There is no greater praise than the adoration delivered by Mary as she proclaimed what we call the “Magnificat.” Found in Luke 1:46-55, the Magnificat reveals the depth of why Mary declares her praise of God, and it is both personal and historic...
The wise men gave Jesus the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Each of these three gifts correspond to aspects of Jesus’s identity and redemptive mission in the world. The gold is symbolic of Jesus’s royalty. Jesus wasn’t the King of an earthly...
First Samuel 1 tells the story of Hannah, who is ridiculed by her husband’s other wife (Peninah) because she can’t have children. It’s likely that the only reason her husband (Elkanah) has a second wife is because Hannah...
Psalms 74 and 75 speak to one another. In Psalm 74 we hear a desperate cry for help. The unthinkable happened when the Babylonians destroyed the Jerusalem temple. The psalmist in Psalms 74 says, Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting...
Too often I pause and consider the state of affairs in the world and wonder, How in the world did we end up here? How did things become such a mess? Similarly, there are times in my life when I look at the mess that I’ve created for myself and...
Psalm 15 is a temple entrance liturgy. It begins with the twofold question, “O, Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” This is an important question. In other words, the psalmist is asking, “What kind of person is...
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. — Matthew 1:1 It’s not by accident that Matthew’s Gospel is the first of four in the New Testament. This is by design. The book of Matthew—as the first book of the New...
Sept 13, 2020
Sept 14, 2020