You may have already taken down decorations, the sweets and food may already be consumed, presents broken and discarded, Christmas is over. However, Eastern Orthodox churches are just gearing up to celebrate and traditionally in the West we celebrated over 12 days, twelve days of feasting to follow 40 days of fasting, shortened in more… Continue reading Magi
Tag: Christmas
Home for Christmas: The Way home is through the Cross
At the end of CS Lewis’ Prince Caspian, the Telmarines who had ruled over Narnia have been defeated by Aslan. Those that survive are offered a choice, to stay in Narnia with Caspian as king at peace with the talking beasts or to return home to the Island they came from. Some choose the latter.… Continue reading Home for Christmas: The Way home is through the Cross
Christians awake …
We are often being told that we need to wake up. Various events have been described as “wake up calls” including atrocities we have witnessed this year such as the Manchester synagogue attack and the Bondi Beach massacre. We’ve been told at various times that we need to wake up to the danger our nation… Continue reading Christians awake …
Home for Christmas: Paper chains and broken chains
One of the things I love about Christmas is the way that we love to decorate our homes with tinsel, trees and lights. Like many of you, one of our favourite family traditions is an evening walk around to see the different light displays. Some people go to quite an effort such as the family… Continue reading Home for Christmas: Paper chains and broken chains
Home for Christmas: No room?
It’s been well established for some time now that Mary did not give birth to Jesus in a stable. The word translated “inn” by most of our versions of Luke 2 more likely refers to an upper guest right on. Jesus will have been born in the central living area where humans and animals mucked… Continue reading Home for Christmas: No room?
Xmas and Christmas – why I don’t like the CS Lewis essay
A Christmas tradition among Evangelicals is to quote an essay by CS Lewis decrying the secularism of Xmas You can read the essay here. https://wp.me/pChK2-MV Well, I’ve created my own tradition which is to restate every year that I’m all in for Xmas and Christmas with this post.
The less obvious opportunities of Christmas
Most of us will be coming towards the end of our Christmas special events. I wonder how things have gone. Some of you just be feeling super encouraged. You will have had a fantastic time with lots of visitors coming. Maybe you have even seen people put faith in Jesus. You may have at least… Continue reading The less obvious opportunities of Christmas
Home for Christmas Dinner
You can’t talk about “Home for Christmas” without talking about food can you? I associated Christmas growing up with home baking. Mum always protested that shop bought mince pies tasted too sweet whereas she could control the amount of filling that went into the ones she made. So home made mince pies were a tradition,… Continue reading Home for Christmas Dinner
Nativity
By way of a seasonal taster for The Big Story video series, here’s the bit where I cover the Christmas Story.
Why that Christmas talk may have been more expository than you think
The other day I talked about breaking the Conservative Evangelical rule that every sermon has to be expository. Here is the paradox, you may have ended up being at least as if not more expository by relaxing the rule. I say potentially more expository first, because what happens when we try to force fit an… Continue reading Why that Christmas talk may have been more expository than you think
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