all directors who direct joyous Christmas music, the admonition for the choir is to express joy as we sing about joy. Rodney Harrison, the director of worship at my church, admonished us to do the same. We're Christians - this is easy. We know, or should know, the difference between joy and happiness. As Christians, we have experienced true joy. Many of the musicians participating in the Christmas Colossus are not Christians. It is unreasonable to expect anyone who doesn't know true joy to express joy.

There is a difference between joy and happiness. Happiness comes and goes. Joy is everlasting. It overlaps, I would say, the "peace that passes all understanding" (Phil 4:7). As Christians we can have joy when we are sapped of our temporal happiness. We have the certain hope of the promise of salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Those who do not know Christ and are not regenerate do not have this experience. To them, our joy is mere happiness and can be seen to come and go. But to hear in the worst of times that we still have joy is incomprehensible to them. When we express joy, it is not always with a smile. But when we are happy, our happiness is backed by something other than momentary glee which waxes and wanes. When we have no temporal reason to express anything else, it is this eternal source from which the Christian can express the joy that is a constant for us.

May you have a truly joyous season. May you know the love of a God who offered up His Son as the only worthy sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sin. May you see the cross in manger and know that the baby is precious because of the road He would walk and the sin He would bear - yet not His sin, but ours.

Merry Christmas.

Pember-Rhapsody

rhap·so·dy (rps-d) KEY

NOUN:
pl. rhap·so·dies

1. Exalted or excessively enthusiastic expression of feeling in speech or writing.
2. A literary work written in an impassioned or exalted style.
3. A state of elated bliss; ecstasy.
4. Music A usually instrumental composition of irregular form that often incorporates improvisation.
5. An ancient Greek epic poem or a portion of one suitable for uninterrupted recitation.

ETYMOLOGY:
Latin rhapsdia, section of an epic poem, from Greek rhapsidi, from rhapsidein, to recite poems : rhaptein , rhaps-, to sew; see wer- ² in Indo-European roots + aoid, id, song; see wed- ² in Indo-European roots

Provided by Houghton Mifflin


I've chosen this term to indicate a post where I mix together unrelated elements. Yet in the grand scheme of things it is all ultimately related in import and ideology. It's musical, poetic, eclectic, diverse yet harmonious. To illustrate the diversity in my own life I offer to you another round of Bela Fleck:

-

-

Fusion Jazz brings styles together in unique ways. Bela not only incorporates styles, but he brings together instruments that are not typically used together. Who would think to use a banjo, steel drums and bassoon together? My life is like this. A mixture of cultures, endeavors, gifts and abilities. I don't know that any of the men in this band are Christian. I would pray that they are or that they are made alive in Christ if they are not.

I've been reading the Bible with the kids in the evening. They've gotten to where they really like this. They beg to read yet another chapter. We always do a psalm with whatever we read and we have been doing them in order as we go through Matthew. They have been astonished as to how the Psalms seem to match up with what we just read as though it was planned that way. Last night, Hope tried to read ahead to see how they would match up. I feigned scorn and said, "Don't do that! What are you trying to do, read the Bible or something?"

Two nights ago we read the end of Matthew which included the tearing of the veil at the time of Jesus' death. I looked up a drawing of the tabernacle and explained how the temple was built to be like a "permanent" tabernacle. The veil separates us from the holy of holies where God's presence was to be. Once a year a priest would go in and if he did one thing wrong he could die. The other priests would have to drag him out without going in there themselves. So I asked the kids what the veil was for.

"It separates us from God," they concluded after thinking about it a short bit.

"What happened to it's purpose when it was torn," I asked?

"We weren't separated from Him anymore," Luke said with a smile.

Hope's eyes got big and an excited smile came across her face. "Hey! I know why Jesus had to die," she exclaimed. "If we do something wrong, we die. He died so that we wouldn't die if we messed up."

Bingo.

My friend Kim posted some pictures of her Christmas decor, so I'll return the favor. I endeavored to photograph the lights and played around with the manual settings on my cheap digital camera. Here are the results:



This is the front of the house.


Paul and Hope sitting on the porch railing under the icicle lights. Icicles in the NC piedmont? They're rare and never this large.


Detail of the stuff hanging on the lattice.


The tree in the front room. Yes, it's in front of the fireplace. We rarely use the fireplace anyway, but it would be nice to decorate the fireplace and put the tree elsewhere. However, there is no elsewhere for the tree.


Detail of the tree with knick-knacks on the mantle. The partially occluded bear is definitely part of the Christmas decor. The painted terra cotta doll is from Venezuela. The framed thing is a wedding invitation that someone colored and framed and presented to us on our wedding.

Most of the ornaments on the tree are an ecclectic collection of gifts and crafts. It's homey, but meaningful, and certainly fits the Rhapsody theme.

And, since I am a bit of a Trekkie, I took this silly Star Trek personality quiz:

Your results:
You are An Expendable Character (Redshirt)

An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 75% Data 68% Deanna Troi 65% Beverly Crusher 60% Uhura 60% Worf 55% James T. Kirk (Captain) 50% Will Riker 50% Geordi LaForge 45% Chekov 45% Jean-Luc Picard 45% Spock 44% Mr. Sulu 25% Mr. Scott 20% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 20%

Since your accomplishments are seldom noticed, and you are rarely thought of, you are expendable. That doesn't mean your job isn't important but if you were in Star Trek you would be killed off in the first episode you appeared in.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

Ok - That's disappointing. I'm expendable. I may sing the occasional solo at church, but by and large what I do, or what I can do, indeed goes unnoticed. The solos are fluff.

Look back at the previous post and see the photo of me dressed up like the 1940s. I've always said that the 40s was my era. WWII was my war. Glenn Miller was my band leader. There was a man named Mark Ma who saw that the gospel had progressed westward since the Great Commission. Now the great frontier of the gospel was China. In the 1940s, Mark Ma had a vision to take the gospel beyond China and traverse the nations between China and the Holy Land to take the gospel to the people of those lands back to Jerusalem. His vision was halted by the Chinese government. Over the years the vision dimmed and was nearly lost when it was discovered by Chinese Christians over a decade ago. Now the vision is in full swing. Last night I heard from Chinese missionaries that the vision is being realized with the sending of Chinese missionaries into the "-stan" countries.

Mark Ma was stopped and never saw his vision realized. He was marginalized and passed into the next world unaware of the impact his vision would have. He was expendable, but he will not be forgotten.

Merry Christmas From the 1940s

[sings] There's a Christmas party at the home of farmer Grey...



This is my wife and I in our 1940s attire this past weekend during our Christmas concert series.