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Dec 2018
At Christmastime, perhaps more than at other times of the year, we think about Jesus coming into the world and why He came. So, why did Jesus come into the world? Careful! The answer you give to that question may say more about you than you think! At the most fundamental level, Christ Jesus came to save sinners. He came to teach us about His Father. He came to warn us about a real place called Hell – a place of eternal, perpetual separation from God – and to offer us everlasting......
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December 10, 2018
The Chains We Forge in Life
In A Christmas Carol, Marley’s ghost pays a visit to his old partner in business, Ebenezer Scrooge. Dickens writes: Again, the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain and wrung its shadowy hands. “You...
December 03, 2018
Being About God’s Business
One of the most poignant moments in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has the ghost of Scrooge’s former business partner Jacob Marley paying him and uninvited visit. “You were always a good businessman,” Scrooge tells...
December 22, 2017
Hope is Waiting, Confidently
The Hebrew and Greek words that underlie the English word hope in our Bibles combine two important ideas: waiting and confidence. Biblical hope, as has been said many times, is more than a wish for...
December 21, 2017
When God Makes Everything Right
Dream with me. Dream of the day when God will make everything right. Isaiah 9 looks forward to the true Christmas day, the day the Savior of the world would be born in Bethlehem. He...
December 19, 2017
A Lamp Lit
Tertullian was an early Christian apologist who lived in ancient Carthage, what is now Tunisia. Mary and I spent a few weeks in Tunisia a while back taking in the history and beauty of this...
December 18, 2017
Sisyphus and the One Name
I can think of no darker words than these two: no hope. Craig Biehl called them the two unbearable words. He writes: “Two small words. When heard on the battlefield, in the hospital waiting room,...
December 08, 2017
Peace & Violence
True peace can never exist where violence is present. Like the word ‘peace’ itself, the word ‘violence’ is also multidimensional. When a nation’s safety is threatened by some rogue regime, it’s often left with no...
December 07, 2017
Peace Work
Biblical peace is not only the absence of bad; it’s also the presence of good. It means more than just ‘not’ fighting with my neighbor, but its actively working for his good. John the Baptist...
December 05, 2017
A Mind Stayed – Apprehending the Shalom of God
Peace is, I think, the most elusive of all the things we desire and pursue. Some of the wisest men in the world can’t capture it. The richest among us can’t buy it. The worries...