This Christmas message focuses on a character rarely talked about in the story of Christ's birth: Herod the Great. When the wisemen came to Herod to ask where the new King was born, the scribes told Herod that He was to be born in Bethlehem, which was just five miles from Jerusalem. Herod was five miles from the Light of Christmas...and yet he lived and died in total darkness.

Two times in the Gospels, Jesus commended someone for having a great faith including an unnamed mother in Matthew 15. 

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that if there was any other way for people to know God other than through His death on the cross, that God would "let this cup" pass from Him. Nevertheless, Jesus prayed, "Your will, not Mine" and went to Calvary out of His deep love for us.