All posts by Mark Sims

T’WAS THE MONTH AFTER CHRISTMAS

Christian Discipleship, Humor, Small Town America

Christmas always arrives with a bang (gifts, sweets, cheer, and holiday prayers) and then quickly leaves us suffering from symptoms of straight-up withdrawal!  And with children, it’s even more pronounced.  “Every day should be like Christmas,” a little tyke imagines, leading to his demands of even more presents and more sugar– or else!  Chaos inevitably erupts in the house and kid naughty summarily takes out kid nice in the first round.  By New Year’s Day, parents are fed-up, broke, and ready for a break from the spoiled sugar addicts.

“Out with the old and in with the new” is the New Year’s motto.  However, for youngsters, the “new” doesn’t mean “new toys” and “new treats.”  Instead, January comes down like Thor’s hammer on the ungrateful young urchins.  School reconvenes and reality sets in.

It was in January, the month after Christmas,  that I had the first of many “great awakenings” about how things really are.   Continue reading T’WAS THE MONTH AFTER CHRISTMAS →

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE WISE GUYS

Biblical Truth, Christian Discipleship, History, Spiritual Growth, , , ,

The Wise Men— the guys who brought gifts to Jesus have, over the years, grown to appear a bit different than the Biblical text actually records.  About 500 years after the birth of Christ, a document declared their names to have been Gaspar, Balthasar, and Melchior.  A medieval cathedral in Cologne, Germany claims to house their three skulls.  Still another source claims that there were 12 of them, not three.  Even another tradition says they came from Persia, India, and Arabia.  NO ONE REALLY KNOWS.  There may have been two, twenty, or even more, and all we know is that they arrived from the direction of the East.  The Bible is simply silent about other facts.  Still, what we DO know from the Biblical record is very interesting, and very spiritually significant.  Here’s what I have come to ascertain: Continue reading THE TRUTH ABOUT THE WISE GUYS →

IMMACULATE MIS-CONCEPTIONS

Biblical Truth, Christian Discipleship, History

Merry Christmas!!!  Christmas is not only a Christian holiday, it is also an official American holiday.  Our nation has traditionally celebrated Christmas through secular eyes, AND through deeply religious eyes– both at the same time.   We have learned to do it without much fuss.  Our own two daughters learned that the real meaning of Christmas was the birth of our Savior, AND they also were able to enjoy the entire Santa Claus experience.  We sang Jingle Bells and Joy to the World; we read Luke chapter 2, as well as “The Night Before Christmas” without batting an eye.  Any harm done?  No.  None.  Genuine Christian parents can thread that needle without any doing any damage to Christmas or to faith.  Christmas should be a time of joy and celebration, especially for a nation with a Christian majority.  After all, the first coming of Christ changed not only the calendar, it had eternal consequences for billions of people.  So what are the “immaculate mis-conceptions?” Continue reading IMMACULATE MIS-CONCEPTIONS →

MY FIFTH CHRISTMAS

Christian Discipleship, History, Humor, Small Town America, , , , , ,

treeAny Christmas is magical for a child, but there may be none so magical as a child’s fifth Christmas.  At five-years old it suddenly dawns upon a little kid that Christmas is something really special.  What other time of the year is it OK  to actually bring a tree into the house and decorate it with colorful lights?  And at what other time does a grown-up look at a kid and say, “Make a list of all the toys you want?”  It’s like the total OPPOSITE of the rest of the year– when asking to buy a toy normally results in a firm “NO, we can’t afford that!” and where candy is frowned upon as bad for your teeth.  At Christmastime, kids attend parades where happy adults actually THROW CANDY AT THEM, and where it’s OK to scream and yell at the top of your lungs.  Nobody says “shhhhhh!”

Continue reading MY FIFTH CHRISTMAS →

BAH, HUMBUG

Christian Discipleship, History, Humor, , , , , , , ,

scroogeThe annual Thanksgiving Day celebration has passed, and my attention naturally turns to the next event on my calendar– The Gospel According to Scrooge.  This year celebrates Kingwood Church’s twenty-ninth edition of the annual Christmas production.  I have been honored to play the part of old Ebenezer Scrooge in all but two of those years, and still look forward to it like a schoolboy just waiting’ for Father Christmas.  So it’s time for me to rehearse my lines and polish my British accent, which I won’t lose until well into January.  Once it takes over my brain, it’s difficult to simply switch it off after the final performance.

Whether you’ve ever seen the performance or not, you’re probably familiar with the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens on which our adaptation is based.  When one hears the name Ebenezer Scrooge, the first thing that comes to mind is usually– “Bah, Humbug.”  If you’ll indulge me, let me give you some history behind the 173 year-old Dickens story, the Scrooge character, and his obnoxious trademark phrase.

Continue reading BAH, HUMBUG →