The start of a New Year brings challenges. We look at the year gone by and wonder what we can change. There are things we want to do that are new, we want to start over. There is a new sense of resolve. One of the things we consider is a Bible reading plan. But when we pick up our Bibles and read the first words of Genesis and are immediately confronted by information that goes against what we have been taught, and what we think we know as members of a post-modern society: God created the heavens and the earth. 

We wonder, what is the real impact of these ten amazing words? 

Between Christmas and New Year we often sit back and reflect on the year that has been and look ahead to the year that is about to unfold. Often we don't see the good things that have happened in the year that is coming to an end. 

But if we change how we look at things then the negative becomes a positive, and throughout the year ahead, we can start seeing the positive things that God gives us. 

On this Christmas day, let us return to the birth narratives that Matthew and Luke give us. 

Here is the Bible and the story of Jesus at it starts our. 

May your Christmas be full of the love of the Lord. 

Santa works his way deeper into our social consciences, and his image is cemented for all time when Coca-Cola brings him into the fray with a make over and a whole lot of advertising. But it is time to bring out the big guns and sight once again on the real reason for the season, and that is the baby Jesus. 

How did St Nicholas, that well meaning bishop of Myra in Southern Turkey, end up associated with the jolly old fat bloke with the long white bear and the red suit? Join me as we continue our voyage of discovery into the making of the modern Santa Claus. 

These days, everything about Christmas seems to be driven by Santa Claus. You can't walk into a shop without being swamped with images of the jolly old guy in the red suit. He is literally everywhere. But he isn't the real reason for the season. How did he come to be so influential? 

Join me as I take a multi-part journey to uncover the rise and rise of Santa Claus. 

Christmas is almost upon us. And for most of us we have or are about to engage in a very strange ritual. Putting up our Christmas Tree. But where does this practice come from? Join me as I dig around and see what I can uncover about the Christmas Tree tradition. 

It's almost Christmas. For some of us it's the busiest time of year. We do lots of running around and cramming things in. But have your ever wondered about some of the traditions we engage in? Why do we drag a bit of old dead tree into our houses and then hang baubles in it? Exactly what is Yuletide, who is Santa Claus, and what's with all those Christmas Carols. 

Join me as I rummage around and unpack some of the stuff we do at Christmas and then find out about the real reason for the season. 

What does it mean to be truly "modern." Should it matter and should I pursue it? Should it shape me? Or should I be looking for something else, or to someone else to validate me as a person? 
Modernity is about fluidity. About image. About the material, not the spiritual. 
If I am to be truly modern, can I really be truly fulfilled? 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and started the story that we all know, and that will carry us to the end when Jesus returns and the earth is remade.