It seems like now, more than ever, this world is full of distracting noise. I was in New York; when I was in Times Square I noticed this noise more than ever.
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I pray for you the blessing that Paul offers in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
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Hebrews 4:15 [MSG] says that Jesus has “been through weakness and testing, [and] experienced it all—all but the sin.” While Jesus was the perfect Son of God, He experienced it all, indeed, including apparent personal growth.
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We live in a broken world. Nothing seems all together anymore. In the midst of it all, however, God invites us to experience wholeness.
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Was the first Christmas a surprise? The religious leaders at that time scoffed.
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Why did the Magi risk everything? In many ways, these wise men had become holy fools—desperate, compelled, and finally obsessed.
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So profound were the events of the first Christmas that one angel of the Lord wasn’t enough. As soon as the angel finishes his announcement of “good tidings of great joy” to the shepherds of Bethlehem, the lights go up and a choir of hundreds—perhaps thousands—of angels celebrate in song.
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We sometimes forget that Mary and Joseph’s relatives, friends, and neighbors couldn’t understand what was happening in their lives. The same was true for Zechariah and Elizabeth.
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Before the first Christmas, Zechariah finds himself in the presence of the angel Gabriel. Incredibly, Zechariah speaks words of disbelief, only to be told he will be unable to speak another word for nine months.
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The world is often a scary and sad place. People are fighting with words and with weapons.
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Traveling around Christmastime is always crazy. Airport security lines are long, and highways are crowded.
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Did you know that the Christmas promise—the promise of a coming Messiah—was first made thousands of years before Jesus Christ’s birth?
If we miss this, we risk missing the whole point of Christmas.
Did you know there are actually two Christmases? One is the Christmas of commercialism and overeating, overdrinking, and overspending.
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Students of art history may be familiar with the Tree of Jesse. The Tree of Jesse depicts the ancestors of Jesus in the form of a tree.
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In the Christmas carol, Joy to the World we sing, “Let every heart prepare Him room…” What can we do to “prepare Him room” each Christmas?
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Delaying something can make it better and more meaningful in the long run, don’t you think? Having to work for a long period of time to earn something makes it more meaningful when you finally get it.
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During the ongoing crises of 2020, now more than ever God calls us to walk confidently. God wants us to walk confidently in obedience to His calling on our lives.
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Sometimes I meet people who just love to argue. They are not particularly interested in what I have to say, but just make a controversial statement and invite me to defend my position.
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Some people have told me, “But Luis, I get flustered and don’t know what to say when I’m talking to someone about the Good News of Jesus.” I suggest you take a tip from how Jesus handled His conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.
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There is a fascinating account in John chapter 4 in the Bible, of an encounter between Jesus and a woman of Samaria. It seems she was shunned by the other women of the town and had come to the well at a time when there would be no one else there.
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