Quotes

Do you think Christmas is bigger than Easter?

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Do you think Christmas is bigger than Easter?

This seems like an easy question to answer. However, opinions and contexts differ. For me, the answer is NO! And I am not the only one. Apparently, the Rev. Ray Pritchard agrees with me. Let us take a gander at what he wrote on his http://www.keepbelieving.com website.

In our society, there are two great religious holidays-Christmas and Easter. For most of us, Christmas is the bigger and greater season of the year. It is the time of year when we gather with family and friends to sing carols, decorate the tree, and exchange gifts. Christmas is the climax of the whole year. Easter? Well, for most people it is just another long weekend, another chance to get away for a few days.

Even Christians view Easter as a second-rate holiday!

Somehow we’ve gotten our thinking mixed up. If Easter had not happened, Christmas would have no meaning. If the tomb is not empty, the cradle makes no difference. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then He is just a misguided Jewish rabbi with delusions of grandeur. If Easter is not true, then Christmas was only the story of an obscure baby born in an out-of-the-way village, in a forgotten land 2000 years ago. It is Easter that gives Christmas its meaning.

Do You want proof? In all the New Testament, no major doctrinal point is ever built upon the virgin birth of Christ. Not one. It is true. It happened. But it is never discussed or mentioned. In fact, two gospels do not even say anything about it.

However, when it comes to the resurrection? That is a different story. In every part of the New Testament, it comes up again and again. Read the sermons of Acts. When the first Christians preached, they did not mention Bethlehem; they talked about the empty tomb. They never got over the fact that on Easter Sunday when they went to the tomb, Jesus was gone.

The Last Supper

Matthew 26:17-30
New Living Translation (NLT)

The Last Supper

On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?”

“As you go into the city,” he told them, “you will see a certain man. Tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house.’” So the disciples did as Jesus told them and prepared the Passover meal there.
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When it was evening, Jesus sat down at the table with the twelve disciples. While they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.”

Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the one, Lord?”

He replied, “One of you who has just eaten from this bowl with me will betray me. For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!”

Judas, the one who would betray him, also asked, “Rabbi, am I the one?”

And Jesus told him, “You have said it.”

As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.”

And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. Mark, my words-I, will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”

Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

 

He knows my name

Psalm 139:1-18

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

Manny Pacquiao edges Marquez in controversial fight

The legendary Manny Pacquiao, defeated Juan Manuel Marquez, Saturday night at the MGM Grand, in a very close controversial fight.

It was the 15th straight win for Pacquiao, who earned a minimum of $22 million while improving his record to 54-3-2. Marquez, who earned $5 million, fell to 52-6-1.

This was the third bout between the two boxers. The first bout seven years ago at 125 pounds (57 kilograms) was a draw, and Pacquiao won a split decision in their second bout in 2008 at 130 pounds (59 kilograms).

“When the final bell rang, 12 rounds of furious fighting complete, Juan Manuel Marquez confidently lifted his right fist high into the air, as if he was saying: “I did it, I did it,”  turned to the ringside crowd and offered a knowing wink through an eye nearly swollen shut.

Standing in front of him at that very moment, his opponent, Manny Pacquiao, let his head sag as he turned to walk to his corner. Seconds later Marquez was carried around the ring on the shoulders of two of his corner men. Pacquiao was on his knees in prayer.

Somehow, someway, Pacquiao wound up with the majority decision, 116-112, 115-113, 114-114, a result that will be doubted and debated forever.”

Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez

Image by audiovisualjunkie via Flickr

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Happy Veterans Day America

Happy Veterans Day!

History of Veterans Day

World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France.

Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities.  This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect

Read more here: http://www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetdayhistory.asp