We woke up in New Stanton, PA this morning and we’re going to bed in Middleburg, PA. We’ll be back in New Stanton tomorrow! What a great Christmas!
Some of my favorite pictures from the day:
View all of the photos from the day here.
Archives For General
I just finished watching “The Star of Bethlehem” on DVD tonight. It was given to me as an early Christmas present by one of our friends at church. She asked me to watch it before Christmas. Now I know why.
It’s incredible. Mr. Frederick Larson has done significant research into the “Star of Bethlehem” talked about in Matthew’s Gospel.
The reason he did the research? A simple lawn-decoration in his front yard caused his lawyer-mind to go into overdrive to make it as genuine as possible. He started down the path of researching just what was that “star in the East” to now presenting his findings to thousands each year!
The DVD is a presentation he gives to about 20-people in a unique-looking library. It’s very well produced with plenty of graphics and motion to keep my attention – even at this late-hour!
I was impressed with Larson’s findings and some of his hypotheses sparked something inside of me:
Matthew 2:1-2 – 1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
I don’t know that I’ve ever been challenged to understand the fact that these Magi from the East – these “astrologers” were so deliberate to find the king of the Jews and more importantly that they say that they desire to worship him. “…and have come to worship him.”
Babylonian Astrologers wanting to worship the King of the Jews? Interesting, no?
Remember Daniel? Daniel chapter 2 reminds us that Daniel (captive Jew) was made chief “Magus” over King Nebuchadnezer’s magi!
What if these Magi were the 500-year-later, trained-in-the-school-of-Daniel magi that would obviously seek to worship the King of the Jews foretold about in Scripture?!
I loved that question/answer/hypothesis!
For more on Larson’s research, visit http://bethlehemstar.net. To order a copy of the DVD, click here.
Today was our Children’s Christmas Program at church. Ella had to wear a mask as she was a “stable mouse”. Adorable as she was as a mouse, I did try and talk her into removing her mask during the performance so that I could get clear video of her face. Apparently she was too much of a professional to do such a thing. The video is still good, though. She’s adorable. There’s even a possible hand-holding event that we had a long discussion about when we got home!
Last night was our youth group’s annual Christmas Party. We had a great time of fellowship, food, and a unique gift-exchange that I’ve held as a tradition for almost 10-years with three youth ministries! As I went to sleep last night I was thinking of all the ways I could have made the event different and/or better. I started scribbling down some of the ideas that I had heard others do for their (youth and non-youth related) Christmas parties and thought it would be a good blog post to share with the world!
CHRISTMAS PARTY IDEAS:
It’s your turn now! What Christmas party ideas have you heard and/or tried yourself? Comment below!
