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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Christmas in a Sinful World</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The late newspaper columnist Mike Royko once shared the other side of the Christmas Story in one of his columns. He told about a stranger who put $1,600 in gold coins in a Salvation Army kettle. The person placed the gift there quietly and anonymously. This is exactly the kind of story the print media is looking for to demonstrate the spirit of caring that Christmas brings about. Unfortunately there was a follow up story. The local Salvation Army office began getting phone calls about the gold coins. The coins were stolen. The thief had dropped them in the kettle to get rid of them.<br>
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So then, Royko told another story about a man driving home from work on Christmas Eve who saw a young boy fall through the ice in a nearby lake. The man stopped his car, jumped out, tore off his jacket and crawled out onto the ice. He managed somehow to save the drowning boy. Happy ending, wouldn't you say? Unfortunately the man discovered that while he was risking his life saving the boy, somebody in the crowd of onlookers stole his jacket and the envelope containing his Christmas bonus.<br>
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Unfortunately, we live in a sinful world. And even at Christmas, with the promise of peace and hope on our lips and in our hearts, that sinfulness is still present. That sinfulness was personified in the first Christmas story by Herod. "Go and search diligently for the child," Herod said to the wise men. "And when you have found him, come and bring me word, that I may worship him, too." What a crock!<br>
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Billy D. Strayhorn, Herod the Not-so-Great<br>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The Difference between Cowards and Heroes</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">John Thomas Randolph offers this modern story of running and returning to illustrate our Lord's circumstances.</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Here is the difference between cowardice and heroism. The coward runs away and stays away. The hero runs away but he always returns at the appropriate time.</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I have a biography of General Douglas MacArthur that was written by Bob Considine. The picture on the front cover shows the general standing like a boulder, looking off into the distance, with that famous corncob pipe in his mouth. You can almost hear him telling the people of the Philippines, "I came through and I shall return." Ordered to make a strategic withdrawal, his promise to return became the rallying cry for a whole country. MacArthur had to "run away" for a while, but he would "return" - and it was the returning that mattered most.</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Jesus ran away into Egypt, but he returned!</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">All of our running away, as Christians, should be with the ultimate goal of returning.</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Why do we run away? When I look at my own experience, I find that I usually run away for one of three reasons: I am frightened; I am fatigued; or I am frustrated. Isn't that why you run away too?</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">John Thomas Randolph, The Best Gift, CSS Publishing Company </SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">_____________________</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">A Sense of Wonder</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Jacob Needleman was an observer at the launch of Apollo 17 in 1975. It was a night launch, and there were hundreds of cynical reporters all over the lawn, drinking beer, wisecracking, and waiting for this 35-story-high rocket. The countdown came, and then the launch. The first thing you see, according to Needleman, is this extraordinary orange light, which is just at the limit of what you can bear to look at. </SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">"Everything is illuminated with this light. Then comes this thing slowly rising up in total silence, because it takes a few seconds for the sound to come across. You hear a WHOOOOOSH! HHHH-MMMM!' It enters right into you. You can practically hear jaws dropping. The sense of wonder fills everyone in the whole place," says Needleman, "as this thing goes up and up. The first stage ignites this beautiful blue flame. It becomes like a star, but you realize there are humans on it. And then there's total silence. People just get up quietly, helping each other up. They're kind. They open doors. They look at one another, speaking quietly and interestedly. These were suddenly moral people because the sense of wonder, the experience of wonder, had made them moral." </SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Jacob Needleman, quoted by Eric S. Ritz in the sermon 'The Fourth King in the Christmas Story'</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">He Moved Into the Ward with Us </SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Dr. John Rosen, a psychiatrist in New York City, is well known for his work with catatonic schizophrenics. Normally doctors remain separate and aloof from their patients. Dr. Rosen moves into the ward with them. He places his bed among their beds. He lives the life they must live. Day-to-day, he shares it. He loves them. If they don't talk, he doesn't talk either. It is as if he understands what is happening. His being there, being with them, communicates something that they haven't experienced in years - somebody understands.</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">But then he does something else. He puts his arms around them and hugs them. He holds these unattractive, unlovable, sometimes incontinent persons, and loves them back into life. Often, the first words they speak are simply, "Thank you."</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">This is what the Christ did for us at Christmas. He moved into the ward with us. He placed his bed among our beds. Those who were there, those who saw him, touched him and were in turn touched by him and restored to life. The first word they had to say was "thank you."</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Christmas is our time to say "Thank you."</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Mark Berg in Donald L. Deffner, Seasonal Illustrations, p. 21.</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">A Power Higher Than I</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">After trying everything else, Shelly was present for her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Skeptical and listening half- heartedly at first, the words of Martha caught her attention. Martha told the group, "I just knew that I could handle alcohol and my other problems on my own, but I couldn't. Seven years ago I came to my first A.A. meeting and since that time I have grown as a person beyond anything I could have ever imagined."</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Martha exuded confidence and depth. She spoke of a power "higher than I," the God of Jesus Christ, and the way in which God now lived at the center of her life. Her words oozed with sincere encouragement and concern. Most of all, Martha exhibited a thankfulness which words could not express...</SPAN></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The conclusion to this illustration and many additional illustrations and sermons for Christmas and the New Year can be accessed at </SPAN><A style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt" shape=rect target=_blank __removedLink__1286789382__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=aelnpceab&et=1104073264550&s=0&e=001z4xCK9SYHyXKmeiaP_V10HXAqpzJXtVDbOpz1NDkkuiF81PyueXd5nThVsy4-VU5MCDH4PCmCkkvd14gRvA8zTxp30we03cXmV3beCfVV-n14qYK-VDsJw==">www.Sermons.com</A><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">. </SPAN></div>
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