1. What's the deal with Christmas? Is the incarnation of Christ that big a deal? The answer is an unqualified yes.
  2. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we have a question about the faith of Charles Dickens.
  3. On this episode of Preaching the Text, John Hoyum and Steve Paulson discuss Luke's account of the annunciation where the angel Gabriel appears before Mary to announce that she will conceive a child by the Holy Spirit.
  4. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we head to the mailbag to answer a question about the Incarnation.
  5. This is a special crossover episode with Kelsi Klembara from the podcast: "Outside Ourselves." Kelsi is also the online content manager for 1517 and mother to 3 kids. She holds an MA in Reformational Theology from Concordia University Irvine.
  6. John the Baptist unfailingly and unflinchingly points to Jesus, even from the womb.
  7. Mary hears the word of God and then waits on the Word of God to be born from her womb.
  8. Dr. Michael Ward is an English literary critic and theologian. He works at the University of Oxford where he is a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion. He is the author of the award-winning Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis.
  9. In today's episode of Tough Texts, Scott Keith and Daniel Emery Pice explore two seemingly opposing passages from the Bible: John 1:19-28 and Matthew 11:7-15.
  10. The Thinking Fellows discuss movies they enjoy watching. The conversation revolves around the presence of theological and moral meaning in film.
  11. On this episode of Preaching the Text, John Hoyum and Steve Paulson discuss the story of the Canaanite woman who begs that he heal her daughter.
  12. This month's Book Club, we are doing a short story by Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find."