Christmas 2010

Well here we are, about 2000 years since the birth of Jesus. It was a rather quiet event considering the magnitude of what was going on, God coming to earth in the form of a little baby to redeem the world from sin back to Himself. Just a couple of thoughts, there is a lot of tradition involved in this Christmas. First is the date Jesus was born, I have read lots of discussion on when Jesus was born and my conclusion is that noone can be dogmatic about when he was born. Summer and winter dates are given. The best arguement I have read is around December. Does it matter? Who knows? It seems to matter more to those who Christians who don't believe in celebrating Christmas at all anyways. Many say that Christmas should not be celebrated because it falls on a Pagan holiday and has Pagan roots and celebrates the sun god. Well, I don't remember ever worshipping the Sun God. Here is my thoughts. You ask anyone about why we have Christmas and with the exception of a select few, almost everyone will say becasue of Jesus or Santa Clause. I don't think there is any reason we should stop celebrating the Birth of Jesus. I was drawn and quartered by a couple of "Christians" last year because I would still celebrate the birth of Jesus. As long as I teach the whole truth about Christmas and Jesus, I don't see the need to withdraw. I am thankful for this time of year when we as Christians can call attention to Jesus in a world that does not know who He is and be a witness to them. Let's move on.

Well let me throw some questions out there for you to look up in the Bible.
1. Did Mary ride a donkey to Bethlehem?
2. Why did they wait to the last moment to go to Bethlehem? Or did they?
3. What did the InnKeeper say? What InnKeeper?
4. How old was Jesus when the Wise men visited Him?

Yall have a merry Christmas season.

The Digital Nativity Story

I ran across this on Andy's Blog. I thought it was great. What would it be like if Jesus were born today?

The Value of a Life, Butch Bays

The Value of a Life, Butch Bays

Well what can I say? An Icon in our community, Butch Bays, as well as our parish was murdered the other day. We are all left trying to make sense of his murder. It brings up memories of the senseless murder of my niece a few years ago. It definately shows a lack of respect for life. God gave us life and He is the only one that has the right to take it. Some in our society don't think life should be protected unless it is theirs. I truly wander how much the teaching of evolution has to do with it. After all in evolution importance of life comes from the individual or other individuals. It is determined by what you can do for me. In Christianity the value of a life comes from God. The value of something is determined by how much someone wants to pay for it. Jesus paid for us with His own life. If Jesus is God and God is infinite then how much are we really worth. Somehow we need to get back to teaching our children the  value of life and who places value on life. We need to teach them to protect life. We need to teach them that life has infinite value to God from conception to the oldest person alive. If Butch Bays had been incapacitated for His whole life and was dependent on others, he would have been infinitely valuable to God. We should see everyones life the way God does. And to the dismay of some, the killers life has the same value as the person they killed.