And the angel said to them, ”Be not afraid, for I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people.” -Luke2:10 What is joy? Have you ever stopped to think about the meaning of this word? Joy is the feeling that a child has on Christmas morning when he or she tears the wrapping paper off of presents, not knowing what treasure lies inside hue knowing they will like
And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid, for I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people.” -Luke 2:10 What is the good news? In the Nativity story, the Angels gave the message, “For to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2: 11).” What does that mean to us? Let’s go back to Genesis
And they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, ”Be not afraid.” -Luke 2:9-10 Think about when you are most afraid. It’s when you don’t know the outcome of something. People feel fear before they take a test, particularly medical tests, because they don’t know what the outcome is going to be. People are afraid of the unknown, because they don’t have mastery of it and can’t control the results. People get
Eleutherios was born in Rome in the second century AD. He was among the first and youngest to carve a niche for himself in Christianity in the eternal city of Rome, where he astounded his elders with his prodigious intellect and early development. Had his father, a high public official of pagan Rome, lived to guide his immensely talented son, things might have taken a different turn for the boy and for Christianity, but his
By Theo Nicolakis The Christmas season is such a beautiful time of the year. Lights, candles, and cutout snowflakes begin to decorate our city’s streets. People begin to adorn their homes with the colors of red and green, wreaths, candles, and dazzling arrays of lights. These decorations even spill into our schools and businesses. That’s the Christmas season! That is the Christmas season? This past week, as I was speaking with one of my staff
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were filled with fear. -Luke 2:9 Have you ever thought about the word glory? Have you ever wondered what “the glory of the Lord” might look like? In Exodus 33: 18-23, God shows His glory to Moses: Moses said, “I pray Thee, show me Thy glory.” And He [God] said, “I will make all my
“Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth” – a teaching by Jesus Christ in His Sermon on the Mount. These divine words describe Saint Spyridon absolutely. This is evident from the fact that his life on earth was a flowering of Christianity in all its fullness and constancy expressed through his teaching, which influenced society not just in his lifetime but during the many centuries between then and now, and will certainly
And in that region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night. -Luke2:8 Being a shepherd was certainly not a glamorous job. It involved herding a large number of sheep to go into a specific direction. Of course, the sheep don’t have the power of persuasion and reason that human beings have, so this was a tough task. Oftentimes the ratio of sheep could be 100 sheep to one
And in that region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night. -Luke2:8 We’ve all experienced the stress of the mall at Christmas. Fighting over parking places, waiting in traffic, and long lines in the stores, and now added to that everyone looking at their phone, WHILE fighting for parking, sitting in traffic and waiting in line. I remember once thinking, with all of this stress at the mall, would
And in that region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night. -Luke2:8 I’m sure during the period of the census in Bethlehem, there were people from all walks of life, all economic classes. There were well-to-do people who got the most expensive rooms in the most expensive inns, who rode the best donkeys and camels. With so many people descending on Bethlehem for the census, there were undoubtedly
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