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Our “most annoying” Christmas song is also the most popular · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good day.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Wednesday.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: December 10, 2025, and you've joined us for Dinnison Forum's Daily Article Podcast.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins.
• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're rating today's Daily Article, authored by RCEO, Dr. Jim Dinnison.
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I need to begin with a warning.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you read the rest of this paragraph, you are likely to ingest a musical earworm that will not stop playing in your brain all day.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to a survey conducted by Finance Buzz, the most annoying Christmas song in America is Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas is you.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Paradoxically, it's also the most popular Christmas song in America.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: you were warned.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: But, seen in a theological light, there is a surprising message here, one that turns the Christmas holiday into holy days that transform our lives all year.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus owned only the absolute minimum necessary for life in this world.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was true from the moment of his birth when he came into the world in a borrowed stable and was laid in a borrowed
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was true to the moment of his death when he was crucified on a Roman cross, prepared for burial through the generosity of others and laid in a borrowed tomb.
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: During his earthly ministry, he lived in Capernaum at the home of his friend Peter.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: When he visited Jerusalem, he stayed in Bethany at the home of his friend's Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Regarding home ownership, he said in Matthew 8, verse 20, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head, and yet not once did he ask anyone for anything except for their good.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: He asked a Samaritan woman for water in John 4, verses 7 through 14, so he could lead her to living water.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: We know from Luke 19, verses 1 through 10, that he invited himself to the home of Zacchaeus, so he could bring salvation to his house.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everything Jesus did from the moment he entered our world was intended to bring us to himself.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: If he could be conceived in the womb of a virgin, he can come into any heart and life referenced by John 316.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: If impoverished residents of a town so small, it's not mentioned even once in the Old Testament could be Jesus' family, anyone can be part of his family, noted by 1 Peter 2 verse 9.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Refrencing Revelation 7 verses 9 through 10, if field hands so richly unclean that they could not enter a synagogue could join the celebration of his birth anyone can praise him today.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: If Samaritans Gentiles, Demoniacs, tax collectors and lepers could join his movement, anyone can follow him today.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: If those who forsake him denied him and persecuted his followers could be forgiven, anyone can be forgiven.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: If a worshiper exiled on a prison island could experience him personally revealed in Revelation 1 verses 9 through 20, anyone can experience him in worship today.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: I say all of that to ask this.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you were to give Jesus what he wants most for Christmas, what would it be?
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Speaking about Jesus' mother, Brother Curtis Amquist of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston Notes.
• 3:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: We like Mary, have God's attention and God's love.
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: We like Mary, have something utterly unique about the life God has given us.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is no one like us.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Never has been, never will be.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are known by God.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are favored by God in an even more unique way than we are to our most precious relationships.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: There is a chamber in our heart which only God can enter and there is a chamber in the heart of God into which only we can enter.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, How shall we respond to such love?
• 3:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: When Gabriel invited Mary to become the mother of God's son, she replied in Luke 1 verse 38,
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Brethren, Amquist, similarly advised us, quote, keep the verb surrender in the vocabulary of your heart in quote.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: This verb is God's consistent demand of his followers.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: From Luke 9, 23, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: taught in James 4, verse 7, submit yourselves, therefore to God, and from first Peter 5, verse 6,
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: under the mighty hand of God.
• 4:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why is this?
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why does Jesus want us for Christmas?
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: All of us surrendered fully and unconditionally to him is this because he is a desperate bent on the submission of humanity as his subjects.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Or, could it be that our Lord's response to our surrender is his greatest gift to us?
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Brother Amquist notes the 19th century Quaker author Thomas Kelly, when he wrote, the paradox is that as we surrender and are willing to do God's bidding,
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our lives unfold in a way that is much more magnificent than we could have ever humanly orchestrated.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Life becomes extremely simple and also good, in quote.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: This only makes sense.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: If we trust our lives to an all-knowing father who sees the future better than we can see the present and all loving and all powerful Lord who can do all that is best and nothing else, how could the outcome be anything but his best for us?
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And even more, as we give our lives to the one who gave his life for us, we experience Jesus Himself.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: His Spirit manifests His personality and character in hours, noted in Romans 8 verse 29.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus continues His ministry in the world in and through our lives revealed in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 27.
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: CS Lewis gives voice to our Savior's invitation today.
• 6:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want so much of your time, so much of your money, so much of your work.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I want you.
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And over the whole natural self, all the desires you think innocent, as well as the ones you think wicked, the whole outfit.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I will give you a new self instead, I will give you myself, in quote.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Could there be any greater gift than this?