The Characters of Christmas - Daniel Darling on The BreakPoint Podcast
Breakpoint
Colson Center
4.8 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2020
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If the Christmas story is a cosmic drama, we would do well to know all we can about the cast of characters onstage at Bethlehem and beyond. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, of course. But what about the innkeeper? The angels and the shepherds? Simeon and Anna. And even "the surprising people" Jesus' family tree.
What does God's selection of this cast of supporting characters say about the star Himself, Jesus the King? Today on the BreakPoint Podcast, John Stonestreet welcomes Dan Darling, the author of the beautiful and insightful book "The Characters of Christmas: 10 Unlikely People Caught Up in the Story of Jesus."
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Breakpoint podcast. I'm John Stone Street. One of my favorite quotes, and I think about it a lot this time of year, during the season of Advent as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, his first coming, and also look ahead to his second coming. One of my favorite quotes this time of year that I spent a lot of time thinking about comes from C.S. Lewis. |
| 0:20.4 | C.S. Lewis said that the central |
| 0:22.0 | miracle asserted by Christians is the incarnation, the idea that God became man. If it happened, |
| 0:29.2 | Lewis says, it was the central event in the history of the earth, the very thing the whole story |
| 0:34.3 | has been about. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the center of history, and Christmas |
| 0:38.7 | is the story of Jesus Christ. And yet, God sends Christ into the world to interact and to restore |
| 0:46.9 | the human story. And part of that whole process are all of these other characters that are part of the |
| 0:52.5 | Christmas narrative that we know, |
| 0:55.1 | we recognize, we're familiar with them, but we may not have looked at their lives and how |
| 1:00.9 | those lives intersected with Christ as close as maybe we should. Today on the Breakpoint |
| 1:06.4 | podcast, I'm excited to revisit an interview from last year with my friend Dan Darling. |
| 1:11.6 | Dan works for the National Religious Broadcasters, and he's the author of a book called |
| 1:15.6 | The Characters of Christmas, 10 Unlikely People Caught Up in the Story of Jesus. |
| 1:21.6 | I really enjoyed this book, as did my wife and my family, and I'm excited to share once again this interview with Dan, who's the author of this book. |
| 1:31.0 | Again, it's called The Characters of Christmas, 10 Unlikely People Caught Up in the Story of Jesus. |
| 1:36.0 | So here's my conversation with Dan Darling. |
| 1:38.7 | The scripture chooses to reveal to us all these other individuals that were part of this magnificent story, the |
| 1:47.5 | story that we remember at this time of year. And my guest today on the Breakpoint podcast is Dan |
| 1:52.9 | Darling, who's written a new book about these characters. It's called The Characters of Christmas. |
| 1:58.7 | And if you don't know Dan, he probably has seen his writing here, there, |
| 2:02.2 | or other places. He's the Vice President for Communication at the Ethics and Religious |
| 2:06.8 | Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. A pretty prolific author. And Dan's |
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