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Showing posts with the label encouragement

Begotten, Not Forgotten

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While witnessing to Muslims, they object to Jesus being called “the Son of God” because Allah (the Arabic word for God) supposedly had no sons. When I quoted John 3:16 to one Muslim in particular, this man got hung up on the word “begotten.” He thought it only referred to the result of a sexual union.   The words “begot” and “begotten” are used numerous times in the Bible, usually in genealogy listings. Those words have other uses in Scripture besides records of human offspring . Look at The Message Bible’s rendering of John 1:9-13… “The Life-Light was the real thing: every person entering Life he brings into Light. He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn't want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not...

O Christmas Tree…Oh No?

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With the holiday season approaching, many businesses and individuals have already put up decorations. Among them are Christmas trees. A popular carol “O Christmas Tree” originated from Germany as “O Tannenbaum”, which translates as “O Fir Tree.” The original lyrics had nothing to do with Christmas. Nevertheless, I remember singing the German version a time or two while in grade school. Like other holiday traditions, some Christians oppose the usage of Christmas trees. One of my Facebook friends made a judgmental comment that people putting up Christmas trees “are worshiping the devil and have a mental disease.” Before giving my life to Christ, I didn’t have a Christmas tree in my apartment because of the time and expense involved. Instead, I drove up to Mom and Dad’s house for the holidays and enjoyed looking at their decorations. Nowadays, I still don’t own a Christmas tree mainly due to my missionary lifestyle. Once I heard e vangelist Jesse Duplantis talk about the time h...

The Reason for the Season

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Three years ago on the day after Christmas, I went to a grocery store with a friend of mine. The store was still running holiday advertisements on their loudspeaker. Not once did I hear the announcer mention the word “Christmas.” When I was a kid, I often heard people say "Merry Christmas" to each other. Since then the world has gradually removed "Christ" from Christmas. In our politically correct society, Christmas trees are now often called “holiday trees.” School districts refer to Christmas vacation as “Winter Break.” They also prohibit religious songs from their music programs such as “Silent Night” in favor of ditties like “Frosty the Snowman.” 2,000 years ago, the apostles were commanded by authorities “...not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.” (Acts 4:18) Today there are businesses requiring their employees to say "Happy Holidays" to customers instead of "Merry Christmas." Some city governments forbid N...