QUARANTINE BLOG # 276

December 31, 2020

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man. According to a Montgomery city ordinance in 1955, African Americans were required to sit at the back of public buses and were also obligated to give up those seats to white riders if the front of the bus filled up. Parks was in the first row of the Black section when the white driver demanded that she give up her seat to a white man.

Martin Luther King, Jr. organized a successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Alabama state and Montgomery city bus segregation laws. On December 20, King announced, “The year old protest against city buses is officially called off, and the Negro citizens of Montgomery are urged to return to the buses tomorrow morning on a non-segregated basis.” The boycott ended the next day. Rosa Parks was among the first to ride the newly desegregated buses.

👉  Abolitionist John Brown was executed on charges of treason, murder and insurrection on December 2, 1859. Brown planned to seize the Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry and retreat to the Appalachian Mountains of Maryland and Virginia, where they would establish an abolitionist republic of liberated enslaved people and abolitionist whites. He was initially successful, but U.S. Marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart, recaptured the arsenal, taking John Brown and several other raiders alive. On the day of his execution, 16 months before the outbreak of the Civil War, John Brown prophetically wrote, “The crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”

👉  On December 3, 1967, 53-year-old Louis Washkansky received the first human heart transplant. Surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the revolutionary medical operation. After Washkansky’s surgery, he was given drugs to suppress his immune system and keep his body from rejecting the heart. These drugs also left him susceptible to sickness, however, and 18 days later he died from double pneumonia. Despite the setback, Washkansky’s new heart had functioned normally until his death.

👉  At 2:10 p.m., on December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 took off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned, and the Legend of the Bermuda Triangle was born. Tomorrow’s blog will tell the true story of Flight 19.

👉  On December 6, 1884, in Washington, D.C., workers place a nine-inch aluminum pyramid atop a tower of white marble, completing the construction of a monument to the city’s namesake and the nation’s first president, George Washington (The first monument to our first president is a rugged stone tower that was erected by the citizens of Boonsboro, Maryland, in 1827). In September, 2020, a Washington, DC committee formed by the mayor recommended calling for the federal government to “remove, relocate or contextualize” a group of federal memorials and monuments, including the Washington Monument.

👉  At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese military attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded. The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941– a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” Congress declared war by a vote of 82-0 in the Senate and 388-1 in the House. Jeannette Rankin, a pacifist and the first woman elected to Congress, cast the only vote against the declaration.

👉  John Lennon was shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York City on December 8, 1980. The 40-year-old former Beatle was entering his luxury Manhattan apartment building when Mark David Chapman shot him four times at close range with a .38-caliber revolver. Lennon was rushed to the hospital but died en route. Chapman had received an autograph from Lennon earlier in the day and voluntarily remained at the scene of the shooting until he was arrested by police.

👉  On December 10, 1901, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. The ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives. In his will, Nobel directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be placed in a fund in which the interest would be “annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”

👉  On December 11, 2008, financier Bernard Madoff was arrested and charged with masterminding a long-running Ponzi scheme later estimated to involve around $65 billion, making it one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history. Madoff revealed to his brother and two sons, who worked for the legitimate arm of his firm, that his investment-advisory business was a fraud and nearly bankrupt. Madoff’s sons turned in their father to federal authorities, who arrested him.

👉  Following ratification by the state of Virginia, on December 15, 1791, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, became the law of the land. The amendments were designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; the right to fair legal procedure and to bear arms; and that powers not delegated to the federal government would be reserved for the states and the people.

👉  Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight on December 17, 1903.

👉  The Apollo lunar-landing program ended on December 19, 1972, when the last three astronauts to travel to the moon splash down safely in the Pacific Ocean. From 1969 to 1972, there were six successful lunar landing missions, and one aborted mission, Apollo 13. During the Apollo 17 mission, astronauts Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt descended to the moon’s surface in the lunar module Challenger, and stayed for a record 75 hours on the surface of the moon (Ronald Evans remained in command module America), conducting three separate surface excursions in the Lunar Rover vehicle and collecting 243 pounds of rock and soil samples.

👉  Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on December 21, 1968, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr. and William Anders aboard. On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around the moon, the first manned spacecraft ever to do so. During one of those orbits they took a spectacular picture of Earth and as recorded in this video, read from Genesis Chapter 1. On Christmas morning, Apollo 8 left its lunar orbit and began its journey back to Earth, landing safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27. 

👉  On December 22, 1808, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony premiered in Vienna. Initial reviews were not favorable, but the concert venue was freezing cold; it was more than two hours into a mammoth four-hour program before the piece began; and the orchestra played poorly enough that day to force the nearly deaf composer – also acting as conductor and pianist – to stop the ensemble partway into one passage and start again from the very beginning. It was, all in all, a very inauspicious beginning for what would soon become the world’s most recognizable piece of classical music: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67.

👉  Just after midnight on Christmas morning, 1914, the majority of German troops engaged in World War I ceased firing their guns and artillery and began singing Christmas carols. At the first light of dawn, many of the German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. 

👉  On December 28, 1981, the first American “test-tube baby,” a child born as a result of in-vitro fertilization, was born in Norfolk, Virginia. Considered a miracle at the time, births like that of Elizabeth Jordan Carr are now common. IVF was not without its critics. Many in the medical community were cautious about “playing God.” IVF drew condemnation from some in the religious community. It is estimated that IVF now accounts for over one percent of American births every year.

👉  In post-revolutionary Russia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established on December 30, 1922. In the decades after it was established, the Russian-dominated Soviet Union grew into one of the world’s most powerful and influential states and eventually encompassed 15 republics. On December 31, 1991, sixty-nine years and one day after it was created, the Soviet Union was dissolved following the collapse of its communist government.

👉  On December 31, 1972, Baseball star Roberto Clemente died in plane crash when the cargo plane in which he was traveling crashed off the coast of Puerto Rico. Clemente was on his way to deliver relief supplies to Nicaragua following a devastating earthquake there a week earlier. He was a hero in his native Puerto Rico, where he spent much of the off-season doing charity work. Clemente was particularly distressed when he learned that very little aid was getting to victims of a devastating December 23 earthquake near Managua. 

Clemente decided to collect supplies on his own and personally deliver them. The plan went awry when Clemente chose for the mission a plane owned by Arthur Rivera. The plane was mechanically unsound and overloaded when it took off at 9 p.m. The sounds of engine failure were heard as it went down the runway. It reached an altitude of only 200 feet before exploding and plunging into the ocean. Rescue workers were sent out immediately, but the task was next to impossible in the darkness. The bodies were never found.

👉  Today’s close is from Crosswalk.com.

In September 1939, Great Britain allied with France in declaring war on Nazi Germany. By the end of the year, anxieties throughout England remained on high alert; everyone was fearful of bombing and invasion. When King George VI sat down before two large microphones to make his Christmas Day speech to the nation, his goal was to reassure the people that their nation was prepared and able and their cause right and just.

“A new year is at hand,” the king said. “We cannot tell what it will bring. If it brings peace, how thankful we shall all be. If it brings us continued struggle, we shall remain undaunted.”

Then, turning to some lines of poetry his wife had recently shared with him, he concluded his speech with these words, which are a fitting close to our year together. They offer a word of encouragement that – we hope – will settle your hearts amid the troubles of our own era in history. These lines are from “The Gate of the Year,” a poem written in 1908 by Minnie Louise Haskins:

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied, “Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!”

Amen!

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 275

December 30, 2020

Today we visit “The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat.”

Say what?

We know it as St. Basil’s Cathedral.

Theotokos has a complex meaning.  First of all, it refers to a cloak or shroud, but it also means protection or intercession.  Therefore, translating, or perhaps explaining, the official name is the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Veil of our Lady on the Moat. 

A mid-17th century icon from Ukraine, showing Mary with a broad protective cloak spread out over her children.

The Cathedral was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. It was the city’s tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.  The original building contained eight chapels arranged around a ninth, central chapel dedicated to the Intercession.  A tenth chapel was erected in 1588 over the grave of venerated local saint Vasily, or Basil. 

The small green dome on the left is over the cathedral of St. Vasily.

A detour: in the Cyrillic alphabet what looks like the English “B” is a “V” and the English letter “b” is a Russian “B” – so we say Basil, the Russians say Vasily.  I learned that rather quickly the day I traveled by myself from Samara to Moscow to meet Bonnie.  The church in Samara had booked me a room at the Beta Complex of the Izmailovo Hotel.  I saw the “B” and went in.  As you learned at the beginning of this paragraph that was actually a “V” and I was in the Vega Complex, and completely lost.  Finally someone figured out where I was supposed to be, led me back to the correct building – there are actually 5 – and all was well.

Another detour: I quickly learned that if you are in a room with 4 Russians they will tell you 5 ways to say the same thing.  And even if you think you have it correct, you don’t: the word “babushka” means “scarf” or “grandmother,” but if you change the accent slightly, it becomes a dirty word (and don’t ask me what, I’m too polite to say).  Oh, and the name of Tsar mentioned above is pronounced by Russians as E-von, not I-van.

But back to St. Basil’s.

Red Square in the winter. Looks a little like Garrett County Maryland.

The cathedral has ten domes (each one corresponding to a different church) and is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, a design that has no parallel in Russian architecture.  The church acquired its present-day vivid colors in several stages from the 1680s to 1848.

As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union’s antireligious campaigns and operated as a division of the State Historical Museum from 1928 to 1997.  Weekly Orthodox Christian services were restored in 1991 with the fall of Soviet Communism.

In this panorama, the Kremlin is to the left (the Savior tower with the clock is tallest tower) and the GUM department store (Главный универсальный магазин – Main Universal Store) is to the right.

The identity of St. Basil’s architect is unknown, but research suggests an architect known to the period: Postnik Yakovlev.  Legend says that Ivan blinded the architect so that he could not re-create the masterpiece elsewhere, but Yakovlev later participated in the construction of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow as well as in building the walls and towers of the Kazan Kremlin.  But it is an interesting story and you don’t earn the nickname “Terrible” without doing some, well, terrible things.

I was blessed to make 14 trips to Russia and we went to Red Square each time, but St. Basil’s was not open to see inside like it is today.  Only once did I get to go inside, and we saw one of the small cathedrals that was being restored.  Here is a video I found on YouTube, made in 2012, that takes you inside the Cathedral.

And for you Lego fans, here is an incredible build of St. Basil's.  The construction is from scratch, not a kit.  Nearly 72,000 pieces are in the build, and it took over 320 hours for brickmaster Mark Curnow to create this masterpiece for the 2016 “Wonders of the World Show.”

Before we leave downtown Moscow, let’s travel 15 kilometers (7 stops on the Moscow Metro Арбатско-Покровская Line to the Преображенская stop) to the Izmailovo flea market (and a little video I made).  It is the largest flea market in the world.  

“First price, Mister.  Not last price.  What’s your price, Mister?”

👉  Next year we’ll visit some more monuments and historical places.

👉  Today’s close is from “Daily in Your Presence,” with Rebecca Barlow Jordan.

From the Father’s Heart

My child, eternal life begins not just when you step across death’s threshold, but rather, the moment you let Me step into your heart forever.  I am eternal life.  I am your forever hope.  When your physical body finally says goodbye, and you walk into your new heavenly body, you will experience in full measure the taste of joy you had while on earth.  No more sorrow, no more tears.  If you know Me, you have eternal life.

A Grateful Response

Some say life begins at forty, while others believe eighteen is the magic age.  Some senior citizens will argue for sixty-five!  But real life, eternal life, began for me the moment You entered my heart years ago.  Lord, You are eternal life.  You are my home forever.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 274

December 29, 2020

The Coliseum is the largest ancient amphitheater ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheater in the world today. Completed in AD 80, the Coliseum could hold an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators.  

The Coliseum’s huge crowd capacity made it essential that the venue could be filled or evacuated quickly.  The amphitheater was ringed by eighty entrances at ground level, 76 of which were used by ordinary spectators.  Each entrance and exit was numbered, as was each staircase.

Section LII (52)

Spectators accessed their seats via vomitoria,  passageways that opened into a tier of seats.  The name vomitoria derived from the Latin word for “a rapid discharge,” from which English derives the word “vomit.”

The arena itself was 272 feet by 157 feet.  It comprised a wooden floor covered by sand, covering an elaborate underground structure called the hypogeum (literally meaning “underground”).  The hypogeum consisted of a two-level subterranean network of tunnels and cages beneath the arena where gladiators and animals were held before contests began.  Eighty vertical shafts provided instant access to the arena for caged animals and scenery pieces concealed underneath. 

Inside the Coliseum, showing the hypogeum (center and front)

The Coliseum was used to host gladiatorial shows as well as a variety of other events.  One type of show was the animal hunt, or venatio.  This utilized a great variety of wild beasts, mainly imported from Africa and the Middle East, and included creatures such as rhinoceros, hippopotamuses, elephants, giraffes, crocodiles, ostriches,  panthers, leopards, Barbary lions, Caspian tigers, and Siberian bears.  Oh my!  Battles and hunts were often staged amid elaborate sets with movable trees and buildings.  Emperor Trajan is said to have celebrated his victories in 107 AD with contests involving 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators over the course of 123 days. 

Pollice verso – Thumbs down

During lunch intervals, executions ad bestias would be staged.  Those condemned to death would be sent into the arena, naked and unarmed, to face the beasts of death which would literally tear them to pieces.  Other performances would also take place by acrobats and magicians, typically during the intervals.  The Coliseum today is now a major tourist attraction in Rome with thousands of tourists each year entering to view the interior arena.

👉  Let me introduce you to one of my favorite comic strips, and the chances are good you may never have heard of 9 Chickweed Lane, by Brooke McEldowney.  I have never seen it in a newspaper, and follow it only because it is syndicated by United Feature Syndicate and available at GoComics.com, a site to which I subscribe.

There are 31 recurring characters in the strip – I won’t introduce you to all of them, just my favorites: Edda and Amos.

Edda van Hoesen – Independent and intelligent with a heroic fantasy life as Superlative Girl, she is a talented, attractive ballet dancer and a skilled piano recitalist. She married her longtime sweetheart Amos on September 11, 2017.

Amos van Hoesen – A geeky, talented classical cellist and Edda’s husband. Best friends since childhood that blossomed into love, he graduated from the same Catholic high school as she and went on to study at Juilliard. They have since become parents to twin daughters Polly and Lolly.

Edda has been leaving Amos speechless since they were children.  More tomorrow.

👉  The ashes of the late James Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery Scott on the original Star Trek television series, have been aboard the International Space Station for 12 years.   Doohan died in 2005 at the age of 85, and his family wanted to fulfill his wish of getting on the ISS.

Richard Garriott – one of the first private citizens to travel on the space station – smuggled some of Doohan’s ashes into the space station’s Columbus module.  Garriott says he took a laminated picture of Doohan and some of his ashes and put it under the floor of the Columbus.  According to the Times of London, Doohan’s ashes have traveled some 1.7 billion miles across space, and have orbited the Earth more than 70,000 times.  Years after his death, Scotty is still boldly going ... well, you know the rest.

👉  Today’s close, “The Simple Secret to a Great New Year,” is by Jeff Schreve.

The simple secret is this: To experience a great year, just do what Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things [the things you and I worry about] shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).  If you will seek Him first, He promises to meet all your needs.

    1.  It means that you spend time with Him each day, praying and reading His Word, asking Him for direction, guidance, help and insight ... confessing your sins when you blow it, and seeking His grace to help in your time of need.

    2.  It means you put His agenda above your agenda.  You pray, “Not my will, but Thine be done” (Luke 22:42).  You live your life to please Jesus, not to please yourself.

    3.  It means you obey Him and do what He says in the power He supplies.  You don’t let your fleshly desires control you; you let Jesus control you.

    4.  It means you invest your time, talent and resources in the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of self.

    5.  It means you recognize that He is everything, and in Christ “are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge”( Colossians 2:3).  The true treasures of life – love, joy, peace, fulfillment, true success – are only found in Jesus ... so you spend your time seeking Him.

Don’t wait for the ball to drop in Times Square before seeking first the kingdom of God.  Start now!  Put Jesus first every day you are blessed to live... and He will bless your life abundantly in return.

One of my favorite Scriptures says, “For those who honor Me, I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30).  If you want God to honor you, honor Him in all you do.  The best is yet to be ... and the ball is in your court.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 273

December 28, 2020

We continue our look at monuments and historical constructs around the world with the most famous and most misnamed clock on the planet, the Great Clock inside the Elizabeth Tower, but almost unanimously called “Big Ben.”  The name is actually that of the largest bell in the tower.  Six monarchs and 41 prime ministers have come and gone since the bells first struck their now familiar music across Westminster.  

In 1844, following a fire that destroyed the Palace of Westminster, it was decided the new buildings for the Houses of Parliament should include a tower and a clock.  A massive bell was required and the first attempt cracked. The metal was melted down and the bell recast.  Big Ben first rang across Westminster on 31 May 1859.  A short time later, in September 1859, Big Ben cracked.  A lighter hammer was fitted and the bell rotated 90 degrees to present an undamaged section to the hammer.  This is the bell that is heard today.

The origin of the name Big Ben is not known, although two different theories exist.  The first is that is was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the first commissioner of works, a large man who was known affectionately in the house as “Big Ben.”  The second theory is that it was named after a heavyweight boxing champion at that time, Benjamin Caunt, also known as “Big Ben.”

Big Ben is currently silent because restoration is underway on the Elizabeth Tower.    More than 160 years old, the clock tower suffers from many of the issues seen in buildings of its age, including crumbling stones, rusty ironwork, leaking roofs and, in this case, an aging clock.  Big Ben’s striking mechanism was locked on August 21, 2017, and except for Remembrance Day and New Year’s Day, it will not be heard again until all of the work is finished, sometime next year.

In the meantime, here are two videos of Big Ben ringing.  First, the chimes at noon.  And second, a timely ring.

You knew I would.

👉  On this day in 1832, John C. Calhoun resigned the vice presidency, citing political differences with President Andrew Jackson.  On December 12, 1832, Calhoun was elected to fill a South Carolina Senate seat left vacant after the resignation of Senator Robert Hayne, and sixteen days later, Calhoun resigned the vice presidency, becoming the first of only two vice presidents in U.S. history to resign the office.  

The second was Spiro T. Agnew, vice president under Richard Nixon.  When Nixon selected the relatively unknown Agnew to be his running mate, the pundits asked, “Spiro who?” considering Agnew unqualified for national office (However, he had already served as chief executive for Baltimore County and as Governor of Maryland – more qualifications than “community organizer.”).  Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973, while under indictment for corruption during his time as governor of Maryland.

👉  Clearing out a few left over cartoons and panels:

👉  Frank Sinatra “retired” for the first time in 1971.  He made it official in 1996, after a comeback in 1974.  In between 1971 and 1996 he performed over 1,000 concerts.  This clip, stirred in my memory by the “Regret” cartoon above, was from those beginning tours of 1974, at Madison Square Garden.  Here’s the Chairman of the Board singing “My Way.”

👉  Thirty-one words which affirm the values and freedom that the American flag represents are recited while facing the flag as a pledge of Americans’ loyalty to their country.  The Pledge of Allegiance was written for the 400th anniversary, in 1892, of the discovery of America.  In October 1892 Columbus Day programs that school children across the country first recited the Pledge of Allegiance this way: 

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and

to the Republic for which it stands:

one Nation indivisible, with Liberty

and Justice for all.

The pledge was published anonymously and was not copyrighted.  Controversy continues over whether the author was Francis Bellamy or James Upham, with Bellamy generally recognized as the author.

Bellamy he decided to write a pledge of allegiance, rather than a salute, because it was a stronger expression of loyalty – something particularly significant even 27 years after the Civil War ended.  “One Nation indivisible” referred to the outcome of the Civil War, and “Liberty and Justice for all” expressed the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. 

On Flag Day 1954, Congress passed a law which added the words “under God” to the  Pledge of Allegiance which now reads:

    I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

    and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation

    under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Today is Pledge of Allegiance Day.  It takes place on December 28, the anniversary of the day in 1945 when legislation, “gave official congressional sanction to the pledge.”

Astronaut David Scott salutes the Flag on August 1, 1971, during EVA on the Apollo 15 lunar mission.

👉  Concluding with another story inspired by the Pledge of Allegiance, this section is  from a sermon entitled “Christmas is for Children.”

Willy Farnsworth, five years old, from Chicago, was attending a Christian kindergarten, where he learned all kinds of prayers.  One day he saw his mother with a downcast look, she had recently lost her mother.

“Mama, do you want me to pray for you, mama?” Willy asked.  “That would be very nice, Willy,” she replied.

Willy bowed his head and prayed, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,” and he continued with great emphasis, “Under God.”  Willy’s Mom did not laugh.  She realized, “That also is a prayer, and Willy is really not confused.”

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 272

December 27, 2020

First of all, Happy 45th Anniversary to The Bro and his Bride, Kyle and Cathy Sisler.  As Paul Harvey used to say, “45 years on the road to forever together.”

👉  “What a Way to Live!”

It is only a legend, but what a way to live! The man was sentenced to death, but he obtained a reprieve when he promised the king that within one year, he could teach the king’s horse to fly. If the horse could not fly after 365 days, the stay of execution would be lifted and the man would die.

When a friend chided the man on the impossibility of his task, the man replied, “Within a year the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die. In a year, who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to fly.”

What a way to live – concentrating on life’s possibilities, rather than life’s impossibilities!

Contrast that with the story of an eyewitness who survived an airplane crash. “The entire side of the airplane was knocked off by the crash,” she said, “and 100 people just sat there looking out through the hole. They could have lived, if they had only scrambled through the opening to safety, but they wouldn’t move!”

Those 100 people were not just an isolated incident.

A study conducted at Temple University surveyed 2300 children, ages seven to eleven. 15 percent of the children said they worry a lot. 25 percent said they were afraid to go outside and play. And 67 percent said they go to bed every night, afraid someone will break into their house and do them harm.

One more story. Seven people, four men and three women, boarded a 21-foot skiff and went fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The first night they ran into heavy seas, waves more than 12 feet high. The motor stalled. They panicked, shifted their weight, and capsized their boat.

One man grabbed a rope and tied it to the boat. “If we hang on,” he said, “we will be saved.” He continually told urged them, “Don’t give up.”

After seven hours, one of them gave up, drifted away and drowned. An hour later, a second. Within 24 hours, five of the seven, each wearing a life jacket, gave up and drifted away. The last two men clung to the rope for 48 hours and were rescued.

What a way to live! Paralyzed by the possibility of dying and so burning to death. 

What a way to live! Not yet in their teens and focusing almost completely on fear. 

What a way to live! Giving up the struggle and drifting away with rescue just over the horizon.

It is only a fable, but what gives some people courage to attempt something as impossible as teaching horses to fly? What gives some people the ability to move through danger to safety, to succeed in spite of fear, to hold on just a while longer?

Four women, Mary Magdalene, a second woman named Mary, Joanna, and Salome, gathered spices to complete the hasty burial preparations. As the Passover skies darkened, they only had time to make the most basic arrangements, place Jesus in a borrowed tomb, and watch Roman soldier’s set Pilate’s seal in place. Three days later, on the first day of the week, they walked in the dawn’s early light to the grave.

Back in Jerusalem, eleven disciples were afraid they would be the next to die. Two of them walking to Emmaus expressed the doubts of all of them: “We trusted that He was Israel’s Redeemer.”

Then the women found the empty tomb and spread the good news. Peter and John ran to see. The two travelers felt their hearts burn at His presence. Behind locked doors defeated men breathed new life. They saw their risen Lord. They heard Him say, “It is I! Fear not!” They poured out of that upper room into the streets, and the world has never been the same.

Study your difficulties through the eyes of the risen Lord. If He asks you to try, do you think you just might succeed? With His power, do you think you can conquer your fear? With His strength, do you think you can hold on? Besides, in a year, that horse just might learn to fly! What a way to live!

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 271

December 26, 2020

The origins of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” date to medieval times. In the 800s, a series of Latin hymns were sung each day during Christmas Vespers from December 17 to 23. These hymns were restructured into verse form in the 1100s, and finally published in Latin in 1710. In the mid-1800s, they were discovered by an English minister named John Mason Neale, who wove together segments of them to produce the first draft of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” which was published in 1851. 

Neale is a man worth knowing. He was born in London on January 24, 1818, the son of an evangelical Anglican clergyman. He attended Cambridge University and proved to be a brilliant student and prize-winning poet. While there, Neale was influenced by the Oxford Movement and became attracted to Roman Catholicism. In 1841, he was ordained into the Anglican ministry, but his poor health and Catholic leanings prevented him from gaining a parish ministry.

He was appointed instead as the director of Sackville College, a home for old men.  This was the perfect job for Neale, for he was a compassionate man with a great heart for the needy, but he was also a scholar needing time for research and writing.

As a high church traditionalist, Neale disliked the hymns of Isaac Watts and longed to return Christianity to the liturgical dignity of church history. He was an outspoken advocate of returning church buildings to their former glory.

In today’s hymnals, we find Neale and Watts side by side, the old differences having been forgotten. We owe a debt of gratitude to John Mason Neale every time we sing one of his Christmas carols: “Good King Wenceslas,” “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” “Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” and his Palm Sunday hymn, “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.”

This first video is by Anna Hawkins. It was filmed in Israel and she sings in Hebrew and English.

And a great, energetic version by King & Country.

👉  And from Dennis the Menace:

👉  The Night an Angel Preached

Yesterday most of the world celebrated the birth of Jesus.  I want you to go back with me, in your mind, to that night, the night an angel preached.

Here is the record of that event from the pen of Luke, the beloved physician:

“Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’  And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.  And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger” (Luke 2:13-16).

It came to pass when the angels were gone.  That is the hour of crisis.  The angel gave a message.  Now what will the shepherds do?  The sermon is over.  The listening is over.  Now what?

It came to pass when the angels were gone.  Were the shepherds any different because they had listened to the message?  We hear countless sermons.  Do they change our lives?  Are we any different because we have heard God’s Word?

It came to pass when the angels were gone.  The music ended.  The light faded.  Stillness reigned once more on the Judean hillside.  It is now the hour of crisis.

The shepherds have heard the story.  What will they do with it?  They have listened to the song.  What will it mean in their lives?  They have attended the service.  Will the light they have seen lead them to greater light, or will its absence only make the shadows around them even blacker than before?

“Let us go,” said the shepherds.

They dared to put the message to the test.  They dared to see if the Word of God was true.  And when they did, they found the babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  They worshiped the new-born Christ.  And their lives were never the same.

But suppose they had not gone.  Suppose they had listened, and like many people today said, “You know, that was a great sermon!”  But beyond that, suppose they had done nothing else.

Suppose they had debated about it.  “You know,” one of the shepherds might have said, “I’m not real sure about this message.  Maybe we should do some more research.  Maybe we should ask the Rabbi.  Maybe this message isn’t for us, but was for another group of shepherds.”  And they never went to see.

Now it is years later.  One of the shepherds is now a grandfather.  He has his grandson at his side and he is telling the boy the most wonderful story ever told.  He tells of the angel’s sermon and the angel’s song.  And the story ends there.

“But, Grandfather,” the boy asks, “What did you do after the angel had preached?  Did God really come in the form of a little baby to live among men?  Did you go to Bethlehem?”

And the old shepherd sadly shakes his head and answers, “I never knew.  Some said it was true, but I never went to see.”

Jesus has come in the flesh.  The baby, born in the manger that night long ago, grew and increased in favor with God and man.  And then when His enemies opposed Him, He died on the Cross for the sins of all the world.

The story is true.  I know it is true.  I have experienced the power of Jesus Christ in my life.

Listening to the angels did not make it true for the shepherds.  They had to go and see for themselves.  Reading my report of what Jesus has done in my life will never make it true for you.  You must receive Him for yourself.  Until then, the message of Jesus Christ is just hearsay.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 270

December 25, 2020

On this Christmas day, allow me to share two gifts with you, two videos of beautiful songs for the day, and a Christmas card.

First, the Hallelujah Chorus as you perhaps have never seen it performed.

George Frederic Handel’s father tried to discourage his musical interests, preferring that he enter the legal profession.  But it was the organ, harpsichord, and violin that  captured his heart.  Once, accompanying his father to the court of Duke Johann Adolf, George wandered into the chapel, found the organ, and started improvising.  The startled Duke exclaimed, “Who is this remarkable child?”

This “remarkable child” soon began composing operas, first in Italy, then in London.  By his twenties, he was the talk of England and the best-paid composer on earth.  He opened the Royal Academy of Music.  Londoners fought for seats at his every performance, and his fame soared around the world.

But the glory passed.  Audiences dwindled.  His music became outdated, and he was thought of as an old fogey.  Newer artists eclipsed the aging composer.  One project after another failed, and Handel, now bankrupt, grew depressed.  The stress brought on a case of palsy that crippled some of his fingers.  “Handel’s great days are over,” wrote Frederick the Great.  “His inspiration is exhausted.”

Yet his troubles also matured him, softening his sharp tongue.  His temper mellowed, and his music became more heartfelt.  One morning Handel received by post a manuscript from Charles Jennens.  It was a word-for-word collection of various biblical texts about Christ.  The opening words from Isaiah 40 moved Handel: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people . . .”

On August 22,1741, he shut the door of his London home and started composing music for the words.  Twenty-three days later, the world had Messiah.  “Whether I was in the body or out of the body when I wrote it, I know not,” Handel later said, trying to describe the experience.  Messiah opened in London to enormous crowds on March 23,1743, with Handel leading from his harpsichord.  King George II, who was present that night, surprised everyone by leaping to his feet during the “Hallelujah Chorus.”  No one knows why.

No matter – from that day audiences everywhere have stood in reverence during the stirring words: “Hallelujah! For He shall reign forever and ever.”

And the second present is The Christmas Hallelujah.

A CHRISTMAS CARD, from David Sisler

I apologize for not sending you a Christmas card.  I hand-delivered many, but I mailed fewer than twenty.

I do have a card for you, however, but it has no gold foil and no Holy Family with cherubic smiles or polished halos.  Instead, the picture on the front is of a teen-aged girl, pregnant before marriage, drenched in sweat – she has just pushed her first child into the cold night air of an unheated, smelly barn, and the baby is still covered with afterbirth and blood.

In 1980, we were living in South Carolina, and my wife, Bonnie, was teaching in a middle school.  One afternoon, late in the school year, she asked a group of eighth graders their plans for high school and beyond.  One girl, thirteen years old, said the current year would be her last year of formal education.

When Bonnie asked why, the teen-ager replied, “I’m going to have a baby, and live on welfare like my mother and my grandmother.”

In a day when hundreds of thousands of teen-agers become pregnant outside of marriage, that middle-schooler’s comments scarcely raise an eyebrow.  Two thousand years ago, the discovery of Mary’s pregnancy would have been the scandal of the town.  Indeed, it would have been enough to have caused Mary’s execution – to be engaged, and to be found pregnant with another man’s child drew the death penalty.

Joseph, who was more than a fiancée, but less than a husband, could have demanded that Mary, an obvious adulteress, be stoned to death.  Instead, he planned to hush up the whole incident to protect Mary if he could.  Then an angel told Joseph that God was the baby’s father.  The good citizens of Nazareth may have called it a cock-and-bull story, but Joseph believed it.

An outcast, a social pariah, Mary went to the one person she thought might understand her embarrassment, her cousin, Elizabeth, who was pregnant under circumstances which were obviously miraculous.  But while everyone rejoiced with Elizabeth, they cast long looks of anger and disgust at Mary.

The disparity continued into the births of the two boys: John was born at the parsonage, into the joy of a minister’s home; Jesus entered the world far from his parent’s home, an outcast with only his mother and his step-father to welcome his birth.

The Roman government had ordered a census.  As the head of the house, Joseph could have gone by himself and registered his small family.  But although she was almost nine months pregnant, Joseph took Mary with him, to protect her from the small-minded and the gossip mongers.  When his step-son was born, Joseph had to help Mary with her delivery; there was no mid-wife.  If he had been in Bethlehem and Mary had been alone in Nazareth, her life and the life of her son might have been in jeopardy.

Nine months earlier an angel had shown up, uninvited, and unannounced in Mary’s living room.  Gabriel had scared the little Jewish girl half out of her wits.  She was so afraid that before Gabriel could give her God’s message he had to calm her young heart which threatened to beat right out of her chest.  Then the angel spoke beautiful, powerful, indeed, over-powering words about God’s plan of salvation.

“God is pleased with you, Mary,” the angel said, “and you will become pregnant.”

Mary heard the rest of the message, but it was the “P” word that stuck in her mind.

Debate the Greek, discuss the Hebrew all you wish, but Mary settled the dispute: “How can this happen?” she demanded.  “I am a virgin!  I have never had sex with a man!”

Then her periods stopped, she got morning sickness, her clothes no longer fit, and her stomach started to swell.  Somewhere on a dusty Judean road, the birth contractions started.  Somewhere in a strange city, with the “No Vacancy” sign hung out all over town, her water broke.  And from somewhere deep inside of him, Joseph summoned one more tremendous act of courage and convinced a hard-hearted inn keeper, a skin-flint only interested in his balance sheets, to at least let his young wife have her baby in the barn and not out on a Bethlehem street.

“You will give birth to God’s Son,” Gabriel had said.

“Push!” Joseph prompted.

“The Messiah.  Christ the Lord.  Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior.”

“Push!”

That night an angel chorus sang to shepherds, but their notes were drowned out by the screams a young woman, a little girl, a baby who was having a baby.

The Savior of the world?  God’s Son?

“Come on, Mary.  I can see the head.  Just one more push!”

And somewhere in the darkness, Joseph held his son, God’s Son, by the heels and swatted the baby’s backside and Jesus communicated with sinful mankind for the first time.  Just like babies have always done, he cried out.  The fluid cleared from his lungs and the coda to the angel’s chorus was a healthy wail.

Then Mary cleaned off her bloody son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.

Thirty-three years later, another Joseph, Joseph of Aramathea, cleaned off the bloody, dead body of Mary’s son, wrapped him in burial clothes and laid him in a tomb.

But death could hold him for only three days because he really was, really is the Savior who is Christ, the Lord!

Merry Christmas!

And with equal joy, Happy Easter!

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 269

December 24, 2020

Until Isaac Watts came along, most of the singing in British churches was from the Psalms of David.  As a young man in Southampton, Isaac had become dissatisfied with the quality of singing, and he keenly felt the limitations of being able to only sing these psalms.  So he “invented” the English hymn.

He did not, however, neglect the Psalms.  In 1719, he published a unique hymnal – one in which he had translated, interpreted, and paraphrased the Old Testament Psalms through the eyes of New Testament faith.  He called it simply The Psalm of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament.  Taking various psalms, he studied them from the perspective of Jesus and the New Testament, and then formed them into verses for singing.

“I have rather expressed myself as I may suppose David would have done if he lived in the days of Christianity,” Watts explained.

“Joy to the World!” is Isaac Watts’s interpretation of Psalm 98, which says, “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.”  As he read Psalm 98, Isaac pondered the real reason for shouting joyfully to the Lord – the Messiah has come to redeem us.  The result was a timeless carol that has brightened our Christmases for nearly three hundred years.

👉  I listened to videos for over two hours: solos, choirs, instrumental, acapella, grade schoolers, the Muppets, and more before choosing Celtic Woman to offer “Joy to the World!”

👉  Here's Garfield for the season:

👉  For the Fourth Thursday in Advent.

Where Did We Lose Christ?

Let’s begin with a definite maybe.  It is unlikely that Jesus was born on December 25.  The Bible says that the night he was born, shepherds were in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks.  Shepherds traditionally took their flocks to the fields in early spring and returned around mid-November.

Let’s add another fact, only rarely disputed.  The Christian Church co-opted pagan celebrations which occurred during the late winter seasons.  Wanting a vehicle through which to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they attached the birth celebrations of the Savior to observances that were already in effect.

Now, let me make one more statement, very rarely disputed.  Whenever Jesus was born, and whatever the reasons for celebrating on December 25, that celebration was to honor the birth of God’s only Son.  We used to call it “Christmas,” and celebrated the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth.  Now it’s just “the holidays.”

A decade ago – this piece was originally published December 15, 2004 – the New Jersey Supreme Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals declared that holiday exhibits are allowed, in that state, if a “reasonable observer” would not mistake them for a “religious endorsement.”

A religious endorsement?  Debate the appropriateness of December 25 as the anniversary of Jesus’ birth if you will.  Debate whether or not modern celebrations still resemble, in any fashion whatsoever, a celebration of that birth.  But somewhere under all of the shopping, decorations, caroling and the general ill-will towards men engendered when that knot-head in line in front of you beats you to the last “gotta-have” toy, ask yourself: Wasn’t Christmas originally a religious celebration, religiously endorsed?

New Jersey has more problems.  In Hillsborough, you can no longer celebrate St. Valentine’s Day.  It is now “Special Person Day.”

It is another holy day, but in East Lansing, Michigan, the Easter Bunny has, for several years, been called “The Special Bunny.”  What a rabbit delivering colored chicken eggs has to do with the Resurrection of the Savior escapes logic.

Yuletide, holiday season, the holidays, and “this special season” all are bandied about by advertisers as the reason to shop, spend, and run up enormous credit card debt, mortgaging the future for the greed of today.  Quickly now, what was the last commercial you heard which actually used the word “Christ” in it? “Christ” as in “Christmas.”  I haven’t heard one in years.  Those produced by churches do not count – you expect the home team to have its own cheerleaders.

Jim Brown, writing for AgapePress says that Spring Grove Elementary School, in Chicago, “recently staged a holiday program that celebrated Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, but excluded references to Christ and the Christmas Story.  School officials claim the multicultural concert, which also included references to Santa, was designed to be more inclusive of all holiday traditions and cultures.”

And so to be more inclusive, the founder of Christianity, the Reason for the Season, had his birthday excluded.  I’ve said it often – the inmates are in charge of the asylum!

Jeff Parker, cartoonist for Florida Today, suggests a new appellation: “Merry mall-driven, competitive-present swapping, overindulgent-consumerism, winter holiday.”

The office of the governor of Georgia got caught in the politically correctness which has crossed Christ out of Christmas.  At 12:10 p.m. on December 2, 2004, the governor’s office of communications released a note saying, “Governor and First Lady to Light Holiday Tree at the Mansion.”  Fourteen minutes later, after someone convinced someone else, that it still is all about Jesus, the press office released another missive: “Governor and First Lady to Light Mansion Christmas Tree.”

Understand that as a believer in Jesus, I accept him as divine, as the only begotten Son of Almighty God.  Therefore, it is hardly the same thing – the birthday of God’s Son as compared with the birthday of a human being – but I wonder if it would be permissible to call the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday “Civil Rights Day?”

Before you look for the tar and feathers, I mean no disrespect to the memory of Dr. King.  I just wonder why it is now correct and acceptable and seemingly mandatory to disrespect and to forget and to otherwise eliminate Jesus Christ the Lord.

Christmas without Christ.  It may sell the 👉Xbox Series X, DVDs, sweaters, perfume, and diamonds, but when the wrappings are all shredded, the presents are scattered or returned and the bills are due, if you do not have Jesus, all you have is one more empty day.  And 364 of those are quite enough for one year.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 268

December 23, 2020

John Francis Wade, author of “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” was hounded out of England in 1745.  He was a Roman Catholic layman, and because of persecution,  streams of Catholics fled to France and Portugal.

But how could he, a refugee, support himself?  In those days, the printing of musical scores was cumbersome, and copying them by hand was an art.  Wade taught music and became renowned as a copyist of musical scores. 

In 1743, Wade had produced a copy of a Latin Christmas carol beginning with the phrase Adeste Fidelis, Laeti triumphantes.  Only seven original hand-copied manuscripts of this Latin hymn have been found, but all of them bear Wade’s signature.

As time passed, English Catholics began returning to Britain, and they carried Wade’s Christmas carol with them.  More time passed, and one day an Anglican minister named Rev. Frederick Oakeley, came across Wade’s Latin Christmas carol.  Being deeply moved, in 1845, he translated it into English for his congregation.  The first line of Oakeley’s translation said, “Ye Faithful, Approach Ye.”

Somehow “Ye Faithful, Approach Ye” didn’t catch on, and several years later Oakeley tried again.  His grasp of Latin had improved and as he repeated over and over the Latin phrase Adeste Fidelis, Laeti triumphantes, he finally came up with the simpler, more vigorous “O Come, All Ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant!”  So two brave Englishmen, Catholics, lovers of Christmas and lovers of hymns, living a hundred years apart, writing in two different nations, combined their talents to bid us come, joyful and triumphant, and adore Him born the King of angels.

O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

👉  Typically when searching for a video of a song, I listen to many pieces.  For one song recently, I spent over an hour listening and searching.  For “O Come, All Ye Faithful” I watched and listened to one video – by Passion and featuring Melodie Malone.  It is 6 minutes and 9 seconds long and I spent almost every second of it crying, praising and worshipping.  What a song!  What a video!  What a Christ!

👉   One of the comments for the above video said, “Whoever is reading this, God is going to big hug you so tight that all your broken pieces will fit back together.  Just trust in him.”

👉   A comic strip for the season:

👉  For the Fourth Wednesday in Advent.

Here’s Wishing You a Merry  * * * * * Mas!

This piece was first published December 1, 2005.

On May 17, 2005, with finals approaching (in my advanced dotage I was working on a Master of Divinity degree) my column “Not For Sunday Only” went into retirement. It was a great deal less traumatic for America than December 31, 1995, when Bill Waterson retired “Calvin and Hobbes.” Two or three of the faithful did write to see what had happened, and I told them I was taking a brief break. Like missing church, it became easier not to write. Even outrageous comments by Jimmy Carter, John Kerry, Bill and Hillary, et al did not stir me. But as Popeye says, “That’s all I can stands! I can’t stands no more!”

Dateline: Associated Press – November 29 9:46 PM US/Eastern

“‘If it’s a spruce tree adorned with 10,000 lights and 5,000 ornaments displayed on the Capital grounds in December, it’s a Christmas tree, and that’s what it should be called,’ says House Speaker Dennis Hastert.”

The AP quotes Speaker Hastert: “I strongly urge that we return to this tradition and join the White House, countless other public institutions and millions of American families in celebrating the holiday season with a Christmas tree.”

In “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Or Else!” the Chicago Tribune quoted some local folk.

“I used to say Merry Christmas but now I don’t,” said Candice Barrera, a hospital therapist who was admiring the nativity scene in Daley Plaza.

“It’s drilled into you that you need to be culturally sensitive,” she said. “For my family I still say Merry Christmas.”

As a plaza security guard, Ocie Spruill has all day to admire what the city of Chicago calls an 87-foot “holiday tree,” but even he can’t decide on what to call it.

“It’s got lights and a star – it’s a Christmas tree,” he said confidently.

Just then, fellow security guard Steven Flores started giving Spruill a hard time about being sensitive and inclusive.

“OK, wait a minute,” Spruill said, looking up at the glowing lights. “It’s a holiday tree.”

On December 5, 1998, with tongue firmly in cheek, I wished you a “Happy Sparkle Season.” Jersey City, NJ stacked the grounds around the court house with a nativity scene, a menorah, Santa Claus, and Frosty the Snowman. The city had celebrated Ramadan, the Festival of Lights, and Earth Day – for the Muslims, Hindus, and pagans. But Christmas? The ACLU attacked in full-force and the Christmas decorations went into storage!

I used to write in this column that I was glad that Christmas was commercialized. I would hate to think, I said, that something as wonderful as the birthday of the Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord, would be ignored by the retailing world.

Well, they sure don’t ignore it anymore. Instead, they have obliterated it. The powers of political correctness have decreed that this is the Holiday Season.

I have been listening carefully to commercials and reading newspaper advertisements (two things I normally avoid with near-total dedication). One local car dealer, and one local store which sells costumes and decorations – out of the dozens and dozens of retailers who have purchased ads – use the word “Christmas” in our weekly paper. One national department store – Macy’s – uses “Christmas” in its commercials. If there are others, I have not heard them.

The spineless declare that we cannot say “Christmas” because that would insult all of the non-Christian world.

Well, as a believer in Jesus Christ, I say it is time, and beyond time, that we insult them!

Jesus said he came not to bring peace, but a sword.

Jesus said that he is the way, the truth and the life.

Jesus said that the only approach to the Father, to the Lord God Almighty, is through him.

If he was right, and as a Christian I have staked my life and my death on those truths, we need to start insulting people.

If Jesus is the Christ, then all who receive him – according to his Word – have eternal life. If Jesus is the Christ, then all who deny him – according to his Word – do not have eternal life, but have eternal punishment.

God told Ezekiel: “When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul” (Ezekiel 33:8-9).

I have never written an advertising campaign. When I run newspaper ads for the church I serve, I have the paper’s art department work up ideas for me. But with this column I am offering an ad – feel free to use it.

“If this is only the ‘Holiday Season,’ if this is not ‘Christmas,’ then you do not have a Savior! Merry Christmas!”

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