“Oh boy, they’re at it again!” That was the reaction I saw all over social media when a radio station decided to stop playing “Baby It’s Cold Outside” for fear that it encouraged date rape. The ensuing discussion was interesting. Should the song be banned? Does it encourage abuse? Is this another example of #MeToo going overboard? Or, is this our demons finally catching up with us? Are we being oversensitive? Or has reckoning day finally come?
3 Comments
One of the chairs will be empty around the table for many this Christmas season. A wife will celebrate the holidays without her husband for the first time. A son will read Luke 2 without mom sitting there alongside him. There will be those not-so-distant memories of a friend’s voice we still cherish, whose quietness now speaks louder than his conversations used to. Those who were near to our hearts will be conspicuously absent. And when the cold, empty seat takes the place of that person we love, we feel the weight of their absence profoundly.
Actions speak louder than words. Perhaps that is why God chose Joseph to be the human father of Jesus. Joseph is often called the “Silent Partner of the Incarnation.” He is the original “silent type” for not a word that Joseph ever spoke is recorded for us in the Bible. But although Joseph’s words are not recorded it is his actions that make him a truly “righteous man” (Matthew 1:19). Joseph’s walk talks louder than his talk talks. Joseph’s life helps us answer the age old question: “What kind of a man does God use?
GOD USES MEN WITH CHARACTER Joseph, like Mary, had no idea what God’s plans were for them. They had fallen in love and were engaged to be married. They had maintained the purity of their relationship and trusted in God’s morality. God, however, had picked them BOTH to be Jesus’ earthly parents. Mary, of course, becomes pregnant supernaturally, whilst Joseph is chosen to be the earthly father of Jesus. Alright, I’ll shoot straight with you. You are probably not going to read anything in this post that you didn’t know before you began (hence the title). I’m not going to pull up some obscure fact about Christmas or provide some incredible detail that you’ve never heard before. In fact, what I will be sharing are actually just the basic facts of the holiday. But before you complain that this is clickbait, I hope by the end of this article that you see how the truths I’m about to cover are shocking, whether you currently view them that way or not. You see, what we celebrate every Christmas should shock every one of us; yet, far too often we get so used to hearing it over and over that we find dull what we should find riveting, we gloss over that which should amaze us and ignore that which should captivate us. So here are three shocking Christmas truths (that you probably already know):
|
Popular ArticlesThe Problem With Christian Trump Supporters
How to Have Personal Standards Without Being a Legalist The Heart of Modesty Stop Trying to Reach Millennials AuthorsLike our Facebook page to keep up with the latest articles!
Categories
All
Archives
November 2020
|