Messiah

Advent: How To Celebrate the Season

Advent is just around the corner (it starts on November 29), and what better way is there to get our minds off of ourselves (or Covid or politics or …) than by cozying in with God as we prepare for the arrival of Jesus as Messiah?

Second Sunday of Advent

Today is Day 8 of our Advent devotional, the second Sunday of Advent, and our focus is on whether Jesus is the Messiah. John the Baptist is languishing in a prison cell, needing some encouragement from Jesus. Many of us may also go through times of doubt in our lives, so we need to understand […]

Mary and Joseph in the Christmas Story

Scripture: “Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.” Luke 2:4,5 NKJV Focus: I will never forget the […]

Elizabeth’s Place in the Christmas Story

“And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, […]

Recapturing Advent!

The time sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas in modern times seems to have been taken over by the retail world. It starts off with a bang on Black Friday (the big shopping event the day after Thanksgiving) and is then measured by how many shopping days are left until Christmas. Newspapers often have the countdown […]

Mary’s Journey

Mary’s Journey by Jane VanOsdol I will never forget the birth of my third child. It was early December, and I was 9 months pregnant with my baby. My second child had been born with a congenital heart defect and died shortly after birth. Although the doctors had assured us that everything was fine with […]