There are many crossroads in life that we come to, and New Year’s strikes me as a sort of little crossroads moment where the meandering path of our life, all the days that have come before, brings us to this new day, this new turning of the calendar. At the beginning of a new year we pause alongside the trail of our life’s journey and consider the way forward. As Jeremiah 6:16 says, “Stand by the crossroads and look.” Is the direction in which I’m traveling a good one? Will it bri…

Luke 2:8-20 describes three startling and unexpected visitations. First the shepherds were visited in the most spectacular and awe-inspiring way by a whole heavenly host of angels who proclaimed to them the savior’s birth, and then the shepherds in turn visited Bethlehem to see this sight for themselves and to tell anyone who would listen what had been told to them concerning the child they’d found in the manger. One gets the impression from reading this account that the news of Jesus’ …

What an Incredible Story We Are Living In! (Matthew 1:21; Philippians 2:6-8; Isaiah 9:6; Luke 2:7, 10-12, 52; John 13:5; Matthew 26:39 NIV)

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins…Jesus Christ- King of kings, Lord of lords, Son of God

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,…For to us a child is born, to us a s…

The Christmas story is an old familiar one to most of us, isn’t it? In sermons and Sunday school lessons, Christmas pageants, carols and Bible readings, we have all heard the story loads of times. And besides just hearing the story, sometimes I feel like I have actually seen it. That’s probably because of all of the Christmas cards and nativity scenes I’ve seen that depict the old familiar images of a cozy stable, a newborn wrapped and laid on a bed of hay, awe-struck shepherds, and e…

In this message we dive into the twelfth chapter of John which begins in a very seasonally appropriate way with a Thanksgiving dinner. This Sunday we’ll be studying verses 1-8 of John 12 and thinking deeply about the nature of Christian Thanksgiving. One thing is for sure, a quick survey of all the Bible says on the subject reveals that God often commands His people to thank Him. Why do you think God command us to thank Him? I mean, if I gave you a gift and then immediately demanded that yo…

It has been a few weeks since we were last in the Gospel of John, but this Sunday we’ll be picking things up where we left off in chapter 10. From beginning to end this chapter illustrates powerfully the perfect sovereignty of Jesus. By sovereignty I mean the absolute right of Jesus to do whatever He wills according to His own good pleasure, and the inability of anyone or anything to thwart or even delay the doing of His will. The tenth chapter of John reveals a Jesus who is supreme in…

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

I can still remember the moment when I first understood that Ronald Reagan wasn’t going to be president anymore. I was downstairs in the fellowship hall at the Advent Christian church in Hyattsville, MD. It was 1988, and I was swilling down some punch with a big glob of vanilla ice cream in it. As I sat on the edge of the stage I listened to my Mom and some of her friends talking in the nearby kitchen. There was a little window in the wall between the fellowship hall and the kitchen and thr…

Back in 2010 I was riding my bicycle after dark, when I made an unexpected and violent exit from my normal, day-to-day routine. An enraged dog charged out of nowhere and became entangled with the smoothly whirring operation of my 10-speed, which, in turn, caused me to proceed over the handle bars and land with a sickly thud on the road. The result was a broken collar bone and weeks in a sling.