The Pastor's Perspective

    The Christmas season is marked by universally recognized images: twinkling lights, festive music, and perhaps the most iconic of all—the Nativity scene. These symbols are so commonplace that it is easy to fall into what we might call The Christmas Assumption : the belief that because people celebrate the holiday, they must understand the actual story of Jesus Christ.      Several years ago, a Baptist Press story highlighted the danger of this assumption. A missionary traveling through a staunchly Buddhist area of Southeast Asia noticed something unusual in an open-air market: several beautifully crafted Nativity sets.      The missionary was curious and tracked down the family making them. To his surprise, they knew nothing about the pieces they were selling. A French tourist had simply suggested they make the sets to sell alongside their other handmade items. The family had absolutely no idea what the Nativity figures represented.  ...

     The Christmas story is the greatest event in human history. So great in fact that history has been divided by that very event.       Everything prior to the birth of Christ was labeled as B.C. which means "Before Christ". Meaning that all of recorded human history that happened before the birth of Christ has that label. For example Alexander the Great died either  June 10 or 11, 323 BC. Another words Alexander the Great died 323 years before Jesus Christ was Born, B.C.       Accordingly everything that happened after the birth of Christ is labeled with A.D. This stands for the Latin phrase "Anno Domini" which means "in the year of our Lord" So this year is 2025 A.D. which means 2025 years after the birth of Christ.     The birth of Jesus did more than help us categorize historical events. It was t he moment when God fulfilled centuries of prophecy by stepping into our world. The God of the Universe who spoke the ...