What Jesus thought of His birth

For the past several weeks, children around Granbury and the country and the world have been trying to listen in on the private conversations of their parents, hoping to gather hints about what might show up under the Christmas tree. Mostly, their attempts — I think — have been in vain (at least they always […]

Christmas Eve and Good Friday

There is a clear, unmistakable, and critical link between Christmas and Good Friday (Christ’s death). Celebrate Christmas without meditating on the cross, and you will have a Christmas devoid of meaning — all pretty paper, bows, lights, and tinsel, without any real treasure and joy. Christmas without the cross is a meal without the food, […]

Preach the gospel to yourself today

“Preach the gospel to yourself every day,” Jerry Bridges has written and said in numerous contexts. And he means that literally — each new day demands a fresh rehearsal (through the quotation of Scripture) of the essential components of the gospel so that we are reminded each day of our standing before God. In a […]

A little help with Revelation

This week we finish our annual reading through Scripture. We finish in Isaiah and Revelation — perhaps two of the more difficult books to interpret. As someone told me about Revelation yesterday, “I’m having a little trouble understanding what I’m reading.” This is a difficult book, but it is not unintelligible. And several accessible resources […]

Whate’er my God ordains is right

When we are discouraged, despairing, and disappointed with life and God, we need to be reminded of the truth of God’s character and His trustworthiness. He really is a good and gracious God, we need to be reminded. One such encouragement is an older hymn (which, to my knowledge, I’ve never heard sung), entitled, “Whate’er […]

Sunday Leftovers (12/20/09)

The story of the birth of Christ is populated by a broad variety of people who — superficially at least — seemed to have no particularly significant qualifications for their involvement in the story. The credentials for Joseph and Mary are humble at best: poor, young, alone, largely ostracized by family and friends. The shepherds […]

They saw Christmas, Pt. 2

[Continued from yesterday.] Consider two more groups of people who saw that first Christmas, and their kindred spirits who still see Christ today. Two oft-forgotten God-believers are Simeon and Anna (their story is told in Luke 2:22-38 if you wish to refresh your memory about them). There were a number of similarities between these two. […]

Grab bag

Al Mohler has had several thought-provoking posts recently: “Starting Something You Cannot Finish” “An Amazing Article on Abortion…” “The Kindle Experience…” (Would you read an electronic book?) Reflections on Tiger Woods — “The Travail of Tiger Woods” (Mohler) “Hunting Tiger Woods” (Mahaney) “The Seduction of Power — the Tiger Woods Story” (Witherington) “Tiger and the […]

They saw Christmas

If there were people who, though proximate to Jesus’ birth, missed Christmas, examples also abound of those who celebrated Christmas the Christ way. Consider Mary. Though young in years (she was probably a teenager), she was mature in spirit. Luke tells us that she and Zacharias experienced similar angelic revelations (1:5-38). Yet when Zacharias was […]

They missed Christmas, Pt. 2

(Continued from yesterday) There were others that missed that first Christmas. They were two groups of people that should have known Christ — but still chose to ignore Christ. There were the religious leaders. They knew where Christ was to be born (Micah 5:2), but showed no interest in Him when the wise men showed […]

They missed Christmas

They missed Christmas. Oh, they were there. They saw the baby. They heard the cries of joy from the shepherds. They might have heard the testimonies of Anna and Simeon. They heard the story of angelic visits from Joseph and Mary. But they missed Christmas. Take, for instance, the innkeeper. When a teenage couple in […]

The uncommon Word

In my office, literally within arms reach of my desk I have 18-20 English Bibles. That doesn’t count my Bibles at home or in my car, the many versions on my computer, or the hundreds of commentaries on my shelves that also contain English translations of the Scripture. I affirm that having Scripture so readily […]

An Overview of Revelation

Tomorrow in our Bible reading plan we begin reading the final book of the Bible — Revelation. This book, often read, widely speculated about, and frequently puzzled over, is one of the most confusing to more than a few readers. A good guide will help you through this book. And Robert Thomas is just such […]

What could you do…?

Adolphe Monod observes, as D. L. Moody did in a previous generation, that it is unknown just what might be accomplished through the life of an individual wholly committed to God: We have no idea of what we would be able to do if we were completely lost in such total harmony with God; if […]

Sunday Leftovers (12/13/09)

As a child, I was taught what you might call “formula prayers” for bedtime and meals — a prayer that was repeated at each meal and another at each nightfall. The same words were given with the same intonation at the same time each day. It was many years before I felt liberated to pray […]