Posts with the category “liturgical-calendar”

             All four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, give an account of Jesus’ resurrection.  Each one offers some different perspective and detail.  But when we bring the accounts together, w...  Read More

         It was a grim night.  It was a disturbing night.  It was a confusing night.  Grim because death was in the air and everyone seemed to sense that nothing would ever be the same again. Disturbi...  Read More

           In some Bibles, Psalm 70 is called a petition.  And it is.  By my count, there are at least nine different petitions or pleas in this one chapter.  David was asking the LORD to go to work o...  Read More

            Across his sixty-six chapters, Isaiah had much to say about the condition of the world and God’s plans to bring renewal and salvation.  God’s plans would certainly include the redemption o...  Read More

         This Holy Week is a story of faithfulness.  The Father was faithful to create a plan to save the world and to redeem the world from sin and slavery.  The Son was faithful to carry out the Fat...  Read More

            God knows the future. I do not.  You do not.  But God knows what was, what is and what will be.  Coming events do not catch the Lord by surprise.  Past, present and future are all clear an...  Read More

          In chapter nine of his gospel, Luke recorded Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand.  The actual number was likely even higher because Luke 9:14 recorded that the number five thousand represent...  Read More

           There is a poem or writing that I always enjoy this time of year.  Each Advent season, I return to the words of Dr. James Allan Francis who wrote “One Solitary Life.”  This poem is Dr. Fran...  Read More

          We all know from the Christmas story that Joseph was chosen by God to be the earthly father of Jesus.  Imagine being that man!  Joseph was bewildered, overwhelmed even, by what God was askin...  Read More

         We often find God at work in unlikely places.  And the Christmas story makes this truth abundantly clear to us.  God was at work in an ordinary young woman like Mary and a simple carpenter li...  Read More

         Christmas is a time for making memories.  Christmas is also a time for remembering special moments and occasions.  Traditions are often made when someone decides that something was so joyful ...  Read More

         The Bible opens with four powerful words—in the beginning God.  Those four words, or six syllables, are the finest theology that you will find anywhere.  Because God was in the beginning (and...  Read More

        A “No Vacancy” sign can send shivers up the spine of anyone who is in desperate need for a place to spend the night.  I can recall making a long, late-night and early-morning trip of the east ...  Read More

          At our live nativity scene on Saturday night, a number of people noticed the bright and compelling star in the sky that seemed to be directly centered over the scene itself.  Whether it was ...  Read More

            John’s Gospel presents a distinctly different look at Jesus than the other three gospel accounts. While Matthew and Luke begin with words about genealogy, Joseph, Mary and Jesus’ birth and...  Read More

Preparation is an important word in the Advent season.  It is part of our Christmas lexicon.  It seems almost like a command.  We are to prepare our minds, hearts and lives for the coming of Jesus.  T...  Read More

Christmas comes every year  And Christmas is new every year.  It arrives at precisely the same time—December 25th.  But Christmas is an old story.  There are hundreds of Old Testament prophecies about...  Read More

           We now find ourselves in the early days of the Advent season—a season of anticipation and waiting as we prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus.  Advent also reminds us that He will come a...  Read More