71 results for tag: christmas
When Did God Become a Christian? Connecting Covenants – Greg Albrecht
They arrived in Jerusalem with their camel caravan after spending more than a month on the road. These wealthy and wise men called the Magi were clearly men of means—their style of travel was the first-century equivalent to a sleek, sophisticated Motorhome more than it was an ancient VW bus. On-the-street speculation about the purpose of this visit quickly ended when these dignitaries started to inquire about a newly born king of the Jews to whom they had come to pay homage.
Herod (the Great) was more than a little interested when he heard what had brought these esteemed men all the way to his kingdom. Appointed by the Roman ...
The Visitor
Christmas is a time when we became a "visited planet." God in the person of Jesus personally delivered a message for each one of us. The message? God is for you. He's your friend. He's on your side. God's favor rests on you.
https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR096.mp3
Let It Be
Mary's pregnancy was different from that of many other women in the Bible - Mary was not desperately hoping to become pregnant. The most momentous birth in all of history is a departure from other biblical birth stories.
https://www.ptm.org/mp3/FreeDwnld/RCWR095.mp3
He Made Himself Nothing
The great American dream involves becoming someone and amounting to something. Parents hope their children will “make something” of themselves. But there was someone whose sole purpose was the precise opposite. Jesus was born so that he could become nothing.
Jesus — Our Servant
Why did God in the person of Jesus come into our world? To die for our sins, to set us free, to win the victory over sin and death. True -- those answers dominate our lists, but one of the most important reasons is that Jesus came to serve us.
Arrival of Joy – by Laura Urista
From a young age, we are taught that Christmas time is always filled with happiness, joy and fun. We are assured, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” We are inundated with advertisements about products, foods and experiences guaranteed to fill us with joy. We rush around, busy with extra activities meant to brighten the holidays for ourselves and others—addressing and mailing greeting cards, purchasing gifts, wrapping and hiding them. We search for the perfect tree, haul it into our house and spend hours decorating it. We purchase all the ingredients to prepare our favorite holiday recipes. Amid bright, sparkling lights and ...
God With Us
There are two realities about Jesus that are extremely difficult for us to grasp because they lay outside of our human experience, yet they are absolute bedrock elements of our Christian faith.
The Visitor – by Greg Albrecht
The Visitor - Greg Albrecht
KEYNOTE SCRIPTURE: John 1:1-18
There are two biblical stories about the birth of Jesus. One is the factual story of who did what, when and where, given to us by Matthew and Luke. The other story occurs in our keynote passage.
The "other story" concerns itself with the profound significance of what happened at the intersection of time and eternity, when God in the person of Jesus came into our world to be one of us. The first 18 verses of the first chapter of the Gospel of John is powerful, majestic, and in some ways mysterious. As literature, this passage ranks among the most profoundly ...
Great Exchanges
by Greg Albrecht
Your first thought at this time of the year might be those frenzied crowds in shopping malls and department stores on the days immediately following Christmas. People exchanging and returning gifts they received that were the wrong size, wrong color—or just plain wrong!
But there's another exchange we need to keep in mind. This great exchange is the reality of the cross of Christ. Jesus Christ took our sin and died for it, paying the debt that we could not pay. In exchange, God, because of his grace, gives us eternal life. Our sin for eternal life! The great spiritual exchange.
Great exchanges characterize the month of ...
The Visitor
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
He was in the world, ...
Fiat Lux – The Light of All People – by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from December 2022
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. – John 1:1-4
When we think of the birth of Jesus, and then of his subsequent life and teaching here on earth, we often forget the many things that happened at night. We don’t know for certain, but Jesus may have been born at night – if so his first meal at the breast of Mary was at night. He had his last meal at night. A man named ...
Q & R – Should Christians Celebrate Christmas? – Greg Albrecht
Q: Should Christians celebrate Christmas? I believe Christ was born, but I haven't read anything in the Bible that says we should commemorate that event! I don't see anything wrong with celebrating Jesus' resurrection, since we know that was in the Spring—but we don't know the date of his birth. And, according to my research, Christmas seems to be a Roman Catholic invention, not a biblical one—and I tend to view anything coming from Rome with great mistrust.
A: Perhaps we should define the word "Christmas." For some this word simply means an endless round of parties, concerts, gift giving, decorating, etc. MUST Christians do this? NO. ...
The First Noel – Michael North
From CWR/PTM - Enjoy this Christmas song by Michael North.
No Christmas Without Christ – by Greg Albrecht
Friends and Partner Letter for December 2014
He is both a speechless child and He is the Word…He lies in a manger, but he holds the world in His hand; He is nourished at the breast but He feeds the angels; He is wrapped in swaddling clothes but He clothes us with immortality… He does not find room in the inn but He makes a temple for Himself in the hearts of believers. For Strength took on weakness that weakness might become strong.
– Augustine, (354-430), Sermon 190.
As we begin this last month of the year, we see another frenzied Christmas shopping season of excess, with retailers unleashing promotional devices and marketing ...
Jesus is the Reason – Michael North
From CWR/PTM - Enjoy this Christmas song by Michael North.
God Comes Near
Imagine, for a moment, that you are part of a team building a skyscraper. Your team building this "high rise" would need, of course, a great deal of expertise to ensure that a sound foundation would be laid. Considerable expense and work is involved in preparing the foundation of any edifice that eventually soars majestically, hundreds of feet into the air.
Skyscrapers are incredibly heavy, so they must be built on much more durable foundations than smaller buildings. In virtually every case, a skyscraper requires a deep foundation, with pilings, drilled shafts and columns put in place using a pile driver—all reinforced by concrete.
When ...
We’ll All Be Home for Christmas – by Greg Albrecht
Friends and Partner Letter for December 2021
1–Greg, your brother in Christ, to my dear Friends and Partners in the gospel, who are scattered all over this world (with apologies to the Apostle Paul as I borrow the style and content of his epistles, and with thanksgiving for the 1611 Authorized King James version, some of whose terminology and language I adopt and excerpt in this letter).
2–Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3–Blessed be God, who has saved us by his grace, through his Son, who came to us, becoming one of us, as the one and only God in the flesh, and that he might self-sacrifi...
The Dragon and the Baby – Greg Albrecht
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born” (Revelation 12:1-4, my emphasis).
Chances are you will not see or receive a Christmas card depicting the nativity in ...
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