Advent

Advent

Why Did Jesus Come?

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…

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 are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?” “I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of…

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 the ghost. The ghost replies, “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my…

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 how things could be. Biblical hope is an absolute confidence that things really are the way God says they are. Hope is confidence that nothing that happens on the world stage…

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 would come to remove gloom from those who were in anguish. “The people who walked in darkness,” he said, “have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light…

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 important center of early Christianity. Tertullian lived from about A.D. 155 to A.D 240, but his influence continues to reverberate among believers some 2000 years later. Tertullian…

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, or in our darkest thoughts, they bring despair. Two words that carry such anguish that no one can withstand their power … where no hope exists—we are undone.” Have you ever…

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 option but to fight. And so, we have war. Eventually, one nation’s force overwhelms the force of the other nation and the war ends. But the peace that results…

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 came with a powerful message of warning. Watch it carefully: “He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from…

Approaching Bethlehem, Yawning

In the introduction to his Advent devotional, Come, Let Us Adore Him, Paul David Tripp illustrates how familiarity leaves us underwhelmed by the Christmas story. He asks us to imagine that we’ve moved into a new area and decide to take our dog for a walk. On the way, we encounter a beautiful community garden filled with roses. We’re blown away, exhilarated by its beauty.…