Jim Bishop's Famous Christmas Column
Life in Christ | Spiritual Writings | Apologetics and Answers"He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant teen who knew not man.
He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty.
Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never married or owned a home.
He never held a job, yet paid taxes.
He never set foot inside a metropolis.
He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born.
He never wrote a book or held an office.
He didn't go to college.
He did none of the things that one usually associates with greatness.
He received no awards, no medals, no prizes from His peers.
He had no credentials but himself.
When He was thirty-three, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him.
His friends deserted Him.
He was turned over to His enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial. He had no lawyers, no friendly juries, no fair hearing.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth - His cloak.
When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Those who stood watch could not explain His disappearance.
And yet two thousand years have come and gone
And today He is still the central figure for much of the human race
The leader of humankind's progress.
All the armies that ever marched and all the navies that ever sailed and all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as this One Solitary Life."
Life in Christ | Spiritual Writings | Apologetics and Answers