How is it going with your preparations for Christmas? Do you decorate your house inside and out? Do you have a tree up and decorated? Have you finished your Christmas shopping? Have you started? Preparations come with anticipation. The point of preparations is that...
Can you believe it’s December already? Retailers started stocking their shelves with decorations a couple of months earlier. People everywhere are recalling and replaying Christmas traditions from Black Friday shopping to adorning their homes with lights and a variety...
One of my favorite activities to do the week of Thanksgiving is to watch movies with a Christmas theme. Hallmark produces most of the movies I choose. There are more choices than time to watch them all, but the commonality between them reminds me of the similarities...
Do you always say what you mean? The answer for the vast majority of us is no. Even the most literal person is apt to offer a partial truth to flatter someone or to shorten a conversation. We say things we don’t mean. We don’t say things we mean. And too often we’re...
In this week's reading from Woman of Words, Matthew and Mary argue about him gathering stories during her time in Bethlehem for her grandson's birth. When Mary returned and Matthew proudly shared his accomplishments, Mary dismissed him. She would find someone else to...
In our companion book for this series, A Woman of Words, Matthew experiences a revelation. The story of Yeshua did not begin with His birth. You and I know Jesus was with God at the beginning. But this revelation doesn’t come to us because we’re smarter or better...
In this week’s reading assignment from our companion book, A Woman of Words, Angela Hunt references several familiar stories from scripture. Mary, Yeshua’s mother, recalls the signs along the way pointing towards the truth about her Son. Just as Jesus was both human...
A high-rise tower hit by Israeli forces in Gaza City, October 2023 Credit: Ashraf Amra / Reuters War in the Middle East is sadly becoming a cliché. But the horror suffered by victims when brutally attacked this past Saturday is not just another senseless attempt at...
Last week, we explored some factors that can cause us to feel unworthy to be called by God to do particular tasks or to take on a challenge. We discovered that feelings of unworthiness often surface when our actions contradict our values. As believers, we strive to...
Welcome to the first episode of our new worship series, Words. Each week there is a reading assignment in our companion book, Woman of Words, by Angela Hunt. You don't have to read with us. I'll summarize the chapters and point out references to Bible stories. We...