As soon as the Voice from Heaven offered its amazing affirmation that Jesus was the “beloved Son” and that in him the Father was “well pleased” (see Mark 1:11), we might expect that trumpets should blare and crowds to be jubilant. And being that we who associate with Christ Jesus likewise share in these precious affirmations (being loved READ MORE
As Jesus’ disciples made their way up the eastern slope of Mt. Zion toward the magnificent temple mount, they must have felt a sense of exhilaration about approaching that familiar but still great place. It was, after all, the symbol of everything Jewish—that monument that evoked remembrances of the covenant God and His glory. But READ MORE
Psalm 121 is one of my very favorite psalms. I have read it at the graveside of a teenage friend killed in a car accident. I have read it at the bedsides of innumerable hospital patients. I have repeated it to myself when anticipating a tough conversation or a difficult sermon or entrance into a READ MORE
Though routine the soldiers’ work on top of the hill attracted onlookers. They labored away, planting stakes and laying out the timbers that would form the stands for some rough crosses. The sun was devouring the morning fog, and from that hill one could see the beginning of a very busy Friday in Jerusalem. Across READ MORE
One of the features of any Christmas celebration is the longing many of us have to carry the spirit of Christmas into the many long days and weeks and months that follow. How often is it that we think to ourselves that we want to experience the meaning of Christmas ten days out, or twenty, READ MORE
There are only three verses recording her story, and yet within the broad expanse of God’s written Word, Anna leaps out as a compelling, winsome and remarkable woman seasoned by life and her Lord. Take in the whole of her story, as recorded in Luke 2:36-38: And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of READ MORE
