Herod's ilk lives on:

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT There is a noble attempt to focus all the Christmas  energy that has erupted around us in lights and greenery, back on the real story of Christmas--the incarnation of Christ.  I am heartily in favor of the effort.  Our just completed Live Nativity at CBC is one such effort. Thirty-two years after His birth Jesus said that He had come to seek and save the Lost.  (Luke 19:10)  This morning I was reminded that both then and now  "the lost" are in abundance.  The ugly stain on the Christmas story is Herod's murder of all the little boys in Bethlehem.  Scholars argue about the numbers.  Suffice to say that Bethlehem was just a small town, but I hasten to add the death of any innocent children is a tragedy.  (Matthew 2:16-23)  Herod's murder of the innocents was totally in character.  Brother-in-laws, sons, and wives, were all victims of Herod's murderous, suspicious, jealous rage. It has been reported that Uncle Jang Song Thaek was executed for "corruption, drug use, gambling, womanizing and leading a 'dissolute and depraved life.'"  Not likely.  Somehow he found himself in the way of his beloved nephew's ambitions.      His ilk lives on. Dennis Rodman's buddy, Kim Jung Un, just had his Uncle killed.  The North Korean dictator saw some threat in Uncle Jang Song Thaek.  The Herod's, Stalins, Hitlers, Saddam Husseins,  and Uns of the world know how to deal with competition--real or imagined--eliminate it.   Because there are more of us, and because news travels farther and faster in our day than in Herod's, we hear about more evil.   Murderous leaders still plot and kill. Innocent babies are still killed for no good reason. Populations still cower in fear under the sandal, boot, or elevator shoe of cruel tyrants.   More than ever this world needs Jesus! With a wish for the best of Christmases, it's Something To Think About, from the Covington Bible Church.