Neighborhood Church
Reasons For The Season: Part 2
Locations & Times
Neighborhood Church
5505 W Riggin Ave, Visalia, CA 93291, USA
Sunday 8:00 AM
“When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things–not the great occasions–give off the greatest glow of happiness.”
Bob Hope
“Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance–a day in which we think about everything we have ever loved.”
Augusta E. Rundel
“Christmas: the only time of year you can sit in front of a dead tree eating candy out of socks.”
Anonymous
Bob Hope
“Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance–a day in which we think about everything we have ever loved.”
Augusta E. Rundel
“Christmas: the only time of year you can sit in front of a dead tree eating candy out of socks.”
Anonymous
“lice, rats, barbed wire, fleas, shells, bombs, underground caves, corpses, blood, liquor, mice, cats, artillery, filth, bullets, mortars, fire, steel: that’s what war is. It is the work of the devil.”
Otto Dix
17,000,000
the number of people, soldiers and civilians, who lost their lives during WWI
“I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.”
Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
"We are having the most extraordinary Christmas Day imaginable. A sort of unarranged and quite unauthorized but perfectly understood and scrupulously observed truce exists between us and our friends in front… The men were all fraternizing in the middle and swapped cigarettes and lies in the utmost good fellowship. Not a shot was fired all night."
Robert Miles
“Never was I more keenly aware of the insanity of war.”
Carl Mühlegg
Otto Dix
17,000,000
the number of people, soldiers and civilians, who lost their lives during WWI
“I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.”
Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
"We are having the most extraordinary Christmas Day imaginable. A sort of unarranged and quite unauthorized but perfectly understood and scrupulously observed truce exists between us and our friends in front… The men were all fraternizing in the middle and swapped cigarettes and lies in the utmost good fellowship. Not a shot was fired all night."
Robert Miles
“Never was I more keenly aware of the insanity of war.”
Carl Mühlegg
The wonder of Christmas is rooted in the reality of divine love.
His name is Jesus, and he is the reason for the season.
We live in a dark world, but the way of Jesus–the way of divine love and wisdom–is a light that guides our way.
We Three Kings of Orient are,
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain,
Moor and mountain,
Following yonder Star.
O Star of Wonder, Star of Night,
Star with Royal Beauty bright,
Westward leading,
Still proceeding,
Guide us to Thy perfect Light.
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain,
Moor and mountain,
Following yonder Star.
O Star of Wonder, Star of Night,
Star with Royal Beauty bright,
Westward leading,
Still proceeding,
Guide us to Thy perfect Light.
“They’re the three men in glittering velvet robes and fake beards in the living nativity at church. Sometimes, they tow a live camel. Bearing gifts, they traversed afar, following yonder star through the back of the sanctuary in the grand crescendo of our beloved annual Christmas pageant. I’m speaking, of course, of the Magi. Or is it wise men? Wait, kings? Intrigue swirls around these festooned foreigners. Where did they come from? And who are they?"
Chad Ashby, Christianity Today
Chad Ashby, Christianity Today
Magi = Magoi
Remember, the Bible was written for us, but it wasn’t written to us. Matthew wrote his biography of Jesus primarily for a first-century Jewish audience.
Three Important Truths
1. Jesus is God's promise.
2. Jesus is for everyone.
3. Jesus is King.
1. Jesus is God's promise.
2. Jesus is for everyone.
3. Jesus is King.
“The gospel is not good advice, it’s a summons to follow a King.”
Tim Keller
Tim Keller
Just like the picture of the magi, following a shining star in the shadow of night, we are invited to follow Jesus–whose love radiates brilliantly in the darkness of our world.