Leading up to the time of Jesus, the nation of Israel had their eyes fixated toward the coming Messiah. He would be the one to loosen to chains of Roman rule, leading a revolution toward freedom and power for God’s people. The Jewish people would read and study texts such as Isaiah 10 and 11…
All posts tagged christmas
A Season of Giving?
This Christmas slogan is overused by organizations around the world in order to increase their end of year donations: “a season for giving.” That’s quite often the summation of Christmas—simply a season of giving. With this in mind, you can likely think of similar slogans such as “it is better to give than receive.” That…
The Two Christmas Responses
The Gospel of Luke juxtaposes two different responses to God’s deliverance. In being pitted against each other we quickly see how God’s coming pushes people in two directions. The question left for you is simply, which response is yours? The Doubting One Luke 1:5-25 recounts the story of Zechariah being told by the angel Gabriel…
A Guide to the Advent Season
Advent is nothing new, even though all the cool kids are talking about it now. Here’s a great in-depth summary of what Advent is. Advent comes from a latin word meaning “coming.” Advent covers the 4 Sundays (starting a few days back) leading up to Christmas, followed by a celebration feast for twelve days, ending in…
Christmas Is Not the End, It’s the Beginning
The afternoon of Christmas Day is the worst, especially as a kid. All the presents are unwrapped. Piles of wrapping paper have filled the living room. You’ve gotten in a few hours of playing with all your new gadgets, and then reality sets in…it’s over Christmas is over. All of that anticipation is over. Time…
God Moved Into the Neighborhood
I love Eugene Peterson’s translation of John 1:14. The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. Every Christmas I sense an urge within me toward a response. God…