Dear Theophilus

In the news in my circles is the forming of a new alliance known as the Global Wesleyan Alliance . This is a group of denominations that have a shared heritage deriving from John Wesley and the revolution that spawned from his ministry. Wesleyans are an interesting bunch, namely in diversity. We can be as diverse as possible in Christianity with a range from heretical hyper liberal theologies all way down to the strictest, legalistic of heretical conservative theology. I am talking a range of literally "anything goes" down to "everything is sinful." The merger seems to be of Wesley-inspired denominations that are middle of the road or more conservative. "The 11 denominations include the Free Methodist Church USA, Church of the Nazarene, The Wesleyan Church, Church of God (Anderson), The Evangelical Church, Evangelical Methodist Church, Churches of Christ in Christian Union, The Missionary Church, Congregational Methodist Church, Church of Chr...

Baby Jesus, lying in a manger. Swaddling cloth. Animals. We know it. We can recite it from memory, even those who are not ardent believers. But Christmas is scandalous in the highest degree. The Creator of the universe became one of the creatures. Where does the One who holds all things together choose to be born? In an animal living space, feces and all. Who was there? No one important. That is the mind-blowing part to me. No one important is at the Savior's birth. There is a man who works with his hands as a simple carpenter. Smelly, bottom-of-the-working-class shepherds living in fields came at the behest of angels. The wise men (immigrants) didn't show up until a while later. And, finally, there was young woman, pregnant out of wed-lock. No one important attended the most important event the universe had ever seen. No kings. No philosophers. No beautiful people. No businesses. No one! Christmas belongs to the no-ones. At the news that Mary is to bring...

One of my favorite Christmas albums of all time is by The Choir at your Door's album with the same name. It is absolutely free and you can get it HERE! You would be a fool to not pick up this album. This album is mostly original Christmas songs. The songs are such that one can listen to it year round - and I do! This album is a project of Aaron Roche and Nathan Phillips. Both of these artist are independently some of my favorite indie singer/song-writers. They both play under their own name but Nathan used to write under The Winston Jazz Routine (too many gigs people showed up expecting actual jazz and so he changed the name). His album "Sospiri" is one of my all-time favorite albums - if not the one. They both seem to be writing with a Christian spirituality that permeates their music. There are lines, prayers and snippets in their albums that move me to deep worship. In this album, there is a BEAUTIFUL song about a man who has lost his job at Christ...

"Just as our human word which proceeds naturally from the mind is messenger of the secret movements of the mind, so does the Word of God, who knows the Father by the essence as Word knows the Mind which has begotten it (since no created being can approach the Father without him), reveal the Father whom he knows. As the Word of God by nature he is spoken of as the 'messenger of the great council.'" Maximus the Confessor, Chapters on Knowledge , paragraph 22.