What Christmas is All About

Charlie Brown Christmas is probably the most classic, accurate depiction of Christmas. Thankfully, it is aired every year in America (sadly not in Australia and other parts of the world), and has then become an integral part of the season in that part of the world. What is special about this clip is that the messenger is only a little kid, Linus, who pronounces a big message that strips bare all the Christmas trappings deeply seated in our culture and zeroes in on the crux of the matter: God Immanuel in Christ Jesus!

Scots' Church CBD Christmas Service

I will be speaking at the Scots' Church CBD Christmas Service this Wednesday 17 Dec. Every year for the last seventeen years I have reflected on the birth of Christ Jesus our Lord during Advent and Christmas, and often found myself praying for fresh insights from the Holy Spirit. The task was even more daunting as I started to do that since ten years ago not only as a believer pondering Christmas, but as speaker delivering a Christmas message. I felt moving from the 'consumer' to 'supplier' side is both a privilege and stressful thing to think about. There is a limit to what we can preach about the characters around Christmas: The shepherds, Mary, Joseph, the Innkeeper, the Kings, Herod, and the angels. Or the prophecy, the virgin birth, and so on. So this year here I am doing it again. But I am thankful for "the breadth and length and height and depth" of Christ's love (Ephesians 3:18) which never ceases to amaze me as I learn once again to be fed from it. So this year I have reflected on my perceptions of Christmas which have changed a few times over the last seventeen years. Hence, the title of the message: The Christmas I Never Knew.