Christmas Today, marks the Official Opener for the commercial, retail time of year before Christmas. The giving of gifts was meant to be a reflection of Gods Gift to us. Jesus Christ Sometimes I wonder, what it may have been like 2000 years ago in Judea if they had Christmas Shopping? Would a Used Chariot Lot had Ashram come from his small home in green plaid robes? With cigar? Would an Abacus company offered their Top-O-The-Line abacus with silver beads for a few Drachmas less? Would the wine guy have offered two small goatskins full for the price of one? As a nationwide census was taking place, would the Applebees and Motel 6s of their day raised their prices? Instead, we find Joseph, probably a young 20 something husband with Mary his wife, probably still a teenager, coming to an Inn. Man with a rucksack, donkey with mother, time being in short supply. Maybe, we should pause, and take stock. The latest electronic gadget that will shortly be replaced with yet another, a hard plastic doll even a dog would not chew on. Maybe we should focus on what was to come in about thirty years. Here are some reflections of other great people ... +++ No man ever loved like Jesus. He taught the blind to see and the dumb to speak. He died on the cross to save us. He bore our sins. And now God says, Because He did, I can forgive you. Billy Graham As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene....No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. Albert Einstein Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him. Napoleon Bonaparte Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander the Great, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of school, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times. Philip Schaff Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the Child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His Divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a Cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying—and that was His coat. When He was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Such was His human life—He rises from the dead. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the Centerpiece of the human race and the Leader of the column of progress. I am within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life. James C. Hefley
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 14:09:00 +0000
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