It was an ordinary day in a hardscrabble town situated in northern Judea. And then the extraordinary happened to a seemingly simple girl who had grown up in Nazareth, a village of about 400 residents. The place featured a collection of committed Jews by all accounts. That is, the families...

“These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name” (John 20:31). John the Apostle gave us the story of Jesus as he saw it and heard it. He said that he could...

1 Samuel 18:6 says, “And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music.” Joy, joy...

“The voice of my beloved! lo, this—he is coming, Leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills”  (Song of Solomon 2:8) When last had we leapt or jumped or even skipped? Buoyant as a bird or gazelle comes a jumping someone, in our allegorical sense it’s the Christ, resurrected from...

A girl got a song. A carpenter got a dream. A just and loyal old saint got a promise from the Spirit. All of them are part of the Christmas story. And each one shows us something important about the way of God in this world. Let’s first look at...

“So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison....

Sarah laughed. She really couldn’t help herself. She had heard something remarkable; no, she’d heard something impossible. That’s the danger of being an eavesdropper, of trying to satisfy curiosity with the strain of the ear toward a conversation.  In such a case, one can never be quite sure as to...

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord.” Every now and then we just need to let out a good shout unto God. That’s what the writer of Psalm 100 is saying with these verses, and his message was one he directed to “all the earth.” These words, this song of...

Comic relief – this really is an essential part of the Gospel. We should learn to read the Bible with an eye toward understanding how God always gets the last laughs. The tragic reality of what we endure is our own doing. Face this fact, we must. We are all...

Sometimes the doldrums come, and we feel blue. There may be a reason why there maybe not. Discouragement is the unwelcomed guest. Heaviness in the soul can feel like having a gnawing weight on your back bearing down on you! How do we break free? The sheep when they tumble...