As a 19-year old in the mid-1700s, Jonathan Edwards became serious about the direction of his life. He began to understand the nature of God, and what he discovered was both delightful and disturbing. The more he investigated the infinite tributaries of God's nature, the more he unearthed his own sinfulness. From then on, the weight of God's glory became the gravity of his life. He was compelled to respond.

So he sat down with a quill and paper and wrote out a series of commitments. These were simple statements, conclusions, and commitments forged in the immensity of God and the trauma of His holiness. All of them began with the same word—"Resolved"...

On a cold Christmas Eve in December of 1894, the great preacher Charles Spurgeon stepped into his pulpit at Metropolitan Tabernacle of London and proceeded to preach a Christmas message entitled "The Birth of Christ" from Isaiah 7:14-15. Over a hundred years later, Spurgeon's concluding comments are a helpful encouragement to believers as we gather with family and friends this week...

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"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but to testify about the Light.