By Billy Graham Today is Christmas, read Luke 2:11, 13–14. The greatest sermon ever preached was delivered by angels on this historic night. It has always been interesting to me that this message was delivered at night. It wasn’t night because the sun had gone down. It was night because the world was surrounded in spiritual and moral gloom. People were driven by greed, intolerance, and lust for power. Religion had become a device for the rich in the exploitation of the poor. Men robbed and swindled and profiteered under the cloak of religion; they even fought wars in the name of religion. In every arena of life, it was night when Jesus came. Things haven’t changed. Today, there seems to be a moral night that has settled over our world—sexual immorality, pleasure-mad people, lusting for money and power—the same as it was in the days when Jesus came 2,000 years ago. It is in the darkest hour that Christ often comes. He brings the joy, the thrill, the peace, and the glory such as you have never known—when you and your loved ones give your lives to Him. How has Jesus shown Himself to you in your darkest hour? Reflect on this for Christmas. … [Read more...]

By Staff, Alliance Defending Freedom WASHINGTON – Alliance Defending Freedom and the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty have filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in support of a Marine court-martialed for posting a Bible verse in her workspace. Lance Cpl. Monifa Sterling posted the verse “No weapons formed against me shall prosper,” a reference to Isaiah 54:17, three times around her workspace at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in honor of the Trinity. Her supervisor said, “I don’t like the tone,” and told her to take them down. When Sterling declined, her supervisor took them down at the end of the duty day. Sterling reprinted and re-posted the messages, but she found them in the trash the next morning. She was then court-martialed. “No one in our military who goes to work every day to defend our freedoms should then be court-martialed for exercising those very freedoms,” said ADF Legal Counsel and Director of Military Affairs Daniel Briggs, a former Air Force JAG officer. “This case is about Monifa, but it is also about every American who puts on the uniform in service to this country. The question is whether they will be allowed to exercise their faith in the military, or … [Read more...]

By Staff, Alliance Defending Freedom WASHINGTON – Alliance Defending Freedom filed a brief Dec. 18 with the U.S. Supreme Court that answers arguments the state of Missouri has made in favor of religious discrimination in what is supposed to be a religion-neutral state program. ADF attorneys, who represent the school, argue that the high court should reverse a lower court decision that allowed the state to exclude a Christian pre-school and daycare center from the program, which provides recycled tires to surface children’s playgrounds. Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit upheld a district court’s decision in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley that ruled the state was justified in denying the center because a church runs it. This month, 10 states filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the high court should grant the ADF petition and reverse that ruling. “Children’s safety is no less important on church daycare playgrounds than it is on other daycare playgrounds,” said ADF Senior Counsel Erik Stanley. “Missouri should understand that the U.S. Constitution prohibits anti-religious bias, which is what the state exhibited when it denied Trinity Lutheran’s scrap tire … [Read more...]

By Staff, Alliance Defending Freedom FALLS CHURCH, Va. – A small city in Virginia has changed its tune on ban on Christmas caroling on public sidewalks. After receiving a letter from Alliance Defending Freedom, the city of Falls Church, Va., has decided to allow Christmas carolers to sing on a public sidewalk outside of an abortion business Dec. 22. “No one should try to shut down Christmas carols on a public sidewalk, and we’re pleased that that city has changed its tune and says it won’t do that again,” said ADF senior counsel Matt Bowman. “We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the carolers will be able to exercise their constitutionally protected freedom to sing tomorrow as planned.” Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Dec. 21 to the Falls Church Police Department after two officers told several Christmas carolers to stop singing on a public sidewalk outside of an abortion business. One of the carolers captured the officers on video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpWEa85iZbc&feature=youtube) informing the carolers that singing is prohibited under a noise ordinance and that they must cease singing. The letter explains that police cannot use the ordinance to stop a constitutionally … [Read more...]

By David Roach, Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) - Everyone knows the biblical Christmas story, with Mary riding on a donkey, an innkeeper turning away Mary and Joseph, animals surrounding the Christ child and three wise men visiting Jesus on the night of His birth. Or do they? It may come as a surprise to some that none of these elements are included in the two scriptural accounts of Jesus' birth in Matthew and Luke -- though they commonly are featured in Christmas pageants. In "The First Days of Jesus," published this year by Crossway, two authors with Southern Baptist ties urge believers to separate fact from fiction through "a careful reading of the New Testament infancy narratives in their historical context." Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Andreas Köstenberger and Southeastern Ph.D. graduate Alexander Stewart argue such a reading will help Christians "clear away the brush so [they] can truly encounter and be changed by the Christ of Christmas." The authors analyze the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke as well as the theological presentation of Jesus' incarnation in John. They also propose a harmonization of the narratives in Matthew and Luke to refute critics who erroneously claim the … [Read more...]

By Todd Starnes, Fox News BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (Christian Examiner) — A chapel sermon on love left a student at Oklahoma Wesleyan University feeling "offended" and "victimized." But instead of capitulating to the offended young scholar, OWU President Everett Piper pushed back with a blistering rebuke of what he called "self-absorbed and narcissistic" students. "This is not a day care. This is a university," he wrote in a blog that has since gone viral. Back home in Tennessee, we call that a "Come to Jesus" moment. To read the rest of the story, click here. … [Read more...]

By Art Toalston, Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) - LifeWay has completed the sale of its 14.5-acre campus in downtown Nashville. "Although this momentous event is cause for thanksgiving, it is also bittersweet," Thom S. Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote in an email to the Southern Baptist entity's trustees and employees Nov. 24 after the sale was announced around 5 p.m. "LifeWay has served the bride of Christ from this property for more than 100 years," Rainer wrote. "Those of us who serve today continue an unbroken line of tens of thousands of employees who have stewarded the responsibility to produce trustworthy Christian resources for the church. And, we will continue to do so into the future, but from a new location." The sale was announced in a joint news release from LifeWay and Southwest Value Partners, a private real estate investment firm based in San Diego. The news release noted that LifeWay "will continue to occupy a portion of the campus over the near term until it determines the permanent location of its corporate headquarters." A sale price of $125 million cash was stated by an attorney for Southwest Value Partners to The Tennessean daily newspaper, but the joint news release did … [Read more...]