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 […]

Read This: John 1:1-5 John refers to Jesus as the Word. Why? Because he was writing to Greeks and Jews. Greeks used “the Word” to describe the source of reason and order in the universe. Jews used it to refer to divine power and revelation. John wanted his readers to know the Word is more […]