In our Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series), we’re still looking at the shepherds in the field hearing the Good News proclaimed by the angels regarding Christ’s birth. These shepherds are never named. They’re just shepherds watching their flocks. They could have been anybody. Today’s carol goes by four different titles: (1) How Great […]
Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming is the next traditional Christmas carol in our Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series telling of the birth of Christ. This time the focus is on His being born from the Virgin Mary. Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming is not in all the Protestant hymnals with good reason: there’s debate about […]
What Child Is This? is proof positive of the old Sunday School joke that the answer to every question is “Jesus.” It’s the next carol in our Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series). The lyrics are actually select verses from a poem by William Chatterton Dix entitled The Manger Throne written in 1865. Born […]
No matter where your politics take you, the Bible still speaks volumes into it. Just a timely reminder that Christmas was necessary because people sin. Cry out for Justice, knowing what that truly means, but always remember that Justice […]
I have been wrong a lot in my life. I had always thought that The First Noel was French because Noël sounded French and had the dieresis above the letter ë like the French sometimes do. I guess I was naïve. A lot of carols were French after all, including the Cantique de Noël. But […]
(Note: For those of you receiving these emails for the Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series) I still post both the audio and the sermon text versions of messages I preach on Sundays along with the day’s Advent devotionals. I hope you enjoy these sermons and are blessed by them. When the Ordinary Meets the […]
The audio version of When the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary (click link) is now available on YouTube. For those of you receiving these emails for the Advent Devotional Series, Carol Me Christmas! I still post both the audio and the sermon text versions of messages I preach on Sundays along with the day’s Advent devotionals. I hope you […]
Today in Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series) we continue our look at the angels communicating the good news of great joy to the shepherds. One of the great surprises of the Christmas story is that it was announced to shepherds who were considered the dregs of society. Seriously, shepherds? (That might have been […]
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear is the next carol in our Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series). This one is a beautiful song of peace written during a time of great strife in the United States. In 1849, we were seeing great westward expansion as “gold fever” was driving people to rush for […]
Charles Wesley’s second contribution to our Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series) is Hark The Herald Angels Sing which first appeared by a slightly different name (1739) in Wesley’s Hymns and Sacred Poems. Remember how I said that his carols and hymns are often uplifting? Well, apparently that’s not entirely due to Mr. Wesley himself […]
