It’s Christmas Eve 2021 as I write this column. Naturally, the Nativity is on my mind. Let’s read together the brief account in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 1, verses 18-25. I’ll share a few thoughts as we go. 18 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” Mary was “found [to be] with child.” The child was not Joseph’s. He and Mary were…
The religious and political upper crust of first century Jewish society thought that they were finally getting just what they’d been wanting for ages. Money had changed hands. A secret arrest had been made. The man at the top of Jerusalem’s ‘most wanted’ list could not rightly be called public enemy number one, because he wasn’t an enemy of the public—just a threat to the power structure. But he had been hauled in and now stood bound before them. After the skullduggery it had taken…
Have you ever contributed items for inclusion in a time capsule or been in attendance when one is placed or opened? If not, have you watched or read stories about the discovery or planned exhumation of a time capsule on an anniversary date or at the expiration of a specified interval? What most intrigued or inspired you about the experience? What sparked your curiosity or fueled your imagination? As everyone knows, a time capsule cannot be swallowed and does not contain any time. It…
If I did not know Jesus Christ and did not expect Him to return for me and for all who trust in Him, I would not, could not know love, peace, joy and hope. I would know crushing disappointment, seething hatred, suffocating panic, and utter despair. Think about a Christ-less world for two minutes. What do you see? Your very existence the result of an inexplicable series of accidents, a product of random chance, without meaning, purpose or intrinsic value. No answer to existential…