A new take on the Christmas story

You must listen to Greg Koukl's podcast from December 20 (found on str.org or my redirect page).  He discusses the historical account of the Christmas story, and suggests that instead of the traditional village inn, Mary and Joseph stayed at a relative's house.  The Greek word that has been translated as 'inn' is actually the same term used for 'the upper room'.  Bethlehem was a tiny village and likely didn't even have an 'inn'.  Most guests would stay in the upper room of a relative's house, and the animals were kept in the lower area.  However, if Mary and Joseph were late in coming to Bethlehem, and their relative did not have room left in the upper room, they would have had to stay in the lower room of the house, not necessarily a cave.  The idea that they stayed in a stable cave didn't come up until the 3rd century, probably shortly after such caves came into existence.

Bearing fruit

Today's post is actually about yesterday's reading in John 15.  I was listening to a podcast on Stand to Reason earlier today, the show hosted by Greg Koukl.  He had an insight that I hadn't really thought of before.  You know how people will often say, "Lord, let this be all you and none of me. Take over this task and don't let me get in the way."  Well, this isn't actually the best idea because if you aren't in the way, that means you're sitting on the sidelines waiting for God to do all the work.  Instead, we should ask that whatever we do be 100% us and 100% God.  Just like Jesus was all God AND all man at the same time, God can work completely through us while we are still working completely as well.  It's like Jesus says in John 15:5 - “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
"Apart from me you can do nothing" doesn't mean that we can't do anything ever.  If we are in Christ, we CAN do something!   Make sure that whatever you do, you give it your best, and then you can let God take care of the rest.  He'll take what you do and make it good, but you've got to do something first.

Truth - do we believe it?

Check out str.org.  It's a site titled Stand To Reason and provides numerous resources on how Christians can defend their faith reasonably, logically, and good-naturedly (ie., no need for violent condemnation).  They provide a lot of material that will help you think through your faith and understand how the truth does actually stand up as truth, even in today's twisted culture.