Christmas Stories

Sep 18, 2014 2221

Nazareth – It’s Your Home Too!
by Desmond Ford

Excerpt

The new-born baby Jesus was totally dependent upon his heavenly Father. We must learn the lesson of completely depending on God.

How Then Shall We Live?
by Desmond Ford

Excerpt

Paul Johnson’s recent book, The Intellectuals, has a significant thesis. Persons immoral in heart and life have no right to advise humanity on how to conduct its affairs.

Bethlehem Had No Christmas Tree, Only The Shadows of a Cross
by Desmond Ford

Excerpt

YOU have certainly got to hand it to him. The devil is very smart. He does not force us against our wills to do evil. Instead, he makes evil look good. After all he is not called ‘ ‘the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev 12:9)for nothing. How else could he persuade the majority of men and women to sell eternity for time, heaven for hell and God’s smile for his wrath?

Bethlehem’s Physician and Calvary’s Hospital
by Desmond Ford

Excerpt:

The substance of this article will seem as far from the theme of Christmas as chalk from cheese, and hell from heaven. At least, to start with. But remember the proverb (which is at least half true): all things come to those who wait! More importantly, recall that the route of success is often the route of indirection. Napoleon, when attacking the great city of Toulouse, pointed on the map to a much smaller city and declared, ”

There Were Shepherds… Keeping Watch
Luke 2:8 by Desmond Ford

Excerpt:

Every aspect of the Bethlehem nativity is a facet of the gospel jewel, a reflection of Christ himself. With every new Christmas we are enabled to behold more and more of his glory as we contemplate the scenes which made angels marvel and bow in adoration.

The Baby That Changed Everything
by Desmond Ford

Excerpt

A baby boy, orphaned in a mining camp, transforms the camp and its miners. Christmas reminds us that Jesus was born into this rough world to transform us by God’s love.

The Riddle of Christmas
by Desmond Ford

Excerpt

Riddles usually belong to fun, but some belong to issues of life and death. You will remember that
Samson set forth a riddle which had very serious consequences (read the story in Judges 14). The Greeks often told the old story of the monster which guarded Thebes. He demanded of all who approached the city either their life or an answer to the puzzle: What is it that has four feet. two feet. and is weakest when it has three feet?

The Unspeakable Gift
by Desmond Ford

Excerpt

There was no room for him at the inn. But the cattle made room for him. The chosen people had no room for him, but strangers from the heathen east opened thier hearts and purses. The great religous teachers of Jerusalem were not on the alert expecting the Messiah, but some of the lowly in Israel were looking for the Redeemer. Ignorant and poverty-stricken shepherds heard the good tidings of great joy and were filled with gladness, but the learned and the rich were moved with fear. “He came unto his own, and his own received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (Jn. 1:11)

Since I Heard of Bethelehem
by Desmond Ford

Excerpt:

Christmas has many layers of meaning. At the lowest level is the layer of nostalgia – we think back on our own childhood Christmases. We longingly review those distant days of family union and reunions, of music, gifts and feasting. Oh, that they might return! And, of course, at this level, we are somewhat self-deceived, for nothing in the past (or the future for that matter) possesses quite the perfection or the terror we, in imagination, ascribe to it – except when we contemplate the world to come.

The Spirit of Bethlehem
by Desmond Ford

Excerpt

In Dickens’ inimitable style he climaxed his Christmas story of Scrooge by sketching the liberality of the converted miser. Giving for God has always been the inevitable result of receiving from God. All Christian biography endorses Christian experience in this regard. Paul’s exclamation: “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (2 Cor 9: 15), epitomizes the heart cry of all who hear the Bethlehem story with understanding.

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