Our daughter Holly started a Facebook page for Christian girls who admire Tim Tebow. She has lived all her life in Michigan and Ohio and has become, first a Florida fan and now a Denver fan. What meaneth this? Read on:
Deep in my genetic make-up is a strand of loyalty to The Ohio State University Football Program. It’s almost involuntary. I was born and raised in Ohio listening to Ohio State football on autumn Saturday afternoons, when Woody was King of Ohio. Dad owned an old black Studabaker that he …

It is the 28th of December and I’ve just stepped into my study. I’m hanging my new 2012 calendars today, but my heart is tender when my eye falls on the page that was December.
Never before have I had such sweet sadness after Christmas. Maybe it’s that a couple of our children now live a long way away and it is so hard to work out times to be together.
More and more the family is growing up and they are launching off and that’s as it should be. …

Christmas Day my daughter Hannah added a treasure to my library. Jerry Dennis has written another wonderful new book. This one is about the Great Lakes in winter. It is called “The Windward Shore.” Jerry is a skilled writer who lives in Northern Michigan. If you love good writing and nature and Michigan you will love his books.

Before the message Hope sang “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem” and Holly and I sang back-up. Here is a little amateur video of it.

This is the final message in my Christmas Series for 2011. This message was preached at Evangel Baptist Church in Taylor, Michigan on Christmas Morning 2011. During the message I tell a little story about James Taylor’s Christmas album. Hope you are helped by the message.

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A Classic re-post from 2001
We went on our annual Christmas tree excursion Saturday. If you don’t have beautiful fluffy white snow blanketing the brown earth, bright sunshine on a cold winter day is the next best weather for getting the tree. We stopped for donuts and cappuccino. On the way we sang a few carols.
At the farm all ten of us spilled out and hiked back a lane and over a little hill to where the trees grew. Most of them were huge but there were still dozens small enough …

Look on the sweet baby Jesus in the tiny infant form he took upon himself the night of his incarnation. Now step out into the cold Judean night. There no city lights obscure the grandeur of the heavens. The winter night is clear and cold and quiet. You can hear noises echoing through the mountains. You can see the uninhibited brilliance of the stars and the suns in the night sky. Stand silently for a while. Remember the Shepherd Psalmist who said, “when …

A Classic Christmas re-post for you to enjoy from 2004
One Saturday afternoon years ago I was working in the parsonage yard. It was cold and blustery. The first snow of the season took me by surprise. I welcomed it. Christmas was approaching. I noticed an unusual amount of traffic on our county road. All of it was southbound. I stepped into the house to warm up and wrapped my hands around a hot cup of coffee.

We ventured out yesterday to our tree farm. I have the ultimate Christmas-tree-getting vehicle—a Jeep Cherokee, fire-engine red. On days like this it seems like a bright, festive sleigh. We bundled up, plugged in some Christmas music and we were on our way. Hazard made the trip with us for the second year in a row. He was on his best behavior, except that in his excitement he threw up on the floor. On the farm are a couple large, athletic hounds. He wanted out be we feared for their …

When I was a boy my mother played three Christmas albums over and over again. I loved them. I can still close my eyes and open my heart and hear them somewhere deep in my soul. I would cherish digital versions of them for my iPod.
When I was in high school in the late seventies platform shoes, aviator glasses, polyester-double-knit leisure suits and eight-track tapes were in fashion. Mercifully, the season passed. Eight track tapes were replaced by cassette tapes.
In about 1983 Smiley Brownfield sold me a nice, …

A thousand Merry Christmases to you. For every weary retail clerk who has been cowed into muttering a dutiful, politically correct “Happy Holidays” I say; “Merry Christmas—A hundred Merry Christmases to you and yours.”
Christ is Lord. He always has been and he always will be until the New Heaven and the New Earth have replaced this fallen, broken, groaning creation. Christ is Lord ‘til Heaven and nature sing and for a million years every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord. So I say Merry …