COUNT DOWN TO CHRISTMAS, Part 1: "A TIME IN THE FUTURE"

With all that gets attached to Christmas in America, can Jesus be left out? It was that way on the night he was born. When Jesus "moved into the neighborhood," the neighborhood didn't even notice. But that's getting ahead of the story. The message of Christmas didn't begin in Bethlehem, and that's what I want to call your attention to in this first of two articles on the magnificence of Christmas.

Actually Christmas began in the heart of God before the world began. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in 11 timothy 1: 9-11: "It is God who saved us and chose to give us a holy life. He did this not...