"Christ is the light of the world, destined to shed His beams over the whole earth." ~ Spurgeon

Good morning and welcome. Today's edition is sponsored by Wednesday, December 3, 2025. The photo is from the annual tree lighting celebration at our local called out assembly, Mims Baptist Church, Conroe. We had a great time making photos pretty much non-stop for over two hours. It was a great time of feasting and fellowship and as always, our senior pastor, did a great job in sharing the truth of the Gospel and how Jesus is the Light of the World before the countdown to the tree coming alive. I will divulge the fact that I worked on the above photo itself to add the background and special effects, however, the people in the photo are who they appear to be and I should know since I am one of them. Ha! Here's the tree lighted up for all to see with a beautiful star on top. 

I love The Christmas Story because it is about The Christmas Child, our Lord and His coming into the world to seek and to save those who are lost that come to Him. One of my favorite passages that related to His birth are the verses that reflect the coming of the Magi or wise men who were led supernaturally to His location by a special star. I won't go into a lot of the details but suffice it to say these men did not see Jesus at the manger site. I have made it clear I have never destroyed anyone's display that show them bowing to the infant along with the shepherds and the animals. That's not my calling. At the same time, we should all know their arrival to Bethlehem was some time after His physical birth, some scholars think up to three or more years. I love their first meeting with Jesus as depicted in Matthew's Gospel: 

 "And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh." (Matthew 2:11) I'm not altogether sure why this scene has always grabbed me, but, it has something to do with their reaction, 'they fell down'. My guess is they did not necessarily know that's what they were going to do, but, when they saw Him, the realization that embodied in the Child before them was He, none other than God the very God Himself, what else could they do?  I know. That's my imagination, but, something prompted them to fall down. I'll let all the theologians throw rocks at my way of seeing it, but, one thing is clear. They fell down! And, because of Who He is, our Bible tells us that one day,  "...so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (The Apostle Paul writing to the local assembly at Philippi, Greece, (Philippians), in our reference from chapter 2, verses 10 and 11) That passage reflects on the prophetic word from Isaiah 45:3. I know. You didn't tune in for a Bible study today, but, I had that falling down and worshiping on my mind, so, I have now included you in it. I will leave us all to think on these things because the truth is illustrated in a choir song we often use at this time of year, "Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child". The old preacher would close in this way: "You can come to Him today, fall down and worship Him or you can refuse now only to bow down and confess Him later, after it's too late to be saved. What will you do? Good question for me, for you, for us all. Amen.