Christmas Reading...

I packed a few books away in my laptop bag for some Christmas reading as we travel and spend time with our families the next several days...The books vary from some that have been sitting on my shelf haunting me because I bought them a year or so ago and still haven't read them to a book a friend gave me just this past week...I got some good reading time in today and started with a very small book called "Jesus with Dirty Feet" by Don Everts...So far it has been a great book...It's an easy read, only 120+ small pages written in a form called "sense lines." It's form is much like the style of something you might read in Psalms...So it's a short book...But it packs a powerful punch. So far it's been filled with solid insight and some very challenging words for what it means to be a Christ-follower...It would also be a great book to give to someone who is curious or skeptical about Christianity...Here are a couple of my favorite quotes so far...

Most folks think Christianity is an outdated religion. But it turns out it is neither outdated nor a religion.

What we would call "Christianity" was nothing more and nothing less than some simple people responding to Jesus' call by attaching themselves to him. They believed, followed, listened to, questioned, obeyed, talked with, learned from, and ultimately gave thir lvies to this character Jesus.

Most folks think of Jesus as the man who started that Christianity religion. But it turns out he wasn't just a man, and he wasn't interested in religion.

He (Jesus) never asked anyone to become a Christian, never built a steepled building, never drew up a theological treatise, never took an offering, never wore religious garments, never incorporated for tax purposes...He simply called people to follow him. That's it. That, despite it's simplicity, is it.

Now it's off to try and finish this short read before the night's done...Tomorrow we are going to church with Jo's family to watch our nephew, Luke, be baptized and then it's off to Stephenville for more Christmas and family time...Hopefully, I will have a chance to post between now and then, but if not, Merry Christmas! May God grant you the peace and hope this week that He gave to the world so many years ago...And may we all be able to comprehend a little more fully what it means that God came down in the flesh and made His dwelling among us...May we see the love that brought him from heaven into our neighborhood...Merry Christmas!