{"id":1155,"date":"2012-12-22T15:31:47","date_gmt":"2012-12-22T20:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/?p=1155"},"modified":"2012-12-22T15:37:27","modified_gmt":"2012-12-22T20:37:27","slug":"christmas-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/christmas-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It is Christmas season once again (2012).\u00a0 As a believer in Jesus it is quite natural to have mixed feelings about all of the consumerism and partying that we complain about sometimes but never do anything about.\u00a0 Perhaps the early American Puritans were on to something when they eschewed any celebrations on December 25.\u00a0 Nonetheless, I seem trapped in the Christmas bubble like everyone else.\u00a0 I do try to have a Christ-centered Christmas, but many family traditions still contain value for which I thank the Lord.\u00a0 Below I have listed some random Christmas questions with my observations.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Is December 25 the right day for the birthday of Jesus?<\/p>\n

In the Western Church this has been the traditional day to celebrate Christ’s birthday since about the 4th century.\u00a0There are some church groups which celebrate Jesus’ birth on other days, most notably January 6.\u00a0\u00a0 I have seen some research and commentaries that suggest that Jesus was not born in the winter.\u00a0 One study Bible I looked at noted that the shepherds would not have had their flocks out in the field during the winter.\u00a0 One man in a Sunday School class I was teaching years ago asked the obvious question, “Where else would they keep their flocks?”\u00a0 I have been in Israel in the winter months when it snowed in Jerusalem.\u00a0 The shepherds had their flocks in the field and brought them to the market on Fridays like they have been doing for centuries.\u00a0 So I do not have a difficulty with a winter birth.\u00a0 However, I am not sure we know enough to be dogmatic.\u00a0 The important truth is that Jesus came into the world to save sinners like me.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 What is my favorite Christmas gift of all time that I have received?\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There have been many special gifts I have received through the years.\u00a0 One occasion was when my twin brother Jimmy and I gave each other a book.\u00a0 This was when we were both in seminary.\u00a0 We opened our presents at the same time and discovered we had given each other the same book! — Wuest’s Expanded Translation<\/em>.\u00a0 Of course, from Mom and Dad there was electric football, hockey, and baseball games.\u00a0 However, when I think about Christmas gifts over the years, one of my first thoughts is about a Davy Crockett figurine I got when I was around 5 or 6 years old I believe.\u00a0 The Disney production of the Davy Crockett saga ending with the Alamo story mesmerized me as a little boy.\u00a0 Fess Parker who played Davy Crockett (picture to the right) became one of my heros.\u00a0 As an adult when I visted the Alamo in San Antonio for the first time, it was a super special time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Was any Christmas more special than others?<\/p>\n

There is one Christmas season that stands out more than the others.\u00a0 It was Christmas 1974.\u00a0 I had come to faith in Christ in August of that year.\u00a0 This was my first Christmas as a Christian.\u00a0 I remember watching a TV presentation of “The Little Drummer Boy” that produced great emotion in me.\u00a0 The thought came to me that “I final get it.\u00a0 I now understand what it is all about.”\u00a0 Of course, all have been special as my kids were born and raised and we visited grandma and grandpa.\u00a0 There are special ones to come I suppose.\u00a0 But that 1974 Christmas will remain unforgettable.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Was Jesus really born of a virgin?<\/p>\n

Of course.\u00a0 Once you believe in a Creator God, the virgin birth\u00a0is a small miracle and does not take much faith to believe in.\u00a0 The Bible clearly teaches the virgin birth so I accept it.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more Christmas Memories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is Christmas season once again (2012).\u00a0 As a believer in Jesus it is quite natural to have mixed feelings about all of the consumerism and partying that we complain about sometimes but never do anything about.\u00a0 Perhaps the early American Puritans were on to something when they eschewed any celebrations on December 25.\u00a0 Nonetheless, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1162,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions\/1162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}