Blog: December 2023

I don't know about you, but when it comes to prayer I have a tendency to gravitate toward petitions—as if asking were everything.  But the Bible teaches and shows that prayer is so much more than making requests to the Father. Not that there’s anything wrong with making an appeal to God—Jesus teaches us to “ask, seek, knock” (Matthew 7:7), and Paul urges the Philippians to “let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6).  So crying out to the Father and pleading for help and comfort and guidance and peace and healing and correction ...

If there’s anything I can emphasize to encourage you in your spiritual life as we all get our bearings to begin 2024, it would be to keep your Bible reading and prayer connected. The main way the Lord awakens in us an impulse to pray is through his Word.  If you intend to pray, you must be in Scripture.  Think of it:  prayer is talking to God, and the Bible is God talking to us—to people made in his image.  How presumptuous would it be if we tried to carry on a “conversation” with God in which we talk and talk and talk to him, but we fail ...

In 1741, George Frideric Handel famously composed his sacred oratorio, “Messiah,” in less than a month, locked away from all distractions, writing furiously from morning to night. The text of “Messiah” is made up entirely of Scripture—passages like Isaiah 40 (“Comfort my people… prepare the way of the Lord”), Matthew 1:23 (“Emmanuel, God with us”), Isaiah 9:6 (“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”), Luke 2:14 (“Glory to God in the highest”), John 1:29 (“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the ...

In a recent article on “Observing Advent Aright,” Jonathan Gibson notes how the Bible speaks of Jesus’ coming (or advent) in two ways:  his first appearing through his incarnation and birth; and his second coming—the final advent of Christ at the end of time. These two comings are very different from each other, and yet it’s important to keep them connected.  Jesus’ first appearing was, in several ways, obscure and quiet, but his second coming will be public and grand.  The tone of Christ’s first advent is captured by “O Little Town of ...

  31 Days of Prayer -- January 2024 Let’s begin 2024 on our knees!  Below are 31 verses from the Gospel of Matthew—one for each day of January.  Let God’s Word prompt you to pray (whether on your own, or together with family or friends). As you read, be alert to the Spirit’s leading about how to pray—whether praise or thanks or confession or requests.  And those requests may be for yourself, your family, friends/coworkers/classmates, our church, or other people/situations God brings to mind.  In prayer we speak to God, and it is fitting ...

Our two-year Bible reading plan recently took us to Paul’s Letter to the Colossians (that’s if you began this year—and speaking of Bible reading, the plan for 2024-2025 is ready for you to pick up at church, or you can download it near the bottom of this page:  decide now that you will read God’s Word daily in the new year; not planning to read is planning not to read!). In the closing verses of the letter, where Paul shares greetings from various spiritual companions, a verse I’ve zipped by count­less times grabbed my attention:  the ...

In the final chapter of Luke’s Gospel account, we receive insight into how Christ made His resurrection power known. The manner He chose to reveal His newly resurrected body teaches us how we can share and receive His gospel truths in the present day. Since Christians today represent the body of Christ in action, we serve as living, tangible proof of His resurrection power in the world. Just as the earliest followers sought to make His life, death, and resurrection known within their circles, we too must seek to share the gospel with the ...

In our Wednesday prayer gathering, while reading Bible passages and asking God to prompt us to pray in keeping with his Word, we recently took in Psalm 57—a song written by David “when he fled from Saul, in the cave.”  I don’t know about you, but if I were run­ning for my life and hiding in a cave (e.g., 1 Samuel 22:1), I don’t see myself writing poetry!  But God works wonders—including in our hearts amidst the most unexpected and trying circumstances. David cries out, “Be merciful to me, O God” (v 1); “My soul is in the midst of lions” (v ...