With his one good arm the decaying man hoisted himself up from his slumber. “O Come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant…” the humble choir sang. A sparkle now seemed to fall upon his eyes. This dying man was looking upon a victory march. Perhaps his own. “O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ...

One of the exciting things about Advent in our home is the toy nativity set we pull out of storage each year. Our four boys will play with the pieces, connecting palm trees to the side of the stable, in-between grazing hills and watering holes, but one spot always gets the most attention. A somewhat translucent baby Jesus sits...

One of the scary facts about life is that a bad leader can greatly damage to a nation and its people. People don’t want their lives in the hands of people who don’t know their needs and seem only out to help themselves! The book of Ezekiel chronicles the horrific consequences of Israel’s bad leadership. Israel had been taken...

One evening, out in the fields of Roman-occupied Judah, some shepherds witnessed a great, glorious event—the angelic birth announcement of the King of kings. The appearing angel said: “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born...

We’ve all been there. A babies or toddlers leader calls in sick and we need to jump in and teach a session at the last minute, or we hand a leader guide to someone and say, “Go get ‘em!” Teaching babies and toddlers the gospel is a weighty responsibility that deserves as much prep time as possible; however, life doesn’t always...

What do you think of at Christmastime? Undoubtedly, if you’re a Christian, you’ll be thinking about the birth of Jesus. But there’s also the “stuff” of celebrating to consider: food to prepare, presents to purchase, and parties to plan. These things are good, of course. But they can sometimes get in the way or take our focus off of...