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'Christmas' Tagged Posts

Putting the ‘Christ’ into Christmas

Putting the ‘Christ’ into ‘Christmas’   Over recent years Australians have been pressured to be politically correct and tolerant. Often it is the squeakiest wheel that gets the most media attention and results in the most rapid change in our pluralistic society. Pluralism is the belief that all ideas are equally valid and true (unless of course your idea is that there’s…

Christmas Is Not All About Children

They say that Christmas is all about children. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our insistence on this line demonstrates that we, despite our sophistication, cannot bear too much reality. The truth is that Christmas is about one Child – The Child. An unknown writer put it like this: ‘More light than we can learn, More wealth than we can treasure,…

A Big Rethink of Life

I was reading about a New York bus driver who had driven his bus along the same route for years once made a radical decision. He was fed up with running along the same route year after year stopping at the same stops and so one morning he collected his empty bus and drove out of New York City heading for Florida.…

Strangers

Christmas Day is just around the corner! Three sleeps in fact until that wonderful day of the year. We’re sure that although it’s been a busy time leading up, work to finish off, families to organise, presents to buy, roasts to cook, when you sit down for lunch and see the family gathered around, the excited faces of children (and adults) as…

Work Colleagues and Neighbours

Christmas is a great time of the year for many people. It’s a time of celebration where gifts are given, roasts are eaten, holidays are taken and time is spent with family and friends. Although as Christians we also enjoy these things, they can only ever be secondary considerations, because the real gift of Christmas blows the stuffing out of a nice…

Family

“Christmas is about…” typed into Google brings up the responses “family”, “family and friends” and “giving”. Jesus is not mentioned until number four. How would you finish that sentence? Although we all know that “Jesus is the reason for the season”, is this actually reflected in the way we talk about and celebrate the holiday, or do our actions suggest that the…

The Reality of Christmas

‘He was born outside a small hotel in an obscure Jewish village in the great days of the Roman Empire. The story is usually prettified when we tell it Christmas by Christmas, but it is really rather beastly and cruel. The reason why Jesus was born outside the hotel is that it was full and nobody would offer a bed to a…

Excuses, Justice and Mercy

“Justice!” is the cry of the victims. How many times have we seen victims exiting our courts concerned that justice has not been done? As a society we want justice and yet it sometimes seems so hard to achieve. When businesses cheat, when accidents happen, when violent crimes are committed the victims and their families cry for justice. It is only right…

Crowding Out God To Avoid Reality

He was born outside a small hotel in an obscure Jewish village in the great days of the Roman Empire. The story is usually prettified when we tell it Christmas by Christmas but it is really rather beastly and cruel. The reason Jesus was born outside the hotel is that it was full and nobody would offer a bed to a woman…