After Christmas, the church calendar enters twelve days of Epiphany – from Dec. 26 to Jan. 6. The dictionary defines an epiphany as “a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential natur...  Read More

If you are a parent, you no doubt have had times when you wished you could read your child’s mind – to know what they were thinking, to get a glimpse into their heart. We used to play a game where we ...  Read More

So far we've spent the month of December trying to see Christmas through the eyes of the people who actually lived it, and we've learned a lot about God in the process. We see:It is always better to o...  Read More

The story of Jesus saturates the Bible narrative and prophecies of His first Advent are found throughout the Old Testament. One scholar, J. Barton Payne, found as many as 574 verses in the Old Testame...  Read More

Why include John the Baptist in the characters of Christmas? Think back to the beginning of the Christmas story in Luke – it starts with the birth of John the Baptist. The two were cousins. No doubt t...  Read More

Before we leave this story of the Wise Men, the horror in Bethlehem and the escape to Egypt, I have one question for you – how did the Wise Men know to look for the star and follow it to the Messiah? ...  Read More

Gabriel, the angel sent by God to be His messenger and coordinator of all His plans, had one more task to complete the Christmas season.An angel appears to Joseph, again in a dream, letting him know h...  Read More

The story of the Star of Bethlehem appears only in the Book of Matthew. The Gospel tells us that a bright star appeared in the eastern sky when Jesus was born, famously seen by a group of Wise Men.Alt...  Read More

Every story needs a villain, and the Master storyteller doesn’t hold back in the Christmas story. This one has one doozy of a villain – enter King Herod. Pretty sure your Nativity set doesn’t include ...  Read More

Soon after Simeon appears in the Temple to meet Jesus, we are told of an enigmatic prophetess named Anna (Greek form of Hannah) who also happened to be there to witness these events. Anna is described...  Read More

Unlike most popular versions of the Nativity story, Luke’s doesn’t end at the manger, and the three Magi do not appear. Instead, like any Jewish newborn of the day, Jesus is circumcised eight days lat...  Read More

Every year on Christmas Eve my father would grab the family Bible, open it to the Gospel of Luke, and read the Christmas story to seven young children, wide-eyed and rapt with attention. Yes, it was a...  Read More