The model for Santa Claus was a fourth-century Christian bishop named Saint Nicholas. Little is known about the real Nicholas, except that he was probably the bishop of Lycia. In the Middle Ages, when it became popular to venerate saints, legends about Nicholas began to flourish. One said he had given three bags of gold [...]

One of the most popular Christmas carols of all time is “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” Did you know Scripture does not say the angels sang? When they appeared to the shepherds, they were speaking, not singing.
 
In fact, there are only two times in Scripture where the angels are found singing. One is in Job [...]

The birth of Jesus Christ, next to His crucifixion, was the most momentous event in the history of the world. It became the focal point of all history. Everything before Christ looked forward to His birth, and everything since then looks back at Him. It was such a crucial event that now all the world [...]

No one really knows when Christ was born. It probably was not December 25, because Scripture says there were shepherds in the fields watching over their flocks, and that would have been highly unlikely in the middle of winter.
 
Our focus on December 25 came from the Roman holiday called Saturnalia. This was a pagan observance [...]

Christmas trees seem to have their origins in the ancient celebrations of Saturnalia. The Romans decorated their temples with greenery and candles. Roman soldiers conquering the British Isles found Druids who worshiped mistletoe and Saxons who used holly and ivy in religious ceremonies. All those things found their way into Christmas customs.
 
Interestingly, however, the first [...]

Christmas as a holiday was not observed until well after the biblical era. The early church celebrated Jesus’ resurrection, not His birth. In fact, Christmas was not given any kind of official recognition by the church until the mid-fifth century.
 
Partly because so many Christmas customs seem to have their roots in paganism, Christians have often [...]

There are quite a few movies or shows that depict people conversing with angels, if not God Himself: City of Angels, Bruce Almighty, Joan of Arcadia, Touched by an Angel, and for those who can think way back, Highway to Heaven…
 
In my Bible study class this past Sunday, we began a new series on the [...]

Amazing information from the scientific community in the UK… this is from an article in the Chicago Tribune, which informs us that having kids promotes global climate change!
Family planning as a means to reduce climate change has been little talked about in international climate forums, largely because it is so politically sensitive. China’s leaders, however, regularly [...]

I just saw ABC World News and another installment of their weeklong feature on time management called The Lifetime Crunch. They report that some businesses are embracing a slow-down at the office in order to boost employee productivity.
Thinking they are getting more done, many people trying to multitask tend to take twice as long or [...]

Today is Earth Day, a commemoration of our global home. Without getting political, there seems to be a disconnection between conservation activism and climate alarmism. I’ve read that many Christians don’t like Earth Day because people around this globe are worshipping “mother earth” or because going green is an Al Gore thing (thinking, I didn’t [...]