HOW TO BE COURAGEOUS

Maybe you heard the story about a farmer one spring who enjoyed watching two eagles flying near a distant bluff. After failing to see the eagles for a couple of days he went to investigate and he found an abandoned nest that held an egg which he took back to the farm. With the faint hope that it might hatch and a baby eagle grow up and fly, he placed the egg in a nest in the farm house. Two weeks later the egg did hatch and the strange looking baby eagle joined the chickens in the yard of the hen house. And as the first days passed, the eaglet learned the habits of the chickens, feeding on the corn provided by the farmers.

Noticing birds flying overhead one beautiful morning the eaglet remarked, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to fly like that. I wish I could fly.” But you know how chickens are. They quickly admonished this foolish thinking. “You’re a chicken,” they said, “You’re not meant to fly.” The fearful mother hen said, “If you try to fly you will surely get caught in the chicken wire and you’ll break your neck.“ And the strutting rooster father added logically, “Even if you did fly over the fence, it would be hard to find food and you’d probably starve. Don’t come back here looking for food if you do.” And all the chickens agreed the baby eagle should not try to fly.

MAKING CHOICES

Our lives are comprised of a series of choices made over time and affected by time. The future is, in many ways, determined by the choices that we make in the present. All of our choices are routed or grounded in some faith stance. 

You look at your bills, you look at the things that you'd like to buy, and then you look at your checkbook and you think, this is a drop in the bucket for everything I need to pay for. Finances and the stewardship of them is a subject that Jesus talks more about except for the kingdom of God. It is the number one reason given by couples as the reason for getting a divorce. It is the souce of countless heartaches, deprivation, and poverty on a global scale. 

HOW TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

This is the time of year that most people’s thoughts turn toward celebration. Well, how exactly do you celebrate? Some people define celebration by decorating, some by visiting relatives or friends, and some by watching endless hours of football. Some begin celebrating by getting drunk at the office party on the last working day before Christmas and don't sober up until sometime after New Year's Day. But that’s what they think of when they think of celebrating, anesthetizing reality. Fewer and fewer in our culture think about celebrating the birth of the one about whom this holiday is named by going to Church. Maybe that's because for many the church is not the place they think of when they think of celebrating. 

In this sermon we will ask the novel question that frequently doesn't ever get asked: How did those who witnessed the first Christmas celebrate?

WHO WOULD BELIEVE IT?

Have you ever had that struggle of faith when life presents you with a dilemma in which you’re not sure how to respond and you wonder where God is in all of it? You’re faced with whether or not to accept it and move ahead in faith or reject it as being too preposterous. I think that’s the position we find Joseph in as we examine the Christmas story from his often overlooked perspective. 

WHY THE WISE MEN WERE REALLY WISE

For the first time in human history, our problem is not in having access to information, the problem in our day and age is managing all of the information which we have the ability to access and to decide whether or not we should learn it. Not everything that’s out there is worth taking the time to learn about or to know. So what’s the difference between information and real wisdom?
Real wisdom is never outdated. Information can become outdated and data can become useless.

The Christmas Story ends with a band of wise men, magi, scholars on a journey toward truth Himself. And along the journey this group of truth-seekers learn some important life-lessons; life-lessons that time and technology will never change. 

Facebook Adding Advertisements to Personal News Feeds

Soon, you'll be seeing sponsored ads between pictures of your ex-girlfriend's cat and posts about how awful that one waiter was at dinner.

Beginning in January of 2012, Facebook is expanding the real estate for sponsored advertiser space. While once relegated to the right-hand column of the main page, ads will now appear within your primary news feed as well, emerging sporadically between other, more legitimate posts from your friends.

This isn't the first time good ol' Zuckerberg tried the tactic; back in late 2006 Facebook pulled a similar stunt in which standard "sponsor messages" began appearing in nearly the same fashion. This practice lasted all the way into 2008 when the site deemed the system too "disruptive" to the social media experience of its users. Now, four years later, the company has decided to give it another go, but this time with a shiny new twist.

Christmas cookies