Jeremiah 31:15 is another verse that predicts events of the birth of the Messiah. It mentions Rachel weeping for her children. This is fulfilled in the massacre of the children under two years of age mentioned in the gospel of Matthew. We will discuss this more when we reach that passage. This is the aftermath of the visit of the astrologers.
Biblical prophecy often speaks to the current time and to a future where the interpretation is slightly different. This is the case in Hosea 11:1. it appears to be discussing the fact that Israel was brought out of Egypt by Jehovah and is going to be sent into exile from the Promised Land. In the New Testament, the story changes and the one coming from Egypt is Jesus, the actual Son of God. Joseph was told to take his family there in response to Herod’s coming attack on the children of Bethlehem.
Micah 5:2 is the source of the prophecy that tells that Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, but it tells more if you read on. Bethlehem was still a small village like in David’s day. It is now much larger but still considered a village. The one to be born there is from the distant past. Not a bad description for someone who is fully God and completely human.
During King David’s time on the throne, he was told by the prophet Nathan that Jehovah would reward him with the Davidic Kingdom being eternal. 2 Samuel 7:16 is where you will find this promise. Even when the kingdom of Judah was destroyed the prophecy held true.
In the book of Luke, we are introduced to Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth who wanted a child and were unable to have one. While serving in the Temple a messenger from Yahweh delivers the news that they will have a son, and his name is to be John.
John is the one that we know who came before Jesus. His father is told that he will be the Elijah that was predicted. Being an old man he has difficulty believing this message. I hope I will have an easier time believing in the Lord when He gives me this kind of good news. I might not be better than this Levite.
In Luke chapter one in the twenty-fifth verse Gabriel, the messenger that we saw earlier, goes to a girl named Mary. The message to her is that she will also have a child. His name is to be Jesus which is the Greek for the Hebrew name Joshua which means Yahweh is Salvation.
The birth of the baby is shown in Luke chapter two. Remember that the prophecy told of the birth in the town of Bethlehem. This is the boyhood home of King David. The prophets never told us about the manger that the baby would be laid in after He was born. The swaddling clothes is another detail that was not written about earlier.
Did you notice that the shepherds are spoken of in Luke but not the wise men. Matthew tells us about them. Chapter two talks about their visit to King Herod. He knows nothing about a newborn king. He is interested. This new baby is a threat to him. Notice that the number three is not even mentioned.
As you read further you see the number three applies to the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh that they brought for the baby. When they meet Mary and Jesus they are now staying in a house. There are no shepherds, no stable, and no sheep, or other animals.
These are astrologers that represent a king. They are not kings. They follow the signs of the stars. That is how they knew about Jesus. God wrote His birth in the heavens years before man was even created. That is the kind of God I want to believe in and worship. How about you?
It’s the holiday season. Halloween and Thanksgiving are over. Thoughts go to Mom and Dad and times long gone. Gone, but not forgotten. Growing up in Springfield, MO, was great. Life was easy for a child. Not so much for parents. Kids could be kids. Television was available, but not a necessity for the young. Not yet, anyway.
Toys in the nineteen-sixties were exploding. Improvements in batteries have enabled mechanical and electronic devices to surpass those powered by wind or hand. I remember those, though. Vanessa had the monkey that banged on the cymbals. Someone had a bank shaped like a firetruck that was a bank.
The Sears and other catalogs brought never-before-seen toys to the home. The method chosen for allowing parents to determine what to buy was to circle the item in a catalog. Because there were four children, each put their initials inside the circle. If a brother or sister had already circled and marked an item, all one had to do was include another set of initials.
Later, Mom or Dad would review the selections and their prices and place the order for the gifts. One particular year, a helicopter was one of the choices. There was a cargo door that opened. Accessories that could be lifted in and out of the fuselage by a battery-operated crane. Lights flashed, and while the propeller did not turn, it made a noise that sounded like it was.
The other things marked that year are long forgotten. When the boxes were opened, that was the gift. There was a problem. The cargo door hinges were broken. The door could not be closed. It just fell off. No one was on the phone on Christmas Day. The toy was played with carefully. Everything else was inspected, and the next business day, a phone call was made.
The damaged item was placed back in its box and set aside until it could be returned and a new one sent. The call was a disappointment. None of the helicopters were left. All had been sold. It could be returned, and some other items shipped to replace it.
All that was broken was a hinge on the plastic door. A metal pin was found in the junk drawer that could replace the plastic that broke. The tip of an ice pick was heated, and a hole was made. The pin was inserted and carefully glued in place. It lasted longer than the electrical part of the helicopter.
A few years later, when the toy was thrown away, the door hinge still worked. The lights could no longer be lit. The winch had stopped working. The propeller blades had been snapped and repaired more times than could be remembered. The repaired hinge still worked fine. The final accident was a crash from a stairway landing that caved in the opposite side of the fuselage. New toys had been received, and it was not necessary to try to fix them this time.
Sometimes toys are never forgotten, even if their names are not Buzz and Woody.
No, I do not want to stop Christmas from being celebrated on the twenty-fifth of December. I want to discontinue Christmas in October, November, and especially in July. Any month except December. Christmas is not what it should be. The name means a celebration of Christ.
What we call Christmas is an advertising gimmick. Companies want to hook you into their products, movies, or TV shows. I know many people find Christmas as enticing as pumpkin spice everything. Personally, I like pumpkin pie, but all these other concoctions that seem to be everywhere around the holidays seem to me to be just stupid marketing ploys.
Christmas was designed by the Catholic Church to replace a festival held in December. The trees and some of the other traditions that we have today were part of the original feast. What has created this monster that covers almost the entire year is the legend of Saint Nicholas and his desire to give gifts to local children.
Gifts are one reason that the Christmas season has been extended. Another is that many seem to enjoy decorating. Does it seem to you that some go overboard in decorating? I have also noticed this same desire to decorate for other holidays.
Halloween is over, and there are many who may not be into Christmas but enjoy decorating. If Halloween is their thing, that is why they go all out for this holiday. The thing I noticed in previous years is that many of these decorations are adapted to the upcoming Christmas season. I understand why they make these conversions.
The worst offenders are the TV networks that inundate me with Christmas year-round because some folks want to watch Yule tidings all year. This article is to advise these stations or networks that they are wasting their advertising money, telling me about these out-of-season premieres.
They probably don’t care any more than the networks that air football and other sports all weekend and two or three nights a week. I do not watch sports at all. I am sure I am not the only one.
It is not that I want everything my way. I would just prefer that those who have the power to force their opinions on us would slacken it off a little. Let’s not cancel Christmas; let us simply concentrate on the birth of our Lord and Savior.
I often think about things that I am not fond of. At this time of the year, we hear a lot of Christmas music. Some are carols. Others are spiritual. Many are just fun like one of my mom’s favorites, “Granma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” Then there are those that I question why someone even bothers to record them.
“Little Drummer Boy” tops this list. I do not find it to be Biblical. There is no young boy mentioned in the gospels as being at the manger. There are also those other songs and videos that have the animals discussing the baby being a savior. Do animals need a king? They already have lions.
We do not know how many men came from the East to find the newly born king of the Jews. A star had appeared in the night sky that indicated a new king was born in Judah. We know they were astrologers because of this. “We Three Kings” assumes that there were only three of them because they brought three gifts. Matthew tells us they traveled a long distance. He does not call them kings or tell us how many there were.
Ask anyone who has studied ancient customs in the desert areas, and they will tell you that only three people would be a dangerous caravan group. For this type of trip wives were probably included. There would also be servants to take care of these advisors to the king of their country. They would have been sent by their boss. At some point they lost the direction of the star and ended in Jerusalem.
“Go tell it on the Mountain” is another one that I have disliked by numerous artists. This is usually because of the arrangement. I have heard a few that had an entirely different melody and harmony that I enjoy. I am not a long hair music or opera fan. I’m not sure if this is the class this one falls into, but the original tune gives me that old fashioned feeling.
I am not a country music fan by the nature of the genre. This may be part of why some songs strike a bad chord in me. I grew up with the twangy, throat strangling, yodeling style of some of the earliest country artists. KTTS radio in Springfield, that’s Missouri not Ohio, played this for years. Bill Ring, Barefoot Bob and others were the D.J.s. It was my dad’s favorite station, and I walked out of the room when I heard it was playing.
There are good country singers. I posted Dolly’s version of “Mary Did You Know” in that column recently. The afore mentioned “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” is country in origin. I even like Kenny Rogers. Most of the time. But he was a pop artist when he started with “The First Edition.”
“Do You Hear What I Hear?” is another song with questionable lyrics. A lamb tells a shepherd boy. The little boy that tells a king. Then the monarch proclaims it to the public, each in turn. The topic of the conversation is a baby that is born. He is described as shivering in the cold.
Then the pitch for the non-profit organizations. Bring him silver and gold. Who wrote this? A Madison Avenue advertising copy writer? Give me a break. Yes, McDonalds, you do not have a trademark on that line.
Then there are Christmas titles and phrases that I find offensive. “Deck the Halls” is one. I enjoy the song. I have known the Hall family for years. Even though I don’t always agree with David, I would not knock him out. We used to hang the Greens before Christmas at our church. I never understood why that family did not boycott the celebration.
What about “The Twelve Days of Christmas?” Originally it was a political commentary. It has now been lengthened to the six months of Christmas. TV channels and marketers begin with July and stretch it to boxing day with the British. We Americans just switch to New Years so we can keep getting drunk.
Pop music brings up a long list of not Biblical and sometimes not so great Christmas songs. “Santa, Baby” is one. Some Santa Claus songs are cute. This one is almost obscene. Justin Bieber’s “Under the Mistletoe” is one I would like to say that I do not like. However, I understand the desire to be with someone special. I’ve enjoyed that for fifty years.
We are talking about my personal preferences here. You might enjoy the songs I do not. If so, that is your choice. I don’t want anyone to say that I am trying to ban anything. I can always turn them off.
A fun thing for a reader to do is pick up a favorite book and read it again. At Christmas there are many stories that come to mind. One of these for this Springfield boy brings the true meaning of Christmas home. This years’ experience has brought back some insights not thought of for many years, while reading “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.
If you’ve never read the book and only seen the thousands of video versions of the story, it is well worth a read. Copies are available almost anywhere and you can even find free downloads for some devices and computers. It takes only an hour or two to read completely. Or you can listen to the audio book. Some families make reading a Christmas tradition.
The main character is Ebenezer Scrooge. We all know Mr. Scrooge in his many incarnations. Since his creation he has been copied, degraded, analyzed, and referred to as an old fart or worse. However, the main subject is the Bob Cratchit family. The most memorable line of the book is uttered by Cratchit’s son Tim, aka Tiny Tim, who says, “God bless us, everyone.” The illness that has crippled this boy is not identified. The Ghost of Christmases to Come shows Ebenezer a scene referring to the boy’s death. The lead character’s death is also mentioned, but no one mourns for him.
Dickens was endeavoring to illustrate the plight of the poor, downtrodden, ordinary Londoner. To illustrate what his culture lacked he chose a typical lower-income family. They worked but could not get ahead unless they were treated better than Scrooge treated them. The plight of the poor is not necessarily the fault of the wealthy. They can, however, improve others lot by being fair and honest.
Charity is not required to help the working poor. Decent wages and proper treatment by employers go a long way. As Bob Cratchit shows us, hard work can be rewarding, if your boss wants it to be. The moral is more that kindness as exhibited by Tiny Tim is rewarded, than that those who lack concern for others will die and be forgotten.
Human beings were created separately by God. We should demonstrate human kindness and not animal unconcern. Pets or even inanimate objects are shown more love than some people are shown. Even Mr. Scrooge was shown kindness by the spirits. His greed must be corrected not punished.
This was Dicken’s fourth Christmas story that he published. If you know the other three before this, you are a dedicated bibliophile. One was a short part of “The Pickwick Papers” his first novel that was published in 1837. Charles’ other Christmas stories that came after were “The Chimes” in 1844, “The Cricket on the Hearth” in 1845, “The Battle of Life” 1846. and “The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain” from 1848.
We have read many stories about Christmas over the years. I would like to hear about yours. Make a comment below and share them with us. For other authors please send me links to your stories or blogs about this and other holidays. I know Christmas is not the only holy day that is celebrated. I am always expanding my knowledge of cultures. As Saint Nick exclaimed in Clement Clark Moore’s poem, “Happy Christmas to all. And to all a good night.”
This is one of my favorite Christmas songs. Did you know the Christian comedian Mark Lowry penned these lyrics in 1984? In his own words, “I just tried to put into words the unfathomable. I started thinking of the questions I would have for her if I were to sit down & have coffee with Mary. You know, ‘What was it like raising God?’ ‘What did you know?’ ‘What didn’t you know?’”
These questions were asked in a script he wrote for a church Christmas program. In 1991, Buddy Greene wrote the music, and Michael English recorded the song for the first time. It was released on his debut solo album, Michael English. I have a copy of the cassette tape in my collection.
The three had toured with “The Gaither Vocal Band”. Many have recorded it since including Lowry, Kenny Rogers and Winona Judd, Dolly Parton, Pentatonix, Kathy Mattea, Clay Aiken, Ceelo Green, and Carrie Underwood. David Guthrie and Bruce Greer used it as the title and basis of a stage musical that won a Gospel Music Association Dove Award for Musical of the Year in 1999.
Let’s look at the questions Lowry asks Mary. Did you know who this baby would be? That He would walk on water? He was the ruler of the universe. He was the promised deliverer. There are numerous queries in these lyrics and for the majority the answer is no.
Mary was told by the messenger Gabriel that she would give birth to a son. She was to name him Jeshua or in Greek, Jesus. He would be called the son of the most high and would inherit David’s throne. In the gospels, we are not given more details. I doubt that Mary was either.
She was more concerned with the fact that she would have a baby. She could not get pregnant. She had never had sex. God would be the father of her child. This was never heard of before. Many women may have claimed to have given birth through immaculate conception. The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was born this way. My Bible does not say that.
What interests me most about these words that Lowry wrote is that we are looking at a young girl who has given birth to her first child. Does she know more than any other woman what will happen in the future. Her son did it from an early age. She did not.
This child, as a man, would not only deliver her from eternal punishment for sin, but also her younger children. He would if they and our own children accept Him as the savior that He claims to be.
God lives outside of time. He created time with our universe. Genesis tells us that. Moses did not understand it when he wrote it down. I don’t understand it. I do believe it. Jesus is Jehovah God. He created the universe and our world. He came to live with us and die for us. Do you believe that? Tell Him that you do. Accept Him for who He is.
As you hear the many Christmas carols this year think about the questions in this song. Do you know who that baby is? These inquiries are more important than anything you will be told about Santa Claus, Ebenezer Scrooge, or Rudolph. This is life-changing.
For those of you in my area, Mark Lowry will be in concert at The Mansion in Branson, Missouri on March 12, 2025. Whether this song will be sung at that venue is not known by me at this time. I’ve heard it at other concerts of his that I have attended previously.
(Quotation from “How Well Do You Know ‘Mary Did You Know?'”. Sheet Music Direct. Retrieved December 30, 2018. an interview with the songwriter, Mark Lowry … originally conducted by Martha Lyon for AbsolutelyGospel.com)
Yes, it is. Which holiday is next? This American Holiday season includes three. We have many holidays each year. Check the internet and see what today is on the official calendar. Many things will appear for each individual day. As I am writing this column, I checked https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/november/november-14 and found these facts. View it yourself for others.
Today is National Seatbelt Day and Family PJ Day as well as Robert Fulton’s birthday. Happy birthday to the developer of the first commercial steam ship. Sherwood Schwartz was also born on this day. He is the creator of “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch.” Let’s not forget Henry Blake, the original commander of MASH 477 played by Mclean Stevenson.
This site is full of trivia about any day of the year. Put your birthday in and see which other important people besides yourself were born that day and what Congress is honoring on your day. As you scroll down you will see what events your day is famous for. Maybe your birthday will appear here in the future.
Scrolling back up, let’s look at the three holidays that make up this season. The first was All Hallows Eve that we call Halloween. It and the third day, Christmas, were part of the Christianization of Roman holidays after Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official Roman religion. The second of these days is the all-American Thanksgiving. This is the next on our calendar.
Marketers here want you to start shopping for these three days and refer to the “Holiday Season” to mostly impact your wallet. This is capitalism at its finest. Our economy is based on this concept. Sell your products and services however you can. If a particular day on the calendar can be used, so be it.
I will be talking more about Christmas and have expounded on Halloween before. I want to take an in-depth look at why we Americans should be thankful. For one thing, the election is over. This happens every two years in November and this year is no different from others. We can put politics out of our minds. If the media can be shut out.
What else are you thankful for this year? Health, happiness, family, and friends are things that come to my mind. I’ve celebrated forty-eight years of marriage with one woman. If you can’t say this, think of something that is important to you.
We have three daughters and twelve grandchildren. That will make for a noisy and happy Thanksgiving celebration. Our feelings of contentment don’t revolve around this group. We have an extended family, a host of friends, a nice home, a dog, and many conveniences of our modern lifestyle. Least of all is the computer and internet that bring my words to you.
Unlike us, many of you may not count health high on your list. I put it in the lead not because ours is perfect. It is manageable, most days. I rank it high because of how much worse it could be. We could have cancer, again. We could be dealing with heart issues, again. We have our problems that the medical community seems to be unable to diagnose. That may be your problem this season.
I want to stop worrying about my difficulties and be thankful for what I do have. I have a lot. I am reminded of that at this time of year as we prepare for the family to return home and must put as much as possible away before they arrive. Don’t open the closet Fibber McGee.
Also, do not forget to be thankful for our savior. If you are not a believer in Him, investigate my archives and stay tuned. We will have more before the next big holiday.
Life can be a constant bother or joy. It is all in the way you perceive it. Approach these holidays with an attitude of gratitude not of dread. Depression can get us at any time. Watch for it raising its ugly head and kick it in the teeth with a song of Thanksgiving and joy. I’m saving Christmas music until December.
Christmas is upon us, and we have been inundated with Santa Claus and Elves on Shelves, in toilets, in the fireplace, and even making flour angels. Why do we even celebrate Christ mass? That is what the word means. The Roman Christian Church was fighting the old Roman celebrations. Something was needed for those who were joining Constantine and following the Jewish Messiah.
The winter solstice was a time for celebration in the Roman world. Becoming a Christian should not mean the loss of a holiday. The early Church began many traditions that are remembered by Catholics. We protestants are not that up on a lot of the feasts and fasts around Christmas or Easter.
The reason for the season is the savior. Let’s begin with the story of his birth. The gospel of Luke tells us that Mary was pregnant. She was betrothed to Joseph of Nazareth. The Roman government declared that everyone should pay a tax. Registration of all citizens was needed.
Every ten years the United States does a national census. There are many reasons for this. It is mostly to remark the lines for our congressional representatives. Missouri had a problem doing this before the elections this year. That’s another column and has nothing to do with Christmas.
There were no computers in the first century and everyone that lived in the Roman Empire was requested to return to their ancestral city. Joseph left Nazareth and took his fiancé, Mary, with him. She was expecting her first child. Joseph was not the father. He had the opportunity to break the engagement when he learned about the pregnancy. We’ll share more on this when we discuss Matthew’s story of the birth of her child.
We do not know why Joseph took Mary with him to Bethlehem. It may have been that he was attempting to continue the impression that he had impregnated her. He may have been a man who felt the need to be with her when she delivered her baby. Remember that he knew he was not the biological father of this child. He loved her and wanted to protect her.
When they arrived in Bethlehem there was no place to stay. When we read that there was no room in the inn, we may believe that all the hotels and motels were filled. This village probably had one or two of what the British call public houses. Places where a traveler can be fed and sleep for a night or two. We hear that they went to a stable and think it is an awful thing. This would have been common in this era.
The most interesting part of this story is the angels appearing to the shepherds. They announced the birth of the savior of all mankind. This was not the messiah that was expected by the majority of the Jews. They wanted a king that would rescue them from the rule of the Romans.
I hope you are not asking where the three wise men are. We’ll talk about that in a future piece. Our discussion of Matthew’s story will be the same as it was for Luke. We will read the scripture and answer questions that you may have about it. In the meantime, reread Luke’s account and comment below, if you have any questions.
A fun thing for a reader to do is pick up a favorite book and read it again. At Christmas, there are many stories that come to mind. One of these for this Springfield boy brings the true meaning of Christmas home. This year’s experience has brought back some insights not thought of for many years while reading “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.
If you’ve never read the book and only seen the thousands of video versions of the story, it is well worth a read. Copies are available almost anywhere and you can even find free downloads for some devices and computers. It takes only an hour or two to read completely. Some families make reading a Christmas tradition.
The main character is Ebenezer Scrooge. We all know Mr. Scrooge in his many forms. Since his creation, he has been copied, degraded, analyzed, and referred to as an old fart or worse. However, the main subject is the Bob Crachet family. The most memorable line of the book is uttered by Crachet’s son Tim, aka Tiny Tim, who says, “God bless us, everyone.” The illness that has crippled this boy is not identified. The Ghost of Christmases to Come shows Ebenezer a scene referring to the boy’s death. The lead character’s death is also mentioned, but no one mourns for him.
Dickens was endeavoring to illustrate the plight of the poor, downtrodden, ordinary Londoner. To illustrate what his culture lacked he chose a typical lower-income family. They worked but could not get ahead unless they were treated better than Scrooge treated them. The plight of the poor is not necessarily the fault of the wealthy. They can, however, improve others a lot by being fair and honest.
Charity is not required to help the working poor. Decent wages and proper treatment by employers go a long way. As Bob Cratchet shows us, hard work can be rewarding, if your boss wants it to be. The moral is more that kindness as exhibited by Tiny Tim is rewarded, than that those who lack concern for others will die and be forgotten.
Human beings were created separately by God. We should demonstrate human kindness and not animal unconcern. Pets or even inanimate objects are shown more love than some people are shown. Even Mr. Scrooge was shown kindness by the spirits. His greed must be corrected not punished.
Dickens used many of his books to promote the harsh conditions in Victorian England. He criticized orphanages, poor houses, businesses, the criminal justice system, and the French government. I hope when you read “The Christmas Carol” you will focus on the story and not get hung up on contemplating the motivation as I have.
Charles (Chuck) Kensinger 