Archive - Laugh a Little! RSS Feed

The Date of the Birth of Jesus

Christmas Date

Do you care what day Jesus was born on? I don’t really. But I used to. I preached an entire sermon on it once.

Here is an excerpt from that sermon:

————-

…Nine months later, John the Baptist in born. This would mean that John the Baptist was born in late March. The date of John’s birth is important also, but I will get to that in just a moment. For now, remember that six months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Mary also was visited by the angel Gabriel and she, as a virgin, miraculously conceived. So this means that John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus. So think about it. If John was born in late March, then six months later, Jesus would have been born of Mary, this makes His birthday sometime in late September.

Also, here is where it gets exciting. Knowing such a fact does not make us better Christians unless we can apply it. Right? So here is where it gets spiritually profitable to know such a fact. You probably know that the Jews had many holidays and feasts throughout the year, just like we do. But as many of you know, these feasts were not only ways to remember what God had done in the past, kind of like our Thanksgiving, but were also prophetic for what God was going to do in the future.

The Jewish feasts both looked backward to what God had done in the past, and looked forward to what he had promised to do in the future. It is very similar to our Lord’s Supper, or Communion. When we observe communion, it both looks back to what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us, and it looks forward to when He will come again.

Continue Reading…

What Christmas Means to C. S. Lewis

CS Lewis on ChristmasIn God in the Dock, a collection of Essays by C. S. Lewis, I stumbled upon an essay called “What Christmas Means to Me” (pp. 304-305).

Below are the opening and closing paragraphs of this essay:

Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians, but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn’t go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business to have a ‘view’ on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone’s business.

Continue Reading…

I’ll Pray for You

I'll Pray For You VideoIn the middle of this series on prayer, I thought I would lighten things up a bit by posting a funny video.

I love this video, because if you don’t listen to the words, it sounds like a nice, happy-go-lucky, song about praying for other people.

Well, he is praying, but not for anything good. So the next time someone says, “I’ll pray for you” it might be good to stop and think about what they will be praying for.

I wish he wouldn’t have used a Voodoo website for the video, since I think that many of us Christians pray bad things on people we don’t like without resorting to Voodoo, but whatever…. Enjoy the video!


C. S. Lewis Did Not Like Church

CS Lewis on ChurchI have been trying to read through everything that C. S. Lewis wrote, and in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, I was surprised to discover what he thought about going to church.

It made me laugh out loud, because it so closely matched my own sentiments.

Here is what he wrote:

The idea of churchmanship was to be wholly unattractive. I was not in the least anticlerical, but I was deeply antiecclesiastical.

…But though I liked clergymen as I liked bears, I had as little wish to be in the Church as in the zoo.

It was, to begin with, a kind of collective; a wearisome “get-together” affair. I couldn’t yet see how a concern of that sort should have anything to do with one’s spiritual life. To me, religion ought to have been a matter of good men praying alone and meeting by twos and threes to talk of spiritual matters.

And then the fussy, time-wasting botheration of it all! The bells, the crowds, the umbrellas, the notices, the bustle, the perpetual arranging and organizing. Hymns were (and are) extremely disagreeable to me. Of all musical instruments I liked (and like) the organ least. I have, too, a sort of spiritual gaucherie which makes me unapt to participate in any rite.


The Perfect Bounded Set Illustration – Trust Me – You will Laugh

Mr Bean Goes to ChurchI have been writing about most churches operate under bounded sets, and how the written and unwritten rules of such churches keep out those who believe and behave differently.

The comments on some of these posts have gotten a little tense, so here is something to lighten the mood.

The perfect illustration of a bounded set is when Mr. Bean Goes to Church, and tries to follow along with the rules, but fails miserably. Enjoy!

Full-length unofficial version (low quality):

Shorter Official Version (High Quality):


Page 1 of 712345»...Last »
Help write a book about church! Click Here to Get Published