Joseph returned home from a busy day at the shop. He smelled like cedar with a hint of balsam. Sons of David deserved a table fit for kings. Mary would love it. He could hardly wait to enjoy their first meal around it as a family. Then the unthinkable happened. Joseph hadn’t seen Mary in three months. She had gone to visit her older cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant with […]
Zacharias was an old man (Lk 1.7). A really old man (Lk 1.18). His wife was also, shall he say, “advanced in years.” (That’s a good lesson for godly husbands. We may get old but our wives only “advance in years.”) Having a child at their age was biologically impossible. We could excuse Zacharias for being skeptical. But, God didn’t. Gabriel muted him for nine-plus months (Lk 1.20). Zacharias had […]
“But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be […]
“. . . and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne” (Rev 12.4-5). For nearly 200 years we have loved the […]
For many Christmas is as much about family feuds as it is family feasts. There is no greater family feud than the one at the first Christmas. God slipped into town through the ghetto and Satan stirred in the palace. Herod the Great heard someone Greater had been born (Mt 2.2). And in Bethlehem no less which only added to the Messianic lore (Mt 2.5). There had been pretenders before. […]