WTR Sightings & Ideas
December 20th, 2007 | by Noel |I need your help!
If you see a blog post or article that is a great example of walking the razor, I want to know.
If you have an idea for a topic you’d like to see me explore, I want to know.
If you think of someone I should try to interview on the podcast, I want to know.
Basically, I want to hear any ideas you have for this site. To submit an idea to me, it’s real easy. Just fill out this form:
From now on there will be a link on the top of this page that says “Ideas.”
By e. barrett on Jan 7, 2008
A few weeks ago during the Stand to Reason radio show, Greg Koukl was discussing the origins of Christmas. Apparently until the 1800’s Christmas was a holiday that was all but ignored by the church. People “celebrated” with drinking and the (literal) extortion of gifts and food from the wealthy.
Christmas was such a pagan holiday that the church had all but given up celebrating. But a royal marriage between England and Germany brought a family atmosphere to the Holiday. That, combined with Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and (I believe) “Twas the night before Christmas” lead to what we know as Christmas.
The irony is that without the influence of gift giving and “consumerism” it may very well be a pagan holiday today.
As I thought about that this year it made me smile when people complained about “too many presents” or “too much consumerism”. Without those things, it’s unlikely that we would even be having a conversation about Jesus’ “birthday”.
It’s things like this that remind me that God can use all things to his purposes. Even a formerly pagan holiday.