Letter from the Pastor

Today is the last Sunday of the calendar year.  And each of us will be one year older.  To some, that is good news.  To others, it is not.  For many people there was a time in life when were complimented if someone guessed our age to be more than it was.  Now we are complimented when someone thinks our age to be less than it is.  Somewhere along the way, a transition took place.  But when did it happen?  Most of us do not remember.  We only know that it did. Our attitude toward aging is an interesting thing.  […]

I read a story some time ago which I doubt is true, but it deals with a very profound truth.  The setting of this story was an exclusive men’s club in London in the early part of this century.  One member of the club was an outspoken atheist.  He did not believe in God.  He was critical of religion in general, and of Christianity in particular.  One day, someone wrote a little poem and posted it on the club bulletin board.  The man’s name was Joe, and the poem about him said:  “We have heard in language, highly spiced, that […]

In order to get the right answers about life, it is necessary to ask the right questions.  A lot of people get the right answers to the wrong questions and end up wondering where and why they missed out on life. For example, a young person may enter college asking, what career can I choose that will make me the most money?  And that person may find the right   answer to that question and yet be bitterly disappointed with the discovery.  All across the industrialized world, there are thousands of top-bracket executives who are absolutely miserable, both in their personal […]

Can you remember as a child the anticipation you felt as Christmas approached?  It was such an exciting time of year.  For some reason, adults seemed to be a little happier and less fussy than usual.  Music filled the air, packages were under the tree, secrets were being whispered from person to person.  Sometimes the excitement would build until you would think you were going to burst.  Perhaps we have since discarded that kind of anticipation as just a childish fantasy; but I hope not, for it isn’t altogether without scriptural precedent.  For example, there is the meeting between Virgin […]

One of the best loved of all Christmas carols is “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, written more than a hundred years ago.  The first part of the song is primarily historical, celebrating those events that surrounded the birth of Jesus.  But the last verse makes Christmas a very personal thing.  It says: “O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend on us we pray.  Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.” We have never understood Christmas until it goes beyond a historical fact and becomes a personal experience.  It is true, of course, that all of us […]