Lessons and Carols

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Church tradition is rich with rituals and methods for teaching the timeless and precious truths of Scripture to hearers over the generations. The service of Nine Lessons and Carols reveals God’s acts throughout history for the salvation of man.  Enjoy Lessons and Carols and consider adding it to your church Christmas traditions.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Christians around the world celebrate Christmas in a glorious variety of ways. Handel’s brilliant oratorio Messiah reveals the story of salvation from the Fall to the Triumph of Christ in music. The Service of Lessons and Carols does the same through Bible readings, Christmas carols, and pastoral writings.

History of Lessons and Carols

Prior to the late nineteenth century, parishioners sang hymns in church but Christmas carols in members’ homes, since carols were considered more secular than hymns. As hymns grew in popularity throughout Victoria’s reign, carol-singing seeped into worship. Meanwhile, ministers worried about the riotous living and drunkenness in Cornish pubs during the Yuletide season. The Bishop of Truro, Right Rev Edward White Benson (1829-1896), and co-workers combined Christmas carols, Bible readings, and pastoral homilies into the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols.[1] The first service was done at 10 pm on Christmas Eve, 1880, in the hopes of attracting revelers into the church.  It worked…over four hundred people attended. The service grew popular after it was conducted at King’s College in Cambridge on Christmas Eve, 1918, just after the end of the First World War (1914-1918) and the influenza pandemic (1918).

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Hurricane Helene – A Grass-Roots Emergency Response

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Bringing supplies and equipment to help others in a disaster? Learn how to have the biggest and best possible impact with limited resources.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Hurricane Helene caused historic damage to an unlikely location, the hills and mountains of western North Carolina. The flooding and winds surprised many, since hurricanes usually afflict those on the coasts. Not expecting disaster, many inland residents did not prepare. They suffered. Over 230 people are known to be dead, and the estimated damage is over $30 billion.

Our Situation

Churches in the Mountain State Baptist Association (MSBA) learned of the tragedy not only through the media, which can be deceitful, but also through stories from people on the ground. The suffering was real, but just showing up to a devastated area with a trunk (or a tractor-trailer) full of unsolicited stuff is no way to help. The responders may or may not be useful to the victims but will definitely need water, food, fuel, and shelter, which are already in short supply.  As good-hearted as it may be to respond, doing so without coordinating with those on the ground can be worse than useless.

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How to identify drug activity in your neighborhood

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Drug use and abuse is a growing problem in America and worldwide. Governments using organizations such as the police are not enough to protect people. Each individual, family, and community must take responsibility for their own security. The first step is education – learning how to protect ourselves and others from drug-related problems.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Drug use and abuse grow ever more deadly across the nation and the world. Tsunamis of opioids, marijuana, cocaine, stimulants, and a host of others flood borders in the US and Europe, carried by an international class of drug mule who will stop at nothing to make money, grow in power, and get a fix. Despite billions of dollars invested in prevention, education, treatment, and law enforcement, drug use disorders and environmental harms are getting worse.[1] Mafias, hostile governments, geopolitics, and corruption come together to keep people enslaved to these substances. For example, the Chinese mafia controls much of the marijuana trade in the US while the Chinese government, always hoping to weaken America, lends a hand.[2] In one example, Oakland police officer Samson Liu owned a house that police raided and found eighty pounds of illegal marijuana.[3]

Most people do not have a drug problem, but we are all still impacted by those that do. Our neighborhoods can become unsafe. What can individuals do to protect themselves from drugs and its consequences, specifically in the places we live? Identifying drug activity in your neighborhood can be challenging, as those involved often try to keep their activities hidden. However, there are various indicators of drug-related activities. Remember that some of these signs could have innocent explanations, so it’s important not to jump to conclusions based on limited information. Report your concerns to local law enforcement rather than investigating yourself.

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Cardiovascular Function and Health

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Heart disease is a top killer worldwide. Learn about how the cardiovascular system works, what can go wrong with it, and how to keep it healthy.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Pastors and physicians are never off duty. I have the obligation, and the privilege, to educate family, friends, and acquaintances in spiritual and physical matters. One gentleman at church has an abnormal heart rhythm (dysrhythmia or arrhythmia). Another has cardiac manifestations of sarcoidosis. Still other church members have hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) or heart failure. The article summarizes basic information on cardiovascular disease in a way, I hope, that will best meet their needs.

The Blood

Blood brings oxygen and nutrients to every cell in the body and removes harmful gases and waste products. Blood is composed of oxygen-carrying cells (red blood cells), infection-fighting cells (white blood cells), proteins, water, and an array of elements such as glucose (sugar), sodium (salt), and potassium. Blood is created in the bone marrow within long bones. The spleen filters solid elements (like aged red cells or sickle cells) from the blood. The kidneys filter chemicals from the blood, thus maintaining the proper chemical balance.

Blood is required for life. Leviticus 17:11 states that the life of the flesh is in the blood. In many other verses, the Bible equates life with blood (Genesis 9:4). If the blood is not replenished or does not circulate, the person or animal dies.

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Church Security – Getting Started

Church shooter
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The news is largely tales of disorder and disaster leading to feelings of discouragement and detachment. Troubles from active shooters to natural disasters beset the houses of God. Guided by their leaders, churches are responsible for safeguarding their congregations and visitors from harm. This article teaches why church security is important, how to assess security risk, and the basics of a comprehensive plan.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

While the need for enhanced security in churches may seem like a modern concern, protecting places of worship has been a consideration throughout history. Christians and their churches were attacked and destroyed both by mobs and by the government in ancient Rome, from Nero (AD 37-68) to Diocletian (AD 242-312).  Eastern and Western Christians sometimes damaged each other’s churches and persecuted people, as in the Byzantine centuries. The most notorious example in the Middle Ages is the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah in 1009.

Attacks on Christians and churches continued into the modern era. Muslim powers continued to persecute Christians. Ottomans butchered Christians and leveled churches in the early 20th century. The Nazis, Soviets, and Chinese Communists killed and imprisoned millions of Christians and eliminated churches in the 20th century. These threats were governmental and institutional, but destruction also came from the hands of hateful mobs.

The nature and scale of threats have grown, particularly in recent decades. Governmental attacks on Christians have been replaced in many places by smaller-scale attacks mounted by one or a few people. The number of these attacks has increased in the past century.

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Gender – A Biblical View

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A lava flow of anger, resentment, bitterness, and lies covers the landscape on issues of gender and sexual identity in Western culture in the 21st century. Some people believe in multiple, self-directed genders unrelated to biology while others believe in two genders, male and female, fixed by biology, culture, and ultimately God. What does the Bible say?

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Sexual practices and gender identity have become hot issues in the United States and elsewhere. The “culture wars” pit those holding to traditional social norms against those who believe that such norms are oppressive. Followers of Jesus Christ need to know what God says about gender from both sources of revelation, Creation and the Bible. Finally, Christians must do what He commands, both in their own lives and in dealing with and teaching others.

Sex as an act or as an identity

For every culture in most of human history, sex was an identity conferred by one’s immutable biology and confirmed by one’s culture. The word “gender” was rarely used concerning people until the mid-20th century. The day-to-day living out of one’s sex was called sex because biology was so closely tied to identity and activity. Gender was primarily used in language studies. Only in the past several decades has the word gender been applied to sexual identity in opposition to sex.

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