Christmas Edification

Taking a trip to Florida to see my wife's family during the holidays is nice, but normally it's a real spiritual drain... I like seeing everybody, but it gets my schedule all messed up. I usually find myself unable (or too distracted) to faithfully keep up with my devotional reading and other spiritual things. I normally come back with my soul vexed and feeling like a big slacker.

This trip was much different. I think this past weekend was the most edifying trip we have ever taken to Florida. For starters, my mother-in-law gave all of us tickets to the Holy Land Experience in Orlando. It was great! Let me encourage you to go if you are ever in the Central Florida area. You won't regret it.

If you visit, I especially recommend touring the Scriptorium. I left the tour in tears. It was a very moving experience. The tour is 55 minutes long, but I wish I could have spent all day looking at all the ancient scrolls and Bibles. There are many things in the Scriptorium worth mentioning, but I was especially moved by an old Bible in which the pages are stained with the blood of an English Protestant martyr. Too often we take our English Bibles for granted, but English Protestants bled and died that we might have the Word in our own tongue -let us not forget!

Second only to the Scriptorium, was the experience I had on Christmas Eve when my family and I attended church at St. Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, FL. It was during that church service that I got to sit under the preaching of -and actually got to meet- one of my theological heroes: R.C. Sproul! Though I am not a Presbyterian, I love Dr. Sproul's teaching on the Doctrines of Grace and on many other topics. The worship service was awe-inspiring.

All these things and the fact that I got to experience it all with my wife and children made this the most edifying Christmas holidays I can remember. I hope you had a great holiday weekend as well!

Soli Deo Gloria!