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 |  This contains entries to Take up Your Cross, Space Blog, Blog City PF and BC of Friends |
"December 22, 2018"      What church do you attend?I am a soldier in the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army is a church that was originally a part of the United Methodist church. Our founder William Booth walked through an impoverished area of London England once and began evangelizing to the skid row homeless people and others. People responded to the message but when they went to William's church, the church would not permit them to enter because they were poor. They also needed hygiene. So William rented a dance hall to use on Sunday morning for services and the Salvation Army was born. He realized that the people he was evangelizing had physical needs that in their minds trumped their spiritual needs so he began feeding and clothing them. In this way the Salvation Army became a benevolent organization as it is best known for today. We currently have corps in nearly every country in the world and are always "Doing the most good." "Prompt: Begin your entry with "On a cold December night..." What happened?"On a cold December night, Jesus would likely have been six months old. Tradition says that He was born on December 25, but tradition is wrong. While we do not know for sure when He was born there are clues that help us. For example scripture tells us that on the night of His birth shepherds were out in the fields with their flocks. No shepherd is going to take sheep into a field at night in December in Israel. It is much too cold. Israel weather is much like the weather in the northern USA in December and no shepherd is going to expose his sheep to that. There may have even been snow on the ground preventing the sheep from even grazing. So this clue tells us it was not December. Another clue that it was not December is the actions of his mother. She had him in a stable or barn and wrapped him in cloths. No mother is going to wrap a newborn in cloths and lay him in a manger in a barn in December in the northern hemisphere! The baby would die of hypothermia within hours! The barn itself would not have been heated just as barns today are usually not heated. So this clue tells us it was a warm month. Another clue is the actions of Caesar Augustus. He had ordered all the people to return to their hometowns to take part in a census or taxing. No emperor, regardless of his level of cruelty, is going to order his subjects to travel in the winter. Remember that they could not drive a warm car because they had no cars. Most people traveled by foot. So the likelihood of Caesar ordering them to go to their home towns in cold weather is nil. Again this clue points to warm weather. Finally the Star of David is a clue. Scientists today can adjust star charts to pinpoint exactly where the stars were at any given point in history. Using that technology scientists set out to see if any event like the Star of David really occurred. They found that Rigel lined up with Jupiter on June 17, 04 BC, which coincides with the year of Jesus' birth on our calendar. This event they say would have been noticeable to astronomers (magi) in that time as a new star. Any astronomer who faithfully watched the skies and knew the prophecies of the Old Testament, would have put 2 and 2 together to know this new star signified the birth of the messiah. So this clue then leads us to June and not December. Scholars disagree in pinpointing a day for Jesus' birth. Some believe it would have been in the fall. Some say spring. A few say summer but none believe it was December. We celebrate it in December because the December date coincides with the pagan celebration of the winter solstice and early Gentile Christians wanted to revert to paganism in order to keep their winter feast. So the church compromised and held a Christ Mass, which is now Christmas. So on a cold December night, Jesus would have been with His mother and Joseph in a warm house. Prompt: "The Grinch has stolen Christmas and it's up to you to save Whoville, have fun on this creative Saturday. A ribbon is at stake for the most creative entry, is it going to be yours?"The Grinch stole Christmas huh? Good for him! Go Grinch! Bah Humbug!    |
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