Dear Readers:

       For several years I have shared my thoughts in these mostly monthly journals from “my several worlds” here in the Shenandoah Valley and other places around the globe.  Thank you to the many who have encouraged me to continue this outreach.  James Stewart, whose writings I have often quoted, encourages his readers to proclaim the Incarnation.  The quotes on this page are an effort to do that by considering the deeper meaning of Christmas in answering the question, “Who is Jesus?” --  present tense.

We for whom the Christian faith means life itself – here and hereafter--– can have no  greater topic to ponder.

.  Wishing you a Blessed and Most Meaningful Merry Christmas!      

                     +++En Agape+++

For He has rescued us from the one who rules in the kingdom of darkness, and He has brought us into the Kingdom of His dear Son.  God has purchased our freedom with His blood and has forgiven all our sins.  Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation.  Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth.  He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see – kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities.  Everything has been created through Him and for Him.  He existed before everything else began, and He holds all things together. 

  Paul to the Colossians circa 64AD.  New Living Translation.

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He was the meekest and lowliest of all the sons of men, yet He spoke of coming on the clouds of heaven with the glory of God. He was so austere that evil spirits and demons cried out in terror at His coming, yet He was so genial and winsome and approachable that the children loved to play with Him, and the little ones nestled in His arms. His presence at the innocent gaiety of a village wedding was like the presence of sunshine. No one was half so compassionate to sinners, yet no one ever spoke such red-hot scorching words about sin. A bruised reed He would not break, His whole life was love, yet on one occasion He demanded of the Pharisees how they ever expected to escape the damnation of hell. He was a dreamer of dreams and a seer of visions, yet for sheer stark realism He has all of our stark realists soundly beaten. He was a servant of all, washing the disciples feet, yet masterfully He strode into the temple, and the hucksters and moneychangers fell over one another to get away from the mad rush and the fire they saw blazing in His eyes. He saved others, yet at the last Himself He did not save. There is nothing in history like the union of contrasts that confronts us in the gospels. The mystery of Jesus is the mystery of divine personality.   James Stewart, Scottish theologian

“It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal Character, which through all the changes of eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love; has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions; has been not only the highest pattern of virtue but the strongest incentive to its practice; and has exerted so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.”

Irish Skeptic.W. E. H. Lecky - History of European Morals VII, 1869