Read This: Luke 1:26-35 Mary was a young teen. (Think freshman.) She lived in a small town located near nowhere, and she was a virgin. Like most girls her age, Mary was already engaged to be married. Her future husband was the village carpenter, and the rest of her life was entirely predictable. Until Gabriel, the […]

Read This: Luke 1:5-25 Malachi reads like a dead end to the Old Testament. The Jews are back in Jerusalem but their faith has dried up. Their prophet is dishing out stern rebukes, and when he stops talking . . . the line goes dead. For four hundred years. No angels, no prophets, no messengers, […]

Read This: Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38 When you claim to be somebody you’d better have proof. Especially when it’s someone awaited for thousands of years. Today’s readings feature two lists of names — family trees — both proving Jesus to be who He claims to be.   Matthew was a Jew writing to Jews, […]

Read This: John 1:14-18 We can’t see God. Why? He’s spirit and we can’t see spirit. Plus, God is holy and we are impure. Toss a tissue into a fire and it burns in a flash. Just as fire consumes all that’s flammable, holiness consumes all that’s impure. That’s why we can’t enter His presence. […]

Read This: John 1:6-13 God didn’t slip Jesus into the world on the sly. He sent a herald — someone who shouts the news and proclaims that big things are coming. God even predicted the herald’s arrival centuries earlier (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1).   That herald was John the Baptist.   John the Baptist wasn’t […]