Today's Reading: Luke 2:1-7A lot of our ideas about the Christmas story have been shaped by our own traditions as well as familiarity with the story. For instance, how many of us haven't been to a Christmas pageant or heard a sermon about the innkeeper who didn't have a vacancy and been exhorted to make sure we have room for Jesus in our lives? (By the way that is an important principle, just not ...  Read More

Today's Reading: Luke 1:67-80This song of Zechariah is often called the Benedictus, which is based on the first words of the song in Latin. The song is filled with Old Testament references that confirm that both the birth and ministry of John and the birth and ministry of Jesus are the fulfillment of God's promises that had been made centuries earlier. This means that the incarnation of Jesus was ...  Read More

Today's Reading: Luke 1:57-66It took a while, but Zechariah finally believed what God had revealed to him 9 months earlier. He demonstrated that belief by confirming that the child was to be named John, and not Zechariah after him. Throughout the Christmas narrative, we are reminded that the kind of belief that God is looking for always requires action on our part. It is always more than just an i...  Read More

Today's Reading: Luke 1:46-56This beautiful song of Mary is known as the Magnificat, which is Latin for "magnify". What is important to note here is that Mary magnifies God, and not herself. In spite of the fact that she has found favor with God and has received Elizabeth's blessing, she acknowledges that she is a sinner who needs a savior (see verse 47).I think that Mary would be appalled at some...  Read More

Today's Reading: Luke 1:39-45When Mary heard from the angel Gabriel that her relative Elizabeth was pregnant, she made the long  journey from Galilees to Judea - probably close to 100 miles - for a visit. I think Mary probably thought that if there was anyone who could understand her experience it had to be Elizabeth, who was also going to have a miraculous birth.Filled with the Holy Spirt, Elizab...  Read More

Today's Reading: Luke 1:26-38Ryan covered this passage in his message last Sunday, so if you want to dig into this some more, take some time to watch or listen to that message.Among the many things that fascinates me about this passage is what a great job Mary's parents must have done in order to develop such maturity and faith in a teenage girl. That challenges me to be doing the same thing in th...  Read More

Today's Reading: Luke 1:5-25There is another miraculous birth that precedes the birth of Jesus. Zechariah and Elizabeth have been barren all their lives and are now beyond child-bearing years (some hints of Abraham and Sarah here). In that culture, not being able to have children was considered to be a curse, which we see clearly in verse 25. But God was about to intervene supernaturally so that t...  Read More

Today's Reading: Matthew 2:19-23Verse 23 is interesting because there is no direct prophecy in the Old Testament that indicates the Messiah would come from Nazareth. In fact, there is some evidence in the New Testament that the people weren't expecting him to come form there. There are several possible explanations, but the most likely, in my opinion, is that Matthew is using Nazareth as a picture...  Read More

Today's Reading: Matthew 2:16-18This passage helps us determine the timing of the visit of the magi. Herod orders all the babies two years old and younger be killed, which was in accordance with the timeline the magi had given him.There is such a contrast between the kind of king that Herod was and Jesus. Herod was so afraid of losing his power that he was willing to murder innocent babies. Contra...  Read More

Today's Reading: Matthew 2:13-15Once again we see that Joseph listens to and obeys God. He takes Mary and Joseph and flees to Egypt. Since Joseph and Mary were poor, it is quite likely that their journey would have been funded from the valuable gifts that the magi had given when they worshiped Jesus. Isn't that just like God!This unlikely flight to Egypt also fulfilled an obscure prophecy of the M...  Read More

Today's Reading: Matthew 2:1-12Even though the visit of the magi likely came about 2 years after the birth of Jesus, because it is traditionally associated with His birth, we're going to include this account in our reading plan.There are a lot of traditions associated with these "wise men" that just aren't true. They were not kings, but rather kind of a cross between and astrologer and astronomer....  Read More

Today's Reading: Matthew 1:18-25A lot of what we'll be reading this Christmas season is so familiar to us that the danger is we'll fail to see the wonder surrounding the birth of Jesus. We could certainly do that here with Joseph.In his culture, having the women he was betrothed to become pregnant before the marriage took place was much more shameful than it is in our culture today. Btu Jacob was ...  Read More