If you want to spend your time with a complicated study try doing some research on calendars and dating systems. The details of how various cultures have tried to keep a record of time while making adjustments for lunar or solar cycles is mind bending. Natural new beginnings— One thing that seems clear is that […]
In the eighth century before the birth of Jesus, the Jewish prophet Micah predicted, “Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2). Then there are […]
With the weather forecast calling for more snow and near blizzard conditions for later in the day, a local weather forecaster says that only a collision with the sun will keep it from being a white Christmas in West Michigan this year. So far, December has seemed more like January or early February around here. […]
Who hasn’t been frustrated trying to find the perfect Christmas gift? So why bother? Probably for any number of reasons… none of which is more important than giving out of a heart that is once again being warmed by the true meaning of the Christmas story. The Gifts of the King Continued from Christmas Morning […]
Sometimes the best thing about Christmas is the anticipation. When the day actually comes, it passes all too quickly … often leaving warm memories mingled with unrealized hopes and let down. The real Christmas story follows a similar pattern… Continued from Children Waiting Finally Here! After 400 long years, the silence was broken by unkind […]
Over the years, the ethnic relatives of Jesus have not been the only ones to ask, “If Yeshua was the Messiah, where is the peace he was supposed to bring? The prophet Isaiah clearly predicted that in the days of the promised King, ‘They will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning […]
Do you remember how hard it was, as a child, to wait for Christmas? Our parents told us to be good, as if being good as children was possible. Hopes and fears raced through our minds as time slowed to a crawl. Continued from, Freedom to Choose… Children Waiting When the king came looking for […]
One of the ironies of a modern Christmas is that gifts around a tree are at the center of our celebration of an ancient story… a story that begins and ends with a tree-centered gift of immortality (Genesis 1-3; Revelation 22:1-3) Continued from, In the Beginning… Freedom to Choose Hiding in the shadows, a rebel […]
All over the world the story is being told. Around a campfire on the African Savannah, under the star filled skies of the Australian Outback, in the storefronts and meeting halls of Asian and American cities, gravely voices rise and fall with emotion, telling the oldest of stories, phrase by phrase, once again… as if […]
In a provocative article called “How Can the Bible be Authoritative?,” New Testament Scholar and Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright, discusses a problem that many of us have wondered about. In short, the question he raises sounds like this: If the Bible is a God-breathed story written to people living in another time and culture, […]
