ICYMI Christmas Edition

by Tom Goodman

“Santa doesn’t prepare you for disillusionment—he prepares you for belief.” Here’s Rich Cohen in the WSJ explaining the faith value of the Santa story. Nah, there’s neither harm nor benefit that the Santa story brings to a child’s nascent Christian faith. So, on the one hand, I really don’t think that the Santa story makes it harder for kids to believe the other things, the serious faith things, that parents tell them. But neither do I believe Cohen is correct to say Santa is “a kind of training-wheel Jesus, presenting aspects of faith in a manner that kids can handle.”

 

What was Jon Bon Jovi’s first professional credit? If you said, “For the track ‘R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas’” you’d be right. It’s on 1980’s Star Wars themed Christmas in the Stars. Evidence.

 

White Christmas, Black Christmas: Though minority and white evangelical Protestants have more in common than any other Christian groups, they are deeply divided on matters of race and justice. 

 

“Religion is not in decline so much as inherited religion is in decline." WSJ profiles Tim Keller. If clicking the link doesn't give you the whole article, you can pass the pay wall by entering the title in a search engine and clicking the results. Here’s the link.

 

"The second man to walk on the moon?" his father said. "Number two?" Buzz Aldrin’s father was hard to please.

 

Too busy to read The Silmarillion? Here’s a 4-minute video to explain the mythology behind Tolkien’s works, The Hobbit and (especially) The Lord of the Rings.

Or you could just watch Stephen Colbert school James Franco on the Valar:

This week's newsletter from Michael

Gene is traveling this week, so we are blessed to have Michael provide us with a newsletter article.

Traditions: we all have them, whether they are big or small. Have you ever wondered why we stand for the “Hallelujah Chorus?” The Hallelujah Chorus has its own tradition that has emerged over time. A standard practice is for the audience to stand while this portion of Messiah is being performed.  The tradition began by the example of King George II. It was understood that whenever the King stood, everyone else was supposed to as well. For over 200 years, this tradition has continued. Few people know exactly why the King stood, but most of us will never know. Some speculations for this standing range from King George showing respect, he may have mistaken it for the national anthem, or maybe his legs were falling asleep. 

One of our traditions since Rachel and I have been married is taking family pictures every year before Christmas and after Christmas! So far we have kept it going. As Rachel and I were driving home the other day, I told her we needed to start more traditions now that our family is growing. We are now going to start eating out for breakfast once a month before we come to church. I can’t wait until we purchase a home! My next tradition would be singing carols around the piano with the entire family. I have seen many families do this and I am eager to start!

Keep your family traditions alive and going! Make it a tradition to attend a Christmas Eve service, whether it be here or someplace else. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

This week's newsletter from Steve

Jesus. A name that by itself is instantly recognizable. It is a name that can bring peace to the brokenhearted, and at the same time strike terror in the core of Satan’s very existence. The name of Jesus should be clearly heard and remembered during this Christmas season, but in love… So often we hear the name of Jesus, and it’s connected to some form of protest or something of that nature in the news. I hope that during this Christmas season, we can present the real Jesus to the world, the gift that is described in John 3:16:

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten ([a]unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.” -- John 3:16 (Amplified Bible)

May you have a wonderful, Christ-filled Christmas!

This week's newsletter from Karen

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105, NIV)

This verse was written from the perspective of a shepherd. There were no street lights in the hills at night so when shepherds needed to move, they held their lamps nearer to the ground (feet/path) to be able to see where to go. The small amount of light compared to the vast darkness in this situation must have caused them to concentrate more on the path and their steps than they would have had it been in broad daylight.

When David wrote this passage he was referring to the scripture he had been taught by his father and teachers. He knew knowing God's written word would guide his decisions and behaviors. He knew his decisions and behaviors needed focus—even those that might have been second nature.

John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John, like us, knew both. He knew God's written word and he knew Jesus. In his writing he kind of equates them. In these passages He is telling us Jesus has always existed, Jesus is God in human form, Jesus is God's word and, Jesus his God's word come to life.

This Christmas season, thank God for his provision of Jesus – the lamp for our feet and light on our path.

Christmas Music Sampler

by Tom Goodman

It’s easy to take potshots at awful Christmas songs. Here are just a few of the solid ones I have in my hours and hours of Christmas music.

 

The Oh Hellos of San Marcos have a Family Christmas Album out. Here’s a sample, “Begin and Never Cease.”

 

Jason Gray’s Christmas Stories album. Here’s a sample, “Christmas is Coming”:

 

Bruce Cockburn’s Christmas. Here’s a sample, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” set in a minor key

 

Over the Rhine’s Snow Angels is one of my favorites. “Here it Is” was written by the husband of this husband-wife duo as his recommitment to the marriage after a time of estrangement:

 

Kathy Matea’s got 2 Christmas albums out: Good News and Joy For Christmas Day. From the second album, here’s “All Because of Him.”

 

From Red Mountain Music’s Silent Night here’s “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent”--

 

Ron Sexsmith’s "Maybe This Christmas" is poignant. 

ICYMI Thursday

by Tom Goodman

Your ugly Christmas sweater is getting trumped
by my ugly Christmas sweater suit.

 

What I want to know is why there’s a “Little Drummer Boy Challenge” when a “Christmas Shoes Challenge” makes more sense.

 

"The Allure of Middle Earth" is good reading on the week Peter Jackson takes us on his last trip there.

 

13 Stephen Colbert Cameos You Might Have Missed

 

11 Google Tricks That Will Change the Way You Search

 

Ebola Medical Missionaries Named Time's Person of the Year

 

“If your house was burning, what would you take with you?” This is the question Foster Huntington asks in his Tumblr (turned book) The Burning House. More than 5000 people from around the world have answered his question in photo form, neatly lining up their most treasured possessions into aesthetically pleasing arrangements. (story)

 

Can you guess the meaning of these 11 idioms from around the world? After getting 8 of 11, I’m like a maggot in bacon.

 

“The great spasms of cruelty and killing through history have had little or no religious overlay. In modern times Hitler, Stalin and Mao were all atheists, and the power behind the Holocaust…was an ethnic rather than a religious hatred. An overemphasis on religion’s damage can blind people to the nonholy terrors that their states inflict.” In the NYT Sunday Book Review, James Fallows recaps Karen Armstrong’s point in her new book, Fields of Blood.

This week's newsletter from Karen

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10; NIV)

I love this verse and it seems so appropriate during Christmas. It’s a precious summation of how God saw His creation—which he loved—and knew they were entangled in sin. God understood this sin meant His creation—which he loved—could never exist in His presence in their current situation. God knew He was the only one that could rectify the condition of His creation—which He loved. So God did what had to be done. He sent His Son—which He loved.

Sometimes the phrase “sent his one and only Son” comes across as very simple, like sending your son to the grocery store, to his room, to school, etc. But as simple as it might seem, God’s “sending” of His Son was NOT simple. When God “sent” Jesus, He knew everything Jesus would endure. He knew Jesus would be rejected by His own people. He knew that Jesus would be questioned by those that should have embraced his appearance. He knew Jesus would be arrested, beaten, mocked, and spit upon. And He knew Jesus would die a very cruel criminal’s death.

We obviously love our children. But do we love anyone else to the point that would cause us to send our child to their certain death if it would save the other loved one? God’s answer was, “Yes!”

My prayer this Christmas season is that we thank God for his “yes” in our lives.

This week's newsletter from Steve

This past weekend, we took our college group to Pineywoods Baptist Encampment for our first retreat together. We spent two days building relationships, singing and doing Bible study together among the pine trees of east Texas. We had a great time studying about the characteristics of Godly men and women. Please pray that what we studied will take root, and make the changes in each of our lives that God wants to make in us.  Excited to be working with these older students, as well!

In just a few days, our team will be joining others from Houston and California in Prague, Czech Republic to host MKR 2014. If you are unfamiliar with this ministry and event, I encourage you to be there on Sunday during worship at 10:00 AM. We will briefly share what we will be doing there, and how you can pray with us.  Due to security procedures, I cannot share all about it in this article.  However, I hope to see you on Sunday so that we can give you more info!  Hope to see you then!

This week's newsletter from Gene

What a neat night of music we had this past Sunday night! Every group did an outstanding job. The only age group we were missing were our students, but Michael will be starting a choir for them after the first of the year, so if you are a student, grade 7-12, or know one, Sunday afternoons 4:45-5:30 is your time. Join them!

There is a term commonly used in schools, “carry-over sport.” It refers to sports that carry over after you are out of school. Each sport is different, but football is obviously not a good carry over sport, basketball and softball can be carry over sports, but tennis and golf top of the list for sports that can last a lifetime.

Music, of any type, is one of the best 
“carry-over” activities. Sunday morning we had our 4-5 year old choir; Sunday night, we had from 1st-graders through 93 years old singing. Most of our instrumentalists played their instruments in high school and college. Music provides not only an excellent way to worship and serve, but it is also a really good activity to keep challenged throughout life. Sunday, you heard singing,  plus various instruments including bells. If you have skills in any of these areas, we would like to have you as part of the music ministry. When we start back right after the first of the year, Michael will be starting our spring music and begin very soon to work on Easter. This is a great time of the year to join! Talk with Michael or me if you’d like to be involved.

The Christmas season is a time of joy, but also a time of grief for those who have lost loved ones. Enjoy time with your families, but also remember our Hillcrest family members who are missing someone they love from their celebration this year.

Have a great holiday season!!!  Merry Christmas!!

  

Gone Boy

by Tom Goodman

Jesus was missing, and for a few days Chicago was in an uproar.

A few years ago, someone nabbed the figurine of the infant Jesus from a life-sized nativity, a hand-carved Italian masterpiece given as a gift to the people of Chicago. For days, local newscasts began their programming with comments from an angry mayor, assurances from a police chief that the case would be solved, and emotional pleas from the Nativity committee to return the irreplaceable artwork.

Then, without explanation, the baby Jesus was found. The fine work of art was found in an unlikely setting: a locker at the bus depot. The infant was returned to the manger, safely strapped down with metal straps, and protected by guards.

It sure sounds like there's a lesson in that news story. As you count down to Christmas, is Jesus missing?

I'm asking this of those who claim Christian convictions. I know that about a third of Americans deliberately celebrate a Christmas without relation to Jesus, according to a new LifeWay Research report. But right now my mind is more on those who will miss Jesus this season not by design but by default.

By default? Sure. We can let the demands of the season crowd out the reason for the season. From crowded malls to noisy office parties to lines at the post office to the gauntlet of TSA screenings standing between us and our flight home -- well, in the midst of it all, we may find that Jesus is missing.

So, be sure and turn your thoughts to God's great gift of Immanuel, which means “God with us.” Here are some ways to make much of Jesus this season:

In your family gatherings, pause long enough to read the Christmas story from Luke 2.

Or defer to Linus by popping in a DVD of A Charlie Brown Christmas if you're too shy to lead a public Scripture reading.

Bring someone to this Sunday’s 10am service as we discuss that great prophecy of Christmas in Isaiah 9.

If you're in town on Christmas Eve, join us at Hillcrest at 6:00 p.m. for a 45-minute kid-friendly service.

Tune to some music that honors Christ's birth. I recommend Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God. Oh my.

Get ready for some redemptive conversations by reading Lee Strobel's The Case for Christmas.

Let's make sure that the pressures of the holiday don't rob Jesus from our heart!

This week's newsletter from Karen

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24; NIV)

Relationships can be messy, twisted, difficult, complicated. Not only love relationships, but those with friends, co-workers, siblings, neighbors, etc. Many times we just don’t know how or what we should do to mend any broken relationships we are experiencing.

So why does God want us to reconcile our relationships before we offer our gifts to Him?

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (1 John 4:19-20; NIV)

John tells us that if we “hate a brother or sister” then our love for God is not what we proclaim it to be. If our gifts are a symbol of our worship and love for our God and all He has done for us, then having hate in our hearts for others must in some way diminish the motivation of our gifts.

Holiday seasons – especially Christmas – tend to be times when many seem more open to mending broken relationships. My prayer is that those of us experiencing turmoil in relationships will take the opportunity of the season to find a way to start the reconciliation process and move toward a deeper love for our brother and our God.

This week's newsletter from Steve

We had a great time last night with our youth ministry students at our Christmas party! We had a room full of people exchanging gifts, playing games, and sharing a wonderful spread of Mexican food. Thank you so much to all of our adult leaders and parents who came to help out! We couldn’t do it without you!

This weekend, we will be taking our college students on our first retreat together. We will be spending a couple of days strengthening relationships, and most importantly, seeking the Lord together in Bible study and prayer.  There are 11 of us attending this retreat, and we would really covet your prayers as we go. We are praying for a unification of the student group, and a great sense of direction for our college students.

This week's newsletter from Gene

Heart vs. Phone?

I was very fortunate to have parents who brought me up in church. In our case, they had to start and grow the church for us to have one to attend. In 1953 when we moved to Alamosa, Colorado, it was 85 miles to the closest evangelical church of any type. My folks and about 8 other adults banded together to start College Heights Baptist Church. It was a pretty large church for Colorado when I left there 20 years later, running about 125 each week. Now there are churches in practically every little town in that area of southern Colorado that can be traced back to College Heights and the work my parents and others did.

One of our main summer events was VBS.  I still remember many of the scriptures I learned as a child in VBS. One is Psalm 119:11. King James was the standard of the day, so that is the version much of my scripture was learned in. “Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” I remember as a child having a Bible that had a zipper and a mustard seed in the little handle to zip and unzip it. Before I became a Christian, I remember holding it over my heart to try to help fill that void I felt. I’ve had four personal Bibles over the years, others to use in study, and have several versions on my phone.

Last week, when I read that scripture, I started thinking about how things are  in today’s world. Most of us have at least one version of the Bible on our phones or tablets. I’m not sure we read it as much using these devices as when we had to keep up with a Bible. I’m afraid the tendency may be “out of sight, out of mind.” Would a new translation of Ps. 119:11 read, “Thy Word have I hid on my phone, so that I always have it, but seldom read it?”

ICYMI Thursday

by Tom Goodman

Makoto Fujimura is highly respected in the art world, and a Christian whose work is informed by his faith. Here’s his acceptance speech for the 2014 American Academy of Religion Award in Religion and the Arts.

 

The 10 most misquoted holiday songs.

 

China cracks down on puns. Media outlets react beautifully.

 

The NYT reports on pastors dealing with mental illness in their church and community.

 

Yes, you’ve seen the trailer for the new Star Wars flick, still a year away. But have you seen it in Legos?

This week's newsletter from Steve

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a great time visiting family and friends in New Mexico and Lubbock! Lots of driving, but well worth it to be with all of our families at once!

Yesterday during church, we saw a brief video regarding the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. I pray that it piqued your interest about what is going on with our Southern Baptist Missionaries.  Currently, there are about 5,000 SBC missionaries serving throughout the world, supported completely by churches just like ours here in America.  100% of your giving through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goes directly to these missionaries overseas. It is a great way to give, and an even better way to remind our missionaries that we are behind them, and support what God has called them to!

If you would like to know more about what the IMB missionaries are up to, please check out their website at:  www.imb.org. Have a great week!