A to Z of Christianity : 'H'

HEROD

The famous story goes of the women who, when hearing about special Christian Christmas stamps, stated that Christians try and get in on everything!

There have always been people who have tried to strip Christmas of it's true meaning and cause. From the supporters of calling it 'Happy Holidays' even right back to the first Christmas.

Judea was ruled by the Romans and their client king was the evil Herod the Great, a man whose greatness is rather muted by the fact he was a mass murderer who even murdered his own family.

On hearing that a 'King of the Jews' was to be born, Herod attempted to nip what he saw as a threat to himself in the bud by ordering the execution of all boys under the age of two - The Massacre of the Innocents.

Today we have organisations who try and make it as if they are acting for those who don't believe in Christmas when they really appear to be acting against those who do. Does the word Christmas actually harm anyone? Does anyone actually have an issue apart from insecure Atheists worried that their militant campaigns against faith are failing with the amount of Christians holding steady, improving even against levels before.

Don't let anyone or anything stop you celebrating the Reason for the Season this Christmas! JESUS :)

A-Z of Christianity 'G'

Being Christmas, it is the time of year where the Christmas tunes come out. I am a big fan of Christmas music and to much people's disdain could listen to it at anytime of the year. Whilst playing on the Xbox with my brother the other day we had some music shuffling on iTunes and my brother gave me a massive look when Cliff Richard's 'Mistletoe and Wine' came on.

I quite like the song although it isn't my favourite ever Christmas song ('Merry Christmas Everybody' by Slade) but contains the following lyrics:-

Its a time for giving, a time for getting,
A time for forgiving and for forgetting.
Christmas is love, Christmas is peace,
A time for hating and fighting to cease.

This is what Christmas is all about and also the main message of Christianity - God's GRACE!

Our relationships with God are strained because of sin. Imagine the problems adultery gives a married couple then times them by a trillion (because we have sinned an awful lot!) and you have the issue between us and God. Our sin keeps us apart from God and from knowing Him. God has every right to punish us but decided to give us a chance, and that chance was Christ.

The coming of Christ was the beginning of God's GIFT to us unfolding in Salvation from the weight of our sin by Jesus taking the punishment for us. Dying through crucifixion was not fun, it was probably the most painful death ever invented and Jesus knew that as He carried his cross, carried it for us.

Unlike the trust and forgiveness issues a married couple would naturally have in adultery situations, when we ask for forgiveness God is so mighty, loving and Graceful and Christ's sacrifice is so great that we are forgiven straight away.

By the time I was 17 I was losing my passion and excitement for Christmas but coming to know God and thus coming to know the wonderful meaning and incredible news behind it means I will never come close to losing it again! I simply love Christmas, it is wonderful to give and receive gifts, to share fun and memories with close ones and to eat lots of food. But none of that means anything to me without knowing that Christ gave His life in the most horrible way so that I, that we, could be clean before God and know Him once again.

So this Christmas remember how God gave, how God forgives, how God loved and how God decided to end the war between us and sin. Listen to a bit of Cliff if it helps!!

Proof that God exists? Part Three

The basic operations of arithmetic are addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Laws of mathematics then, are basically descriptions of what happens within these operations (and more complex ones as well) . For example, with the law of addition we know that if you take 4 things and add them to 3 things, you end up with 7 things.

If you believe that laws of mathematics do not exist, what would you do in the following scenario? Let's say that you walked into a bank and asked for change for a $100 bill. If the teller handed you only 2 $5 bills would you be satisfied with his or her personal interpretation of mathematics or would you appeal to a universal law of mathematics to show that he/she was wrong? I suspect the latter.

You see, you deny that laws of mathematics exist, yet you use them all the time.

How can these laws be explained without a logical being to create them?

Credit: www.proofthatgodexists.org

I posted this last year...

but it is so good I'm posting it again!

It’s Christmas night. The house is quiet. Even the crackle is gone from the fireplace. Warm coals issue a lighthouse glow in the darkened den. Stockings hang empty on the mantle. The tree stands naked in the corner. Christmas cards, tinsel, and memories remind Christmas night of Christmas day.


It’s Christmas night. What a day it has been! Spiced tea. Santa Claus. Cranberry sauce. “Thank you, so much.” “You shouldn’t have!” “Grandma is on the phone.” Knee-deep wrapping paper. “It just fits.” Flashing cameras. It’s Christmas night. The girls are in bed. Jenna dreams of her talking Big Bird and clutches her new purse. Andrea sleeps in her new Santa pajamas.


It’s Christmas night. The tree that only yesterday grew from soil made of gifts, again grows from the Christmas tree stand. Presents are now possessions. Wrapping paper is bagged and in the dumpsite. The dishes are washed and leftover turkey awaits next week’s sandwiches.


It’s Christmas night. The last of the carolers appeared on the ten o’clock news. The last of the apple pie was eaten by my brother-in-law. And the last of the Christmas albums have been stored away having dutifully performed their annual rendition of chestnuts, white Christmases, and red-nosed reindeer.


It’s Christmas night. The midnight hour has chimed and I should be asleep, but I’m awake. I’m kept awake by one stunning thought. The world was different this week. It was temporarily transformed. The magical dust of Christmas glittered on the cheeks of humanity ever so briefly, reminding us of what is worth having and what we were intended to be. We forgot our compulsion with winning, wooing, and warring. We put away our ladders and ledgers, we hung up our stop watches and weapons. We stepped off our racetracks and roller coasters and looked outward toward the star of Bethlehem.


It’s the season to be jolly because, more than at any other time, we think of him. More than in any other season, his name is on our lips. And the result? For a few precious hours our heavenly yearnings intermesh and we become a chorus. A ragtag chorus of longshoremen, Boston lawyers, illegal immigrants, housewives, and a thousand other peculiar persons who are banking that Bethlehem’s mystery is in reality, a reality. “Come and behold him” we sing, stirring even the sleepiest of shepherds and pointing them toward the Christ-child.
For a few precious hours, he is beheld. Christ the Lord. Those who pass the year without seeing him, suddenly see him. People who have been accustomed to using his name in vain, pause to use it in praise. Eyes, now free of the blinders of self, marvel at his majesty. All of a sudden he’s everywhere. In the grin of the policeman as he drives his paddy wagon full of presents to the orphanage.
In the twinkle in the eyes of the Taiwanese waiter as he tells of his upcoming Christmas trip to see his children. In the emotion of the father who is too thankful to finish the dinner table prayer. He’s in the tears of the mother as she welcomes home her son from overseas. He’s in the heart of the man who spent Christmas morning on skid row giving away cold baloney sandwiches and warm wishes. And he’s in the solemn silence of the crowd of shopping mall shoppers as the elementary school chorus sings “Away in a Manger.” Emmanuel. He is with us. God came near.


It’s Christmas night. In a few hours the cleanup will begin — lights will come down, trees will be thrown out. Size 36 will be exchanged for size 40, eggnog will be on sale for half-price. Soon life will be normal again. December’s generosity will become January’s payments and the magic will begin to fade. But for the moment, the magic is still in the air. Maybe that’s why I’m still awake. I want to savor the spirit just a bit more. I want to pray that those who beheld him today will look for him next August. And I can’t help but linger on one fanciful thought: if he can do so much with such timid prayers lamely offered in December, how much more could he do if we thought of him every day?


Max Lucado

What Christmas is really about!

Christmas might be at the end of the year when the nights are dark, the X Factor winner is announced, there are parties for this, that and everything under the sun. Christmas actually celebrates a beginning as well as an end.

The first Christmas was the fulfilment of a promise made to Israel by God that a Messiah would come to save them.

But it was also the beginning of a perfect life of healing, wisdom, love and ultimate self sacrifice.

Christmas - A Saviour has come!

Easter - 'It is Finished'

Let us not forget that this Christmas!

When the Waves come in...

I am very happy to announce that my exams for 2011 are now complete! 


They went well and I feel the two months hard revision was worth it :)


As you can imagine, having become a bit of a social recluse over the last two months it is a big relief to be able to go out with friends and have free time again with no feeling of obligation to revise or guilt if I don't or am unable to do as much as I think was possible.


What has surprised me though is the feelings of relief and freedom have shown me how stressed I actually have been the last month or so. It scares me a little bit that, without realising, my attitude has been impaired by the weight of determination to do well and pressure to succeed that was on me. I am already praying that God would help me handle it better next time.


But what really pleased me is that I actually didn't notice the stress. It didn't overcome me and, actually, didn't even come close. It's like God lifted me up above the worst of it.


It reminded me of a Parable Jesus told:-

Matthew 7:24-29 : The Wise and Foolish Builders

 ²⁴ Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

    ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

    ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

    ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

   

 ²⁸When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,

    ²⁹ because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

I am blessed because by giving my life to Jesus and trusting in Him my life is built upon the Rock that Jesus is in our lives. He supports us, encourages us and helps us all the way to the amazing things He has given us to do, even when we don't see it or know it.


When the waves such as exam stress comes crashing into my life, Jesus lifts me up above it and I can go on through the storm.


What is your life built on? A rock that can lift you above the biggest of storms or the sand that will take all the punishment helplessly?

Gary Speed

Gary Speed 1969-2011. RIP.

By now everyone in Britain has probably heard the sad news about the Wales Manager Gary Speed's death. Nothing makes this easier to understand or take in, I still don't quite believe it. Speed was a lovely man and was beginning to prove himself as a great manager with the Welsh National Team. My tribute to Speed is that he is the man who helped me believe in our national side again and I only hope we can complete his good work and make the Brazil 2014 World Cup and dedicate it to his memory.


Depression is considered to be the cause by many and although nobody knows what actually happened, you have to be in a pretty awful place to consider taking your life, let alone actually go through with it.


Not many people really know what depression truly is, not even myself. I can say that there have been some very miserable times in my life where I haven't been happy and really struggled to see a good future. I think all of us have been there in our lives. There appears to be a depression that goes beyond this, which is all consuming and very hard to get through. I can't say I have have ever had it that bad. As a Christian, prayer and putting my hope and mind towards Jesus has been a wonderful, incredible help in getting through my hard times. God has promised us a hope and a future (Jer 29:11), that good will come out of all our trials (Romans 8:28) and a glory revealed in us that goes far beyond our present sufferings (Romans 8:18). Best of all, He promises us Salvation and a happy, painless eternity through Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9), (Revelation 21:5). Jesus makes my day everyday and these truths have helped me so much.


This can be very more easily said than done at times. I don't know if you have depression, feel my experiences above are of no help or have come through this similarly yourself but I will post some great quotes from Charles Spurgeon regarding depression which I came across today.


"Before any great achievement, some measure of depression is very usual."


"Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy."


"I find myself frequently depressed - perhaps more so than any other person here. And I find no better cure for that depression than to trust in the Lord with all my heart, and seek to realize afresh the power of the peace-speaking blood of Jesus, and His infinite love in dying upon the cross to put away all my transgressions."


Lastly I have a wonderful verse to share. A major part of depression in my opinion is Satan's ability to lie to you and bring you down. He wants you to be down because he hates you being joyful and doing the things God wants you to do.


2 Corinthians 12 7:10

⁷ To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

    ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

    ⁹ But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

    ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

No matter what your trial, in God YOU CAN OVERCOME!

John 16:33 - I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.