Merry Christmas!

"The Holy Night" by Carlo Maratti (c. 1650, courtesy Web Gallery of Art)

Christmas is arguably the most important event in human history (after Creation, of course), because it celebrates the moment that God the Father entered the world as a little baby, Jesus the Son, God incarnate. I know that there are many who refuse to believe this fact, and there are many more who allow other aspects of the holiday (such as decorating, giving and receiving presents, taking vacations, etc...) to cloud the real "reason for the season."

But that's okay. After all, I think that's one reason this blog exists: to help remind the world that Jesus is THE Way, the ONLY Way, in fact, to be reconciled unto God. So, toward that end, I am rededicating this blog to the One whose virgin birth we celebrate this week (and always).

So what does this mean? I am beginning a long-running series on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, mostly based on Biblical references, but augmented with other historical and contemporary sources. I have already compiled a list of more than 40 topics, which I plan to revisit periodically. Eventually, I will create a new website, independent of Blogger, where all of these posts will permanently reside.

I will continue to post occasionally to my other blogs (see side panel), while most personal updates will be relegated to Facebook.

May your Christmas be joyous, and may you live every day with the love of Jesus Christ in your heart!

I'm BACK!... Probably....

As most comic book fans already know, WWII-era superhero Captain America was frozen in the Arctic ocean for several decades, before making a return to the Marvel universe.

My blog posts are known to be sporadic, but it wasn't until recently that I realized my last post to this blog was in December 2014, nearly FIVE years ago! How the time flies! We are all still healthy, I am enjoying the same software development job, and we live in the same happy home. Among the biggest changes have been my son and I getting involved in local theater, Kylen graduating high school and starting his second year at Liberty University (majoring in Christian Counseling), my dad's retirement, and my mom's passing (after battling MS for more than 25 years). All the while, I've been splitting my time between work and family, periodically spending large amounts of time on websites, Windows applications, and theater-related activities.

Our family car has several JesusIsWonderful.com decals on its windows, but it wasn't until our family came to visit, that I was informed that the domain was no longer working! Turns out Yahoo had suspended it, because they had been unable to verify my contact information. They had an outdated e-mail account associated with the domain, but they didn't even try my Yahoo e-mail! And what really took the cake was that they had no problem continuing to charge me for the use of the domain! Really, Yahoo???

Admittedly, blogging has always taken a back seat, and I have to be realistic that it will probably continue to do so. Farrah finally caved a few years ago and got a Facebook account, followed later by our son, and then by me. And with all the other social media sites out there, I wonder if anyone is even blogging anymore.

Nevertheless, I think Blogger is much better suited to my style, than Facebook (which I hardly ever visit, anyway), and I have some exciting plans for the domain. But until then, I will continue to post here (and on my other blogs), at least once in a while.

Representing Jesus

In case you're wondering why the sides of our car look banged up, they're not. I took the picture with the car in our relatively dark garage, resulting in a high-dynamic-range situation. The ripples on the edges are the result of my lack of patience to do a good job, trying to fix it up, and now I'm too sick of working on it, to try to do better. LOL!

I had started this post a couple months ago, right around the time that the Lord also inspired my friend Jim to write a post about literally wearing your faith on your sleeve. We joked about him stealing my thunder, and then I got too busy to finish the post.

Anyway, I really got into wearing Jesus shirts in 2004, when we got some printed with "JesusIsWonderful.com" (this blog's previous incarnation was a bonafide website). Since then, we have amassed quite a variety (as showcased above), including license place frames, bumper stickers, and window clings.

So why do we do it? Just to show off? I'm a firm believer that you need to live the Christian life 24/7 (not because that's what you have to do, but because that's what you are), but what percentage of the people we encounter ever spend enough time around us to observe us living our faith? You can spot the gothic, head-banger teens, from the other end of Walmart, because of their appearance, so why not let yourself be more easily spotted as a "Jesus freak"?

But there is a flip-side, and it has nothing to do with being harassed for it (at least not in the United States... not yet, anyway). It draws extra attention to you, causing any of your un-Christian behavior to reflect poorly upon Jesus, the Bible, and your fellow Christians.

If nothing else, my shirt helps to remind me that, wherever I go, I am an ambassador for Jesus Christ and His perfect plan of salvation. Peter urges us to, "sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15).

But I often forget that I'm wearing a Jesus shirt (which I think is an excellent demonstration of my unbelievable, unparalleled, and unequaled humility). I would be in a store, and a total stranger would walk by and say, "Me too!" I'd look a little puzzled, until I would look down and see that I was wearing my "I love Jesus" shirt!

Any way that we can witness is great. And the more of us that do it the better, because it will help keep God visible in the public square, where our society and government are systematically eradicating Him. How ironic that while laws are being passed, that condone and even encourage immoral actions, the freedom of religious public expression is being lost.