The Incarnation

Posted on December 25, 2008 by Bill

The Incarnation, by Denise Day Spencer:

He stands,

poised on the brink of two worlds:

One, land of eternal day,

the other, earth of mire and clay.

Behind Him,

legions of heavenly host,

bright faces covered, praising,

all chanting, voices raising.

Before Him,

chaos yawning, swift and deep,

known, yet unknown. Fear unfurling,

death and darkness churning, swirling.

He turns.

One last look at golden glory.

The Three part; He is now One.

The Father’s voice says, “Go well, my Son.”

He leaps

into the abyss.

His next memory will be a Mother’s kiss.

~ Denise Day Spencer, January 1999

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Grateful hat tip and Christmas Blessings to the Internet Monk.

“Without Jesus, Christmas is an empty shell”

Posted on December 24, 2008 by Bill

An excellent reminder from Sherry:

Without Jesus, Christmas is an empty shell, not much to celebrate. Some of us can keep the shell game going for a long time; some even choose the empty shells instead of working to hang onto the real thing. But Christmas is about Christ, even if he wasn’t really born in December, even if you have questions and doubts, even if you’re messy or suffering or full of fear and even depression.

You can celebrate an empty Christmas and try to fill it yourself with material things and friends and family and whatever else happens to come along, but eventually, one Christmas, I predict that you’ll come up with a hollow place right at the center of your Christmas, right at the center of your life. And the only one who can fill that hole is Jesus Himself, the Word made Flesh who came to live among us full of grace and truth. If you don’t believe in that Truth, if you’re not sure Jesus really came to save sinners, then it’s worth your time and energy and material wealth to go on a search to find out if it might, possibly, maybe, under any circumstances be true after all.

On this Christmas Eve, I wish you a full Christmas, full of grace and truth, full of Jesus. Because He’s what Christmas is all about.

“The God of power, as he did ride”

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Bill

The God of power, as he did ride

In his majestick robes of glorie

Resolv’d to light; and so one day

He did descend, undressing all the way.

– George Herbert

(as quoted in Philip Yancey’s excellent The Jesus I Never Knew)

I hope your Christmas season has been glorious so far. I pray each of us will be humbled and amazed by the amazing humility that our Lord took upon himself in the Incarnation.

I will be writing more in coming days. I’ve been so busy, but it’s been a good busy.

Merry Christmas!

Heh

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Bill

From my bud the Ancient Mariner:

Cat

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 6, 2008 by Bill

Just got the lights up on our tree, so I thought I’d put up the traditional Bloo Christmas Star theme.

Merry Christmas. Hope your Christmas season is shaping up nicely. The world can be dark, but Christ, the Gift, is coming!

I’m back

Posted on November 30, 2008 by Bill

I think I’m going to start posting here in this humble little space again. I guess the next few days will tell.

Also, I upgraded to a pre-release of Bloo version 1.20 (version 1.11). It represents a pretty significant change, structurally, in Bloo, since Bloo now supports community sub-blogs. More on that later. This space always has served as a great guinea pig site for these releases anyway.

God loves you Blogosphere, and so do I.

Moving on

Posted on July 12, 2008 by Bill

At least for now, I am posting exclusively over at The Thinklings. It’s a splendid site and you should check it out. 🙂

I may get back to posting here on Out of the Bloo at a later date.

See you on the other side, blogosphere.

I’m still writing

Posted on May 23, 2008 by Bill

For my three readers who wonder where I’ve gone:

I’m still writing posts. Just not so much here. I have trouble juggling multiple blogs, I’ve discovered, and have decided to focus mainly on posting at Thinklings, where I started this little Adventure in Blogyssey, years ago.

So if you want to find me, that’s where I’ll be for awhile. And my other Thinkling bros (well, except for Blo, who we think doesn’t exist) also post on Thinklings, so there’s generally something good to read over there.

God loves you, blogosphere, and so do I.

Blessed at church

Posted on May 11, 2008 by Bill

I’m so thankful to have a teaching pastor who doesn’t shy away from the hard passages.

Today’s message was one of the clearest and most in-depth sermons I’ve ever heard on the difficult passages in Hebrews 6 (primarily verses 4 through 8).

Scratch that. This was possibly the only sermon I’ve ever heard on that passage. And Dr. Howell dove pretty deep into it; he discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the various interpretations, shared supporting scripture, and included generous and frequent references to the Gospel.

It’s so good to be in a place where the Bible is taught.

“The Lord upholds all who are falling”