Come Walk with Me

Posted on February 21, 2024 by Roger E. Bruner

[You may listen to this song here. The free PDF lead sheet is here.]

“Come walk  with me,” said Jesus Christ.
I stepped up to His side.
We shared our thoughts and feelings
As we went along our way.
“Don’t be discouraged,” Jesus said,
“When the path veers out of sight,
For every step you take with me
Leads towards my Father’s feast.”

“Come fish with me,” Christ Jesus said.
I stepped into the boat.
We cast the nets on either side
And rowed across the lake.
“Don’t be discouraged,” Jesus said,
“That the fish seem few and small,
For every fish we catch today
Will be used for a feast.”

“Come fish for men,” said Jesus Christ.
I stepped outside my door.
We offered words and deeds of love
As we moved through the crowd.
“Don’t be discouraged,” Jesus said,
“That so few respond today.
Each person you lead to my door
Will share my Father’s feast.
Will share my Father’s feast.”

About This Song:
t-Roger 10-19-2023
Jesus lived in a fishing community. No wonder many of his disciples were fishermen before He called them into His service. Or that He said He would teach them to become fishers of men.

The Bible tells several fascinating stories about Jesus’ experiences with fishing. Like the time–under Jesus’ direction–the disciples caught a fish with a coin in its mouth. Worth the exact amount they owed as the Temple tax.

And the time His disciples had been fishing all night without success. He told them to try again, but to cast their nets in the opposite direction. They made such a haul it threatened to break their nets.

Jesus calls us as Christians to be fishers of men. I don’t know about you, but I often question how good a fisherman I am.

I wrote this song to encourage myself and others that God may not intend for each of us to bring in the multitudes the way Billy Graham did for so many years. Yet each person we “catch” is important. Every individual counts.

That’s why the Bible says the angels in heaven rejoice each time an unsaved person is brought into God’s family.

I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

        

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Posted in Disciples, Feast, Fellowship, Fish, Fishing For Men, Walking with Jesus | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Will You Leave Behind?

Posted on February 15, 2024 by Roger E. Bruner

[You may listen to a recording of this song here. A free PDF of the lead sheet is available here.]

When you die, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?
Precious memories for your friends and family
Or relief that you’re no longer there?
Will the faith you’ve shared bring them comfort
Or your hopelessness cause them more grief?
When you die, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?

When you pass away, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?
Will your words continue to encourage
Or the harm they’ve engendered linger on?
Do your sermons tell of God’s Kingdom
While your actions point the other way?
When you pass away, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?

When you depart this life, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?
Will the good you’ve planted grow like flowers
Or the problems you’ve sown spread like weeds?
Is your life well invested in others
Or will your influence die at your death?
When you depart this life, you can’t take it with you,
But what will you leave behind?But what will you leave behind?

About this Song:


There are two songs I want  at my funeral–other than a few favorite hymns. One is Chi Coltrane’s “Go Like Elijah.” I doubt that Chi has no idea who I am or would have any interest in coming to sing at my funeral, even if she’s still alive at the time. So I’ll just leave a CD of the song where my wife can find it.

This song is the other one. Unfortunately I won’t be physically up to doing to it at my funeral. So I recently spent quite a while making a selfie-video of this song for use at my funeral and timing and adding the lyrics tot the bottom of the scream like closed captioning.

This song was a challenge to write. Among other things, I was hard pressed to find and fit synonyms for “die” into the song’s rhythm in the second and third stanzas. I got rid of the original fourth stanza because the song was long enough without it. However, the PDF of the lead sheet still contains the fourth stanza.

Enough about all of that. What’s the point of this song?

We’re all going to die, and each of us will leave something behind. Some people will barely be missed. The death of others may even be a relief to their survivors. How sad.

As Christians, however, we have the opportunity to leave so much more than material goods. If our lives are filled with love, kindness, consideration, generosity, and so many more Christian virtues than I can begin to list, we will continue to live in the memory of others in a good way.

But how would we feel if we knew that all we would be remembered for was hatred, nastiness, selfishness, violence, or any of an endless list of other negative, sinful characteristics?

Very few people are remembered throughout the centuries. Probably only the very finest people–and the most wicked.

Why waste the opportunity to be remembered approvingly? That’s something each of us can do with God’s help.

Your comments are always welcome.

I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

        

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Posted in Death, Despair, Family, Hope, Legacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Widow & the Judge

Posted on February 9, 2024 by Roger E. Bruner

[You may listen to an old recording of this song here. The free PDF lead sheet is available here.]

A widow came before the judge
To ask for his assistance.
That lazy rascal turned away,
Unmoved by her insistence.

refrain
You are God’s children;
He wants what’s best for you.
All you have to do is ask.
Pray without ceasing;
Seek, and you will find.
Knock, and the door will open wide.

That lady kept on coming back;
It broke down his resistance
Till he complied with her request,
Worn out by her persistence.
(refrain)

The Lord’s not like that worthless judge;
He longs to give assistance.
And He will never turn away;
He’s moved by your insistence.
(refrain)

Although you keep on coming back,
You do not meet resistance.
God never tires of listening
To your prayers of persistence.
(refrain)

About This Song:

t-Roger 10-19-2023
I used to really marvel at Jesus’s parable about the widow and the wicked judge in Luke 18:1-5:

1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
(NIV)

But then Jerry Rankin, at that time the President of the International Mission Board, shared a meditation about this parable, and I saw it in a new light. The point is that God is the very opposite of the wicked judge.

Whereas the judge had no relationship with the poor widow who needed his help and finally agreed to help her because she had worn him down, God has a personal relationship with each of His children. Like any earthly father, He wants His children to have the best He has to offer.

The refrain comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:17:

Pray without ceasing.
(NIV)

and Matthew 7:7:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
(NIV)

Unlike the wicked judge, God respects our persistence. We don’t have to beg Him for His help, but we do need to ask in the right spirit–“Not my will, but Yours.”

I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

        

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Posted in Assistance, Insistence, International Mission Board, Jerry Rankin, Judge, Persistence, Prayer, Widow | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nothing I Am

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Roger E. Bruner

[Two different versions of this song exist. You may access the one that these lyrics go with here. The 1980 handwritten version is here. Unfortunately, I never recorded either.]

If I could speak the tongues of angels and men,
But I spoke not with love, my words would be noise.
If I could preach and teach and understand all things,
But if I don’t have love, nothing I am.
Love is patient and kind, not jealous or rude;
Love is happy with the truth and forgives all wrongs and forgets.

If I had all the faith to make mountains move;
If I gave up my goods for show, not for love,
If I should sacrifice my body to be burned,
But if I don’t have love, nothing I am.
Love is eternal; love never fails.
All else is temporary, but love survives all things.

About This Song:
t-Roger 10-19-2023
During the latter 1960s I heard a wonderful Sunday School lesson about 1 Corinthians 13–the “Love Chapter” of the Bible. What’s the last sermon or Bible study you still remember more than fifty years later?

Here’s the passage. . .

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (NIV)

As much as I, uh, love this passage, it’s always frustrated me. It describes perfect love. The kind I can never hope to attain completely.

No matter how much I love my wife or my daughter and her boys or my stepdaughters and stepgrandson, I can’t love them the way the apostle Paul describes in this chapter.

And maybe that’s the point.

God Himself is the living example of that kind of love. If I want to be more loving, I need to keep my eyes on Him–and to put love first in my life. No matter how well I might think I write novels and songs and take photographs and program web pages–even if I do those things in God’s name–those accomplishments are nothing compared to my ability to love others. Others including the unlovely and the unlovable.

Jesus died for people who hated Him. And for billions of people who hadn’t even been born yet. He loved them all.

I probably won’t have die for the sake of my enemies, but I can surely do a better job of loving the people my life touches.

How thankful I am that God loves me perfectly and wants me to learn to love Him–and other people–the same way.

What are your thoughts on perfect love? Please share a comment.

I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

        

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Posted in 1 Corinthians 13, Faith, God's love, Hope, Love, Perfect Love | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

All Members of One Body

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Roger E. Bruner

[Like many of my older songs, this one never got recorded. However, a free PDF lead sheet is available here if you’re interested.]

We are all members of one body,
And each of us has a different part to be;
We can’t all be hands and arms
Or the body will not go
Where Christ–the Head–wants the body,
Where Christ–the Head–tells the body,
Where Christ–our Head–tells His body to go.

We are all members of one body,
And each of us has a special part to be;
We can’t all be feet and legs
Or the body will not do
What Christ–the Head–wants the body,
What Christ–the Head–tells the body,
What Christ–our Head–tells His body to do.

We are all necessary members of Christ’s body,
And each of us is an essential part of the whole.
We support and are supported by the rest of the body,
And that is how the body lives and grows.

About This Song:
t-Roger 10-19-2023This song is based on 1 Corinthians 12:12ff. Here’s the passage from the NIV:

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

Isn’t that the most amazing passage? It never fails to inspire me. I look at my own meager talents (they seem meager to me, anyhow). I write music. I play guitar, bass guitar, and sing. I write Christian novels, twenty-two of which have been published and I’m currently writing number twenty-three. I like to take and edit pictures and  design my own book covers. I enjoy encouraging other people. I believe in the biblical tithe, and I believe in supporting missions. Especially through participation in our church’s weekly nursing home service.

Those things don’t make me special, though.  They never will.  But using them to minister through my local church, where each of them is needed, is special indeed.

So the fact that I don’t preach, that I get tongue-tied trying to share my witness (except under just the right God-enabled circumstances), and that I don’t serve as a deacon or a Sunday School teacher–none of those things matters. God has called other people–people He has qualified–to perform those tasks. So I would be foolish to ignore the apostle Paul’s advice in this passage about the unity of the church and its many parts and dwell on what I can‘t be and can’t do.

Thank You, Lord, for the talents You’ve given me and the ways You permit me to use them. Help me to develop them to the fullest–and help me to be ever ready to use them. Not so anyone will look at me and say, “Isn’t he special?” but so my part(s) will help the whole to function even more smoothly. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What about you? What part do you play in the whole? How about sharing a comment?

As I mentioned earlier, I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

        

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Posted in Body, Church, Effectiveness, Members, Ministry, Parts of the Whole, Unity, Wholeness | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jonah’s Prayer

Posted on January 17, 2024 by Roger E. Bruner

[There’s not a listenable recording of this song. Here’s a PDF lead sheet, though.]

In my distress, O Lord, I turned to You;
Down in the world of the dead,
I called Your name.
In the depths of the deepest oceans,
Where the waves crashed over my head,
Lord, I feared You might not hear me,
But You quickly answered my cry.

Lord, I feared You might not hear me;
Lord, I feared You might not come.
But You rescued me from danger;
Let me walk close by Your side.

In my despair, O Lord, I turned to You;
Choked by seaweed that was wrapped around my face,
I could barely call Your name.
At the roots of the very mountains,
Where I felt my life slipping away,
Lord, I feared You might not find me,
But You quickly came to my side.

Lord, I feared You might not find me;
Lord, I feared You might not hear.
But You rescued me from trouble;
Let me walk close by Your side.

About This Song:
When I open my Bible, only God knows what might inspire me to write a song. In this case, I had been reading about Jonah’s adventure in the belly of the whale; you’re free to believe this story is only purposeful fiction, but I believe it’s true.

Jonah’s prayer, found in Jonah 2:2-9, really struck me. As human beings, only a handful of people will ever encounter what Jonah did–maybe only Jonah himself.

But each of us has problems that seem so overwhelming at time that we FEEL like we’re trying to survive underwater inside a giant fish. But Jonah’s prayer should encourage us. Even in the most desperate of imaginable situations, he remembered to turn to God for help. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had any hope at all.

How many of us continue grappling with the seaweed that’s choking us while trying to free ourselves from situations we have absolutely no control over?

Shouldn’t we turn to God and ask for His help first?

How about leaving a comment about sometime when you felt like your situation was hopeless, but you turned to God and He helped you through it.

I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

        

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The Goodbye Song

Posted on January 10, 2024 by Roger E. Bruner

[A free PDF of the lead sheet for this song is available here.]

There’s no need for us to say goodbye;
There’s no reason for sorrow or tears.
There’s no need for words of farewell,
For we will be together soon.

About This Song:
Some years ago I belonged to a church that hired a summer youth worker.

To lessen the load on any of the members, he stayed a few days in each of a number of homes, including mine. I hate to admit I don’t even remember his name now.

In fact, the only two things I remember about him are the mustard that mysteriously appeared on top of the toaster one day–and the times we started to use the stereo, only to find he had left it cranked up at full volume. In case you haven’t guessed, he wasn’t the most thoughtful house guest we could have had.

Nonetheless, his presence in my home and in the church was a blessing, and I wrote “The Goodbye Song” as a farewell tribute to him. (Incidentally, I grew up believing “goodbye” is not an actual word. I still believe that, but am using it because I believe most people do now.)

One of these days, I want to use this song in my church’s nursing home ministry. We’re not shy about talking about death. After all, for Christians it’s the doorway to something SO much better than anything we experience here on earth.

No matter how long a lifetime–or how short–any of us has, no one lives very long in comparison with eternity.

And one of the things we have to look forward to is the reunion with friends and family who’ve gone on before.

I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

        

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The Fish Song

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Roger E. Bruner

[You may listen to a recording of this song here. A PDF lead sheet is available here.

If you want to catch a fish,
Then you must go where the fishes swim,
Where the fishes swim.
You can’t sit in the bathtub,
A pole across your knees.
Go where they swim if you want to catch a fish.

If you want to catch a fish,
Then use as bait what they like to eat,
What they like to eat.
You can’t hook them on ice cream
With cherries on the top.
Use bait they like if you want to catch a fish.

If you want to catch a fish,
Then use some line that they cannot break,
That they cannot break.
You cannot use a cheese string
Stretched from your pizza slice.
Use string that’s strong if you want to catch a fish.

If you want to catch a fish,
Then use a net that they can’t slip through,
That they can’t slip through.
You cannot use old stockings
With holes torn in the toes.
Use net that’s right if you want to catch a fish.

If you want to catch a fish,
Then take care that you don’t frighten them,
You don’t frighten them.
You cannot preach loud sermons
Or prance about the boat.
Don’t scare them off if you want to catch a fish.

About This Song:

I wrote this whimsical little song to use as part of the missions emphasis conducted by the Windsor District Baptist Church (northwest of Sydney, Australia) during the 2000 Olympics. It became popular among people there at the church.

Even though the words are humorous and the music playful, the meaning is serious.

Jesus told his disciples to become “fishers of men,” and His followers through the centuries have inherited that responsibility. Sometimes we’ve carried out that task better than other times. I believe the United States would not be in such serious condition now if we’d done a better job of sharing God’s God News with our fellow countrymen.

Looking at the stanzas in sequence, we can’t expect unbelievers to come to church looking for what they need. We have to go to them. Not hard. We live, work, and play among “them.”

We can’t try to attract them with the promise of an easy life–God never promised Christians that–or wealth and power. We are most apt to attract them by our willingness to listen.

And we can’t just start trying to reel them in the first time they show any signs of interest in Christianity. That would be like using line that’s not strong enough.

Trying to get them into the boat–to confess that they’re sinners who want to repent and commit their lives to Jesus–requires care, too.

What sums up many of these points is the idea that we shouldn’t frighten the people we’re witnessing to. We can’t “preach loud sermons” (I think of it as “beating them over the head with our Bibles”) or “prance about the boat”–berate their current beliefs while trying to show them that Christianity is the one and only way.

I’m not as good a fisherman as God wants me to be, but this song reminds me of some principles to keep in mind.

What about you? Are you an effective fisherman–or are you one of the fish? How about leaving a comment?

I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

        

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Links you might be interested in:

Posted in Australia, Fish, Fishing For Men, Olympics, Windsor District Baptist Church | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Peace on the Earth!

Posted on December 27, 2023 by Roger E. Bruner

Peace on the earth! Joy to the world!
Love to the universe from all those who know the Lord.
We can’t live without the Lord.
We just can’t live without His love.
We just can’t live without the love of the Lord.

Peace in our hearts! Joy in our souls!
Love from God’s presence in our lives to all those who need the Lord.
You can’t live without the Lord.
You just can’t live without His love.
You just can’t live without the love of the Lord.

About This Song:
t-Roger 10-19-2023I’m not sure how obvious it is that “Peace on the Earth!” is a Christmas song, but that’s what I intended when I wrote it forty-some years ago. And I didn’t write it as a solo song for myself, but with vocal parts for a small group.

A regular lead sheet and the choral arrangement are both available. Use the drop down box at the top of the page to view or print either or both of them.

I used a reel-to-reel recorder to record two tracks separately. I recorded guitar on one track, dubbed bass guitar in with it, and recorded the group singing it in a worship service.

I thought it was a wonderful presentation. and–to this day–I lament the loss of that recording.

Several years ago I made a few changes and created a solo version with a MIDI-based accompaniment. If you’re interested in hearing it, go HERE. Or watch my presentation at our local nursing home ministry several years ago.

Regardless of the history of this song and its recent changes, the important thing is that “Peace on the Earth!” reflects the joy I imagine the angels expressing when they announced Jesus’s  birth to the shepherds in the fields.

I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

        

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A Special Brand-New Sun

Posted on December 20, 2023 by Roger E. Bruner

The Lord is so giving and forgiving.
Long years ago He made a wondrous star to shine
On a world so lost in death and darkness,
Yet still it leads to a manger bed of hope.
Yet still it leads to a manger bed of hope.

The Lord is so merciful and tender.
He made a special brand-new sun to rise and shine
On a world lost in death and darkness
And guide our footsteps in His path of peace.
And guide our footsteps in His path of peace.

The Lord is so loving and so caring.
He sent his only Son to die so we can live.
He leads us through the darkest of our valleys
And points the way to the light at Heaven’s gates.
And points the way to the light at Heaven’s gates.

NOTE: The video shown below was taken at the Ashland (Virginia) Convalescent Center a few years ago. The third stanza hadn’t been written yet.

About This Song:

t-Roger 10-19-2023
This is one of my several original Christmas songs, although I’ve written two or three songs that talk about both Christmas and Easter. I hope you’ll forgive me for sharing it more frequently than every three or four years.

When we think about the Star of Bethlehem, we usually think about the so-called wise men–the Magi–who followed the star from the east. The Bible includes these references:

Matthew 2:2
and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (NIV)

Matthew 2:7
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. (NIV)

Matthew 2:9
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. (NIV)

Matthew 2:10
When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
(NIV)

When I did a Bible search on “star” in the four Gospels, I was shocked to discover that the Scriptures didn’t say anything about the shepherds seeing the star above the stable. No wonder I’d always thought otherwise, though. The typical Nativity Scene features shepherds and wise men worshiping Jesus together around the manger.

In reality, the wise men didn’t arrive on the scene until a year or two later. Mary, Joseph, and infant Jesus were no longer in the stable, but living in a house.

Although the first stanza of this song references the Christmas star, the second stanza refers to Luke 1:78-79:

78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
    by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
    and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.
(NIV)

I’ve watched a wonderful video that explained the Star of Bethlehem as a natural phenomena. Such a scientific explanation of the star in no way diminishes my faith or my fascination with the star as a special sign, however.

If anything, a scientific explanation makes the story of the star even more special. Would a star just happen to reveal Jesus’s exact location unless God had arranged the circumstances for it to happen?

No way do I consider that a coincidence.

What about you, though? What are your thoughts about the Star of Bethlehem? How about leaving a comment?

I write Christian novels as well as songs. The two most recent ones are shown below and their pictures are links to the Amazon pages. The eighteen-book picture is a link to my Amazon Author Page.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

        

Eighteen Novel 4x6 Postcard

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