Here is your Christmas edition of Passion Points, and it includes some really interesting reflections for Christmas.  An excerpt from each post is included.

Calvin & Claus – Every Christmas, poor Calvin is a tortured soul, torn between his desire to be “good” so that Santa will bring him lots of presents – and the (at least for a little boy) overwhelming temptation to smack the little girl next door with a perfectly formed snowball.

Scrooge, Overjoyed – Writing in A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens tells us that Cratchit’s wife initially refused to participate in a toast to Scrooge on Christmas. We’re tempted to follow her example. We let bitterness, anger, and discontentment dim the light of Christ’s birth from shining brighter in our lives.

The Best Christmas Songs Tell The Truth – Sins, sorrows, curse, Satan, alienation, death. Doesn’t sound much like holiday cheer, does it? But this is the context of the comfort and joy of the Christmas announcement. Bethlehem’s star is only visible against the black sky of sin and death.

All Oppression Will Cease, Even in North Korea – Dictators and despots will continue to learn from their predecessors and build bureaucratic machines of terror and oppression.  But only for a time.  The fact remains that a day is coming when in Jesus’ name, “all oppression will cease.” Even the oppression of totalitarians in North Korea.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day/Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior who changes everything!