Christmas culture

A few days before the summer solstice—Stephen Hawthorne's first Christmas in Bolivia—he saw women selling moss in the street, and he bought some for a manger scene. He and his wife arranged their Nativity figures on the moss, put some lights around it, and thought it looked lovely. Soon, members of the evangelical church they attended dropped by. "They were absolutely horrified when they saw what we'd done," says Hawthorne. "We said, 'What's the matter?' They said, 'This is idolatry.'"

Oddly enough, Hawthorne says, when he and his family visited one of the churches that condemned manger scenes, "We in our turn were horrified to see this huge blow-up figure of Santa Claus on top of the church. It was a lesson to us about how people give meaning to symbols."

Susan Wunderink, Christianity Today

At this time of year...

I like to get my t-shirt out. Humour me.

Providence

Understanding and applying the doctrine of divine providence will be absolutely essential for any church leaders...One reason is that an understanding of providence will help them to fight the temptation to despair, or give up, in the face of the challenges ahead.

Reeder, From Embers..., p168-9

Character

Circumstances do not dictate our character. Instead they reveal it and provide the opportunity to refine it. A good leader does not use bad circumstances as an excuse, but as an opportunity for great things to happen by God's grace.

Reeder, From Embers..., p166

Success

As Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones once said, "The worst thing that can happen to a person is to succeed before he is ready." And when we get to heaven, perhaps we will discover that God worked overtime to keep success from us to preserve us.

RT Kendall, A Man After God's Own Heart, p75

Retracing the Bethlehem Road

I think it is probably a device for telling stories of modern life in Israel, but this still looks very interesting at Christmas time.