Featured Essay
No manger scene is complete without an ox and an ass in the picture. There also need to be sheep, of course, and there can be horses and cows and mice and birds and barncats and whatever else you've got space for. But the ox and the ass are conspicuously present. Look at a few painted examples from nearly a thousand years ago, and you can spot these two animals every time.
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Playmobil makes great little cartoons of their toys in action. The english-language site is good, but true Playmobil fans know to keep an eye on the German site, playmobil.de, which is more up to date.
The latest thing there is the Ancient Egypt line of toys, and there's a great cartoon called The Magic Key. It's fun to watch whether you know German or not.
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In the piles of wrapping paper, the pine needles, and the smell of my wife Hope's cinnamon rolls, my family will delight in a King so generous that He commands us to throw ourselves a party to celebrate His birth.
Christmas is the birth our King, but results in the elevation of mankind to royalty.
Earthly monarchs are installed in great coronation ceremonies. The feast of...
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My church is preaching its way through Advent, spending one sermon each on those descriptions of the promised one in Isaiah 9: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and last week we made it to Prince of Peace, a title so comprehensive that it will take us as a congregation straight through the end of Advent and into Christmas.
In his sermon, pastor Dave conn...
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Rick Warren is a sensible man who represents the center of American Christianity. Christian ideas and culture are part of the genetic makeup of our nation and appealing to them is vital to tapping into the American story. President-elect Obama was smart to pick Warren, and Pastor Warren was right to accept.
Opponents of the pick on the far left are marginalizing themselves,...
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Featured Essay
I am delighted to have this opportunity to discuss my most recent book—The God Question. Let me explain a bit about why I am so passionate about it. In a way, it is my attempt to provide an alternative to the wave of books recently produced by the so-called New Atheists. But, in fact, it is much more than that. For at least twenty-five years, I have wanted a book like The...
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Once upon a time in Meowsyland, the cat a-meows-ment park, the cats members were making a plan to eat some birds. They were all cats, you know, and cats love to eat birds.
Suddenly, a tiny bird flew up and landed right in front of the main entrance to Meowsyland.
“Chirp,” he said. That’s bird language for “Meow.”
That’s cat language for “Woof.”
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This is the third in a series on the Christian prayers for the end of Advent. Each of these prayers begins in "O" . . .
O Root of Jesse, which standest for an ensign of the people, at whom kings shall shut their mouths, to whom the Gentiles shall seek: Come and deliver us, and tarry not.
It wasn't fashionable to admit need until very recently. In these times, many powerf...
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Christians have long prayed "O" prayers just before Christmas. This post is the second in a series of reflections on the prayer for the day.
O Adonai, and Leader of the house of Israel, who appearedst in the Bush to Moses in a flame of fire, and gavest him the Law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.
Christmas is coming! We are getting near to it, but ...
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Christmas carols are usually pretty reliable teachers of theology. Of the sacred songs that we tend to hear a lot around Christmas time, we have a lot of great doctrine to sing in "O Come All Ye Faithful," "Joy to the World," and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." Lift your voice with Watts and Wesley this season, and you will have uttered greater truths about the incarnation of...
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O Jesus! O Wisdom!
Christians in the West welcome the coming of the Christ with a series of prayers that being with the exclamation: “O!”
What else could we say?
The child who sees the long awaited present on Christmas morning says, “O!”
Playtime has begun.
The student at terms end who sees that he has passed, actually passed, the dreaded final says, ...
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