Nativity Scene Poll

Last week in my Church I presented an apologetic lecture on the historical reality of Christmas.  As part of the lecture I pointed out that most nativity scene Jesuses have their hands raised as if they are worshiping the Father. (Like this one pictured on the left)

This one random point seemed to be remembered more than any other point I made in the presentation.  Now I would like you to answer a poll question.

Please take just a minute to answer this question.  Look at your nativity scene in your home and let me know if Jesus has his hands up or are they at his side.  The poll won't spam you, and I will use the results in the future.  I predict that Yes will win like 80-20

[polldaddy poll=4291358]

The Story of My Christmas Tree 2009

You may remember this story from last year so I won't rehash the whole thing.  But I add one ornament to my Christmas tree each year.  This year I am in a quandary about something maybe you can help me out. I got both ornaments #3 and #4 last year, so I have to make a decision.  Do I break with tradition and  keep them both, or do I choose only 1?  If I keep them both then I would be getting closer to the number I should have, (remember I am a couple of ornaments shy of 1 per year) but if I begin compromising here, then why stay on my 1 per year path at all?  just for the record, I'm not throwing anything away.  The one I demote will go to my small Christmas tree.  Read the tree key then vote in the poll at the end of this post.

1. This is the famous tin-foil ball. I added a couple of layers to it when I moved up to the full sized tree.  Also I stuck a nail with a red ribbon in it.  We got the nail/ribbon at church a few years back to remind us about Christ’s sacrifice.
2. A University of Kentucky Wildcats ornament. I bought this at wal-mart, can’t remember when, but probably like ‘03 since I was new to North Carolina and felt an extra need to represent my team in hostile territory
3. *This is a ball from the LPBC Lottie Moon Fundraiser 2008.  It was given in my honor by my Pastor and his wife.  It is made of actual glass
4. *This is a University of Kentucky candy cane.  It is one of a set of 4 (But I couldn’t stand to put all 4 of them on the tree that was just too much ornament adding) given to me by Wes & Kristi who said that their son, Carson  picked it out.
5. This is a glittery snowflake.  I’m not sure who, but somebody at Mexico Baptist Church gave me this. I lean towards thinking it is from Sandra Belt and it came in a card or something.
6. The original blue ball. (made of actual glass) This would have been 1996.
7. This is the tassel from my college graduation in ‘01. I was really proud of this since it took me 13 semesters to actually graduate from college.
8. A little wooden snowman with my name on it. A Couple of my former students, Kristen and Melissa, gave this to me I’m guessing it was ‘01.
9. This is a ball from the LaGrange Park RAs. It was part of a Lottie Moon fundraiser in ‘05. The RAs were placing these in honor or memory of someone for $4. Mine says “In honor of Jesus,” I thought it fitting since it was Christmas
10. This is a slightly used fishing bobber, complete with weights and an actual hook to hang it. It says 80¢ on the side.  I added this one myself in ‘04.
11. This is the tassel from my seminary graduation cap. I got this in December ‘06 when I graduated seminary. This is all that remains from my regalia rental fee of $80, so I’m definitely going to hang on to it.
12. 3 This is a snowman with a jingle bell built in.  Holding a sign that says, “Jesus loves you snow much.”  I got it at the Cumberland Beatitude house on our work day December 2007.
13. This is the ornament that started my one ornament per year method.  The one Kristi gave me in Christmas 1996 but it made the tree the next year, so we’ll call it ‘97

Now it's time for your input What do I do?

[polldaddy poll=2395566]

Hanging of the What?

Help mediate this disagreement between myself and my pastor.  last night at church we had a service called the Hanging of the Green.  I say it should be called hanging of the Greens since we are hanging multiple green things.  My pastor says that greens are something you eat for dinner and finds that unacceptable.  As far as I know, the word green is not a shortened form of the word greenery. So which is correct? I like to use my blog to solve minor disputes such as these.  So please take 2 seconds to vote on your preference.  And if you want to, feel free to tell me in the comments which is correct.

[polldaddy poll=2322360]

A Christmas Acro

Here's a special Christmas themed acro.  Just make an acrostic rom the provided letters and put it in the comments.  We'll chose our winner, just vote in the comments. Since Christmas is about different things to so many people we'll make 2 acros.

S A N T A

J E S U S

Since I don't know how to delay post a comment, here's my entry.

S-tupid A-ntelope N-uggets T-aste A-wful

J-eremy E-ats S-limy U-ncooked S-ausage

Take your turn in the comments.

The Story of My Christmas Tree

When Jarred and I were little kids, we had a 3 foot Christmas tree in our room.

As an alleged adult, approximately age 21, I got custody of that tree. Back then I lived with Jason Roland in an apartment that we now refer to as Forest Dump. (btw - Check out that link and read some of the reviews, they are hilarious) I put up the tree and its strand of 50 lights but there were no ornaments for it. Not sure whose idea it was, but we decided to put a tin-foil ball (see 1 in the picture below) on top of the tree in place of a star. After a couple of weeks we were at a UK BSU family group Christmas party, which was at the home of Kristi and April. They felt pity on my little tree and gave me a single ornament from theirs. It was a blue ball, (11) and that year it was the only ornament on the tree.

I decided that having only one ornament was funny so I was going to leave it that way. But then Kristi gave me a present that year which was an ornament, (8) so the next year it had two ornaments. My blog readers are smart…I think you can see where this is going. Each year I added one ornament. Although I don't remember it, apparently I skipped a year or two in there, because I only have 10 ornaments now and the one from Kristi is dated 1996. In 2005, since I was living in a full-size house like an adult, I went out and got me a 6.5 foot pre-lit tree like an adult would have. But I held strong to my one ornament per year rule. What you see below is a picture of my tree now (2008) in all of its 10 ornament glory. Below the picture is a key telling where I got each of the ornaments. Enjoy, and if you gave me one of them…Thanks :)

1 Is the famous tin-foil ball. I added a couple of layers to it when I moved up to the full sized tree.  Also I stuck a nail with a red ribbon in it.  We got the nail/ribbon at church a few years back to remind us about Christ's sacrifice.

2 A little wooden snowman with my name on it. A Couple of my former students, Kristen and Melissa, gave this to me I'm guessing it was '01.

3 This is a snowman with a jingle bell built in.  Holding a sign that says, "Jesus loves you snow much."  I got it at the Cumberland Beatitude house on our work day last December.

4 A University of Kentucky Wildcats ornament. I bought this at wal-mart, can't remember when, but probably like '03 since I was new to North Carolina and felt an extra need to represent my team in hostile territory

5 This is the tassel from my college graduation in '01. I was really proud of this since it took me 13 semesters to actually graduate from college.

6 This is a glittery snowflake.  I'm not sure who, but somebody at Mexico Baptist Church gave me this. I lean towards thinking it is from Sandra Belt and it came in a card or something.

7 This is a slightly used fishing bobber, complete with weights and an actual hook to hang it. It says 80¢ on the side.  I added this one myself in '04.

8 This is ornament number 2 from above.  The one Kristi gave me in Christmas 1996 but it made the tree the next year, so we'll call it '97

9 This is the tassel from my seminary graduation cap. I got this in December '06 when I graduated seminary. This is all that remains from my regalia rental fee of $80, so I'm definitely going to hang on to it.

10 This is a ball from the LaGrange Park RAs. It was part of a Lottie Moon fundraiser in '05. The RAs were placing these in honor or memory of someone for $4. Mine says "In honor of Jesus," I thought it fitting since it was Christmas

11 The original blue ball. (made of actual glass) This would have been 1996.

[polldaddy poll=1181642]

Easter, the New Christmas

This post by John McLamb plus a phone call from my friend, Brent, got me thinking about Easter and the subdued celebration we give it. Think of the incarnation. (a.k.a. Christmas) For some reason this holiday has become a worldwide phenomenon. I am not wanting anything like this for Easter, [almost everything about Christmas has gotten out of hand] but it would be great if Easter involved a little more celebration. As it is, it as become only an excuse for little girls to get new dresses. Remember that Christmas wouldn’t matter if there was no Easter.

Let’s read 1 Cor 15

¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (ESV)

The fact is, if there is no Easter than our religion is hopeless. We really should have a greater celebration. Something better than just canceling pm worship, or maybe hunting eggs.

I think part of the problem is that it is a celebration of something we often forget to celebrate. We have a tendency to See Jesus as only the “Lamb upon the cross.” (Remember The Passion of the Christ, 127.5 minutes of beatings and blood, 30 seconds of the resurrection but people think it is the greatest film ever made.) Even on Easter day we have a tendency to speak about Christ’s death more than His resurrection. Don’t get me wrong His death is very important. But without the resurrection it would be wasteful.

So next year, at least on Resurrection day, let’s truly celebrate the resurrection:

I would like to start a movement to reclaim the name of Easter. Have it be called Resurrection day. I began to think about this on Thursday after leaving the following comment on Scott & Briana’s blog.

Much like the Chocolate & peanut butter bunnies, we have mixed up our paganism with our Christianity.

It starts with the name Easter, an englishification of a pagan word. From Wikipedia - The name refers to the Eostur-monath, a month of the Germanic Year which may have been named for the goddess Eastre in Germanic paganism. -

We should call it resurrection Sunday, or something similar to that.

As for the bunny laying eggs. If you are a pagan and worship fertility, (as all pagan religions do) what is a better symbol for fertility than a bunny? How about an egg? If you mix the two, you get an Easter bunny.

Just don't teach your kids to worship fertility in the springtime when everything is coming to life after the long winter and you will be ok even if you eat Easter eggs, and get a visit from the bunny. :-)

But I'll leave that up to someone with more influence.