Although we usually sing the carol “Joy to the World” during the Christmas season, the hymn isn’t really about the incarnation of Jesus. Isaac Watts wrote it and has often been known as the “Father of English Hymnology.” He composed “Joy to the World” in 1719. It was originally titled “The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom.” The original title illustrates why there is no reference to angels, shepherds, or wise men. It is really about Christ’s second coming. That doesn’t mean we can’t sing about the coming of Christ as King during the Christmas season since His first coming foretells His second coming.

The hymn is actually a paraphrase of Psalm 98: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praise.” It then answers why: “for He [the Lord] comes to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness, and the people with equity.”

Psalm 98 was originally a song of rejoicing for the Lord’s protection of His chosen people. Isaac Watts used it as a New Testament expression of praise. Remember what the angel said to the shepherds: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy.”

The hymn proclaims that the earth should “receive her King” and every heart should “prepare Him room.” That has not happened yet, but there will be a time when as the hymn says “the Savior reigns.”

“No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.” Because of the Fall, we now have thorns and thistles. But in the New Heaven and Earth, the curse will be gone.

Christ will also come as Judge and Ruler. The hymn proclaims that: “He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love.”

The carol “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is an English translation of a Latin hymn that is sung during Advent and Christmas. The text goes back to at least the 18th century (and perhaps much earlier) while the music put to it goes back to the 15th century.

“O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

Emmanuel means, “God with us.” Even before the coming of Christ, we see passages in the Old Testament that remind us that God was with Israel. In 1 Kings 8 we read, “Praise the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave through his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us.” In Psalm 46, we read that, “The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”

One of the most visible reminders of God’s presence was during the Exodus. God was with the Israelites as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of smoke by day. His presence was with them in the Tabernacle and later the Temple in the Holy of Holies.

But the most important aspect of Emmanuel is found in the New Testament. John tells us in his gospel, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). This is the miracle of the Incarnation. God put on human flesh and came to Israel so that He might give His life for all of us. Paul writes to Timothy, “Here is the great mystery of our religion: Christ came as a human” (1 Timothy 3:16). This is what we celebrate at Christmas.

One song we often sing during the Christmas season is “What Child Is This?” William Chatterton Dix wrote the lyrics in 1865 when he was an insurance company manager and had been struck by a severe illness. After a spiritual renewal in his life, he wrote a number of hymns. This one was set to the tune of the traditional English folk song, “Greensleeves.”

“What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping? Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping? This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing: Haste, haste to bring Him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.”

The hymn then asks who this child is that was found by the shepherds not in a palace but in a manger. “Why lies He in such a mean estate, where ox and donkeys are feeding?” The next verse reminds us, Jesus was essentially born a peasant king.

“So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh, Come, peasant, king, to own him. The King of kings salvation brings, let loving hearts enthrone him. Raise, raise a song on high, the virgin sings her lullaby. Joy, joy for Christ is born, the babe, the Son of Mary.”

While the shepherds must have wondered who was born in a manger, this verse reminds us that the wise men apparently believed him to be royalty and brought him gifts. Both the shepherds and the wise men had access to baby Jesus because He wasn’t born in a palace that would have guards and bureaucratic protocols.

Isn’t this a great picture for us today? All of us have access to Jesus and merely need to place our trust and faith in Him.

A new documentary reminds us how intrusive social media can be in our lives and how personal privacy is quickly vanishing. Kyle Smith writes about this in a recent op-ed and mentions the documentary The Creepy Line. The name of the documentary is taken from a comment by Google CEO Eric Schmidt. He has a nickname for the invasive nature of his company. “Google policy on a lot of these things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”

In the film, Peter Schweizer illustrates how your search history gives Google an enormous amount of information. Of course, this is supposed to tell Google and other advertisers what you like to buy. But this enormous cache of information also tells anyone who has access to it all sorts of other things about you and your personal tastes.

Google also noticed that you would leave the search engine in order to surf the Internet. So, it developed the browser, Chrome. That means that everything you do online through Chrome is also collected in the cache of information at Google.

But that’s not enough. Google wants to know what you are doing even when you are not online. So, there is Android that uploads a complete picture of what you have been when you are not online. Smith concludes, “It’s a surveillance business model. Google Maps, Goggle Docs, Gmail . . . Google knows more about you than your spouse does.”

Over the last few months, Congress has shown some interest in understanding how Google (and the other Big Tech firms) make their editorial decisions. But Smith also remind us that the federal government is “a heavy user of Google products, and has shown little interest in oversight.”

If Google isn’t going to self-police itself, and if Congress isn’t going to take any meaningful action, then we as consumers need to be wary of how Google and others use us and our information.

With all the claims and counterclaims about global warming, it is often hard to figure out what to believe. One thing I do know is that two of the loudest claims about a climate catastrophe on the horizon are based on erroneous assumptions. When I was in graduate school working on computer models, I learned that the assumptions about the data often determined the effectiveness of the models to predict future environmental events.

The British scientific journal Nature published a study more than a month ago that warned that ocean temperatures rose 60 percent higher than estimated by the UN IPCC. The study was given wide exposure in the media. However, another researcher identified some errors in methodology, which the original researchers have admitted was the case. Unfortunately, you won’t see any follow-up media reports about them overestimating the amount of ocean warming.

A few weeks ago, the federal government issued its latest National Climate Assessment report. The study calculates the huge costs due to the fact that the world will be 15 degrees Fahrenheit warmer by 2100. This assessment is even higher than the worst-case scenario predicted by the UN IPCC, which has been known to occasionally make some outlandish predictions as well.

The writers of the report assume a massive increase in coal consumption and completely ignore the dramatic increase in natural gas production. If you take a more realistic view of conventional fuel use, the doomsday scenario vanishes. And it is worth mentioning that the sole editor of the report is an alumnus of the Center for American Progress, funded by climate activist and philanthropist Tom Steyer.

It is often hard to know what to believe, especially when both of the two most publicized climate studies have major errors within them.

Life expectancy for Americans continues to decline. The latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the bad news in perspective. The researchers say that this is the “longest sustained decline in expected life span at birth in a century.” At the turn of the last century, American men were fighting in World War I and back home other Americans were confronting the worst flu epidemic in modern history.

Last year there were more deaths than the previous year. That partially reflects the fact that the nation is growing older and aging. But the focus of our attention should be on the younger age groups that are also dying due to such things as suicide and drug overdoses.

If you look at the top ten leading causes of death, only the cancer rate fell in 2017. There were increases in seven others: suicides, strokes, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, flu/pneumonia, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and unintentional injuries.

The greatest concern, at least for me, are the deaths due to despair. The suicide rate has increased over the last two decades for both men and women, but the increase in suicides among men has been even more dramatic. Along with that has been the significant increase in the number of deaths due to drug overdoses. In previous commentaries, I’ve documented that more Americans die from drug overdoses each year than all the men who died during the entire Vietnam War.

Remember that these deaths of despair are taking place during peace and prosperity. We aren’t engage in a major war. We aren’t in the midst of a recession. In fact, most Americans are doing much better economically.

I believe Christians must preach the gospel like never before and provide hope and an eternal perspective to so many Americans who may be the next death of despair statistics.

Today is December 7 – a day that President Roosevelt said would be “a date which will live in infamy.” On that fateful morning of December 7, 1941, America was attacked without warning. More than 2,400 Americans died and 1,100 were wounded. Our country was changed forever.

This attack led us into war, and the citizens of America responded with courage and resolve. So it may be well to reflect on what took place and how we today must also rise to the occasion of an attack on America more than a decade ago.

Today is known as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. It is a day when we honor the lives lost in that attack on Pearl Harbor and also honor the veterans of World War II. But it can also be a day in which we pay tribute to the men and women who are currently serving in the armed forces in an effort to promote freedom and justice around the world.

If you travel to Hawaii, you need to stop at the memorial in Pearl Harbor. The USS Arizona stands as a testimony to the 1,177 crew members who died as a result of the attack on December 7. I understand that more than 40 million people have visited that memorial and have therefore honored the heroic efforts of these sailors and marines. If you have been there, you know that it has become a sacred place as well as a reminder of what can happen when others (either a nation or terrorists) attack this nation.

In 1941, the enemies of the US were Japan and Germany. Today they are our friends. But we have new enemies, terrorists who want to destroy us and to destroy our way of life. We are protected from their evil intentions by those who serve in uniform.

So today, take a moment to reflect on your freedom that was bought with a price. And honor those who died for your freedoms and honor those who protect you today. December 7 is an important day, and I didn’t want it to pass without challenging you to consider its importance.

When Congress reconvenes, we will be hearing more about a new initiative called the “Green New Deal.” Proponents want to overhaul government spending in order to combat climate change. Some of the new Democrat members of Congress want the majority to establish a committee that will be tasked with increasing the size of government and decreasing carbon emissions.

In a recent column, Timothy Meads quotes from an article that appeared in Politico. “The Green New Deal resolution calls for a bevy of far-reaching liberal goals to decarbonize the economy within a decade by reshaping the electric power, agriculture and transportation sector.” The article goes on to acknowledge that the plan may even be too much for Democrats in the House and Senate. Nevertheless, “the concept has become an important rallying cry for the need to address climate change.”

If all of this sounds familiar, it should. Back in 2009, President Obama’s Reinvestment Act pushed billions of taxpayer dollars toward green companies tasked with a similar mandate. These companies often failed, while their leaders pocketed the cash instead of creating jobs and lasting green energy.

A similar plan has been tried in other countries. Tim Worstall, writing in the Washington Examiner, provides some perspective on what happened in Australia and the United Kingdom. When the global recession hit Australia, government leaders thought they could prime the economic pump by spending money to insulate houses and other structures. A Royal Commission documented that financial failure. The British government decided to do the same thing. There are fears that as many as a million houses were ruined by this central planning.

The Green New Deal would not be a deal at all. We have seen what happened in Australia, Britain, and the United States when a similar plan was implemented and failed miserably.