Isaiah 9:2,

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

Where I live Christmastime is cold. Just days ago Minneapolis was wrapped in a frigid blanket of snow 14 inches thick. Though the drab brown city was transfigured into a winter wonderland, every Minneapolitan longed for warmth.

Where I live Christmastime is dark. High up in the northern hemisphere the sun makes his appearance for less than 9 hours and hangs low in the southern sky. When the long dark descends every Minneapolitan longs for light.

Where I live, nature plays out, like a Christmas pageant, a parable of the human condition.

Since the col…

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Buried in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter one is a gospel treasure. That treasure is five women. Their inclusion in the list is notable because it’s a patrilineal genealogy — a record of fathers and sons. Their inclusion is also notable because they were among the most notorious women in biblical history.

Tamar

The first mentioned is Tamar (Matthew 1:3). Remember her? Tamar entered the royal bloodline of the Messiah by disguising herself as a prostitute and seducing her father-in-law, Judah, so he would make her pregnant. Honestly, Judah had it coming because he had denied her justice, but it was an ugly affair all around (see Genesis 38).

Rahab

The second is Rahab (Matthew 1:5…

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If you’ve been a Christian for a number of years or if you grew up where Christmas is traditionally celebrated, the idea that a member of the Godhead became veiled in flesh may have lost its strangeness. It’s Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year! It’s kind Joseph, serene Mary, and incandescent baby Jesus in a manger. It’s a crèche with quaint figurine shepherds, three wise men, sheep, a donkey, and an ox. Oh, and the chubby cherub with the “Gloria” scroll.

Precious baby Jesus; you just want to pick him up and give him a squeeze.

And if you could have, you would have been holding Yahweh who at that moment was upholding you along with the entire universe by the word of his powe…

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Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s. (2 Chronicles 20:15)

The Predicament

In 2 Chronicles 20, the armies of Moab, Ammon, and Edom were on the move. Destination: Jerusalem. These were relatives of the Israel, Moab and Ammon being descendants of Lot and Edom of Esau. But this was no family reunion. This was a slaughter in the making.

These three nations bordered Israel and Judah on the east and south. And since the reigns of David and Solomon, they had off-and-on been subject to the kings of Israel, paying a tribute tax and providing forced labor.

But it had been over 60 years since Solomon’s death, and Israel had split i…

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Most people don’t feel the need to struggle with Descartes over how they can be sure that they exist. And most don’t doubt the existence of the sun. These things are self-authenticating when one sees them.

And so is Jesus Christ.

He is the supreme I am (John 8:58). He is the “sunrise from on high” (Luke 1:78). He is the most self-authenticating Reality that exists.

But he must be seen. And he must be seen with true eyes, for which the eyes in our heads are but copies and shadows. Paul calls them the eyes of the heart in Ephesians 1:18 or the eyes of the mind in 2 Corinthians 4:4. These eyes are designed to see reality, what we call the truth. And they either see truth or, if the god…

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If I take my glasses off the world becomes blurry. In fact, things begin to diffuse at about six inches from my nose and grow more distorted the further away they are. I am very dependent on my corrective lenses to see correctly.

Richard Dawkins believes that this is evidence that there is no Designer. What Designer would make such a crucial organ as the eye so prone to defection?

What about a Designer who designed this defection so that we might see better in a much more important way? There’s more in myopia than meets the eye. I think our defective sight is a parable of a spiritual reality: we must have help to see right.

I think this because of the Designer’s parable of the eye:

Y…

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Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:16)

Do you have a communication gifting? Have others commented on how well you speak or write? Do you find yourself dreaming about using your gifts in ministry? Wonderful! We are praying for more herald-labors in the gospel harvest (Matthew 9:38). Consider it strongly.

But as you consider, consider this:

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. (James 3:1)

When it comes to people being saved, it all hangs on what they believe. So when it comes to teaching, hea…

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America is the most affluent nation in the history of the world. And affluence is at once wonderful and perilous in its potential. Listen to what Michael Ramsden has to say:

Our affluent culture looks for ease in everything. Comfort is prized more than anything else. In his book, The Challenge of Affluence, Professor Avner Offer makes the observation that moral prudence is required in order to build up affluence and wealth. However, affluence gives rise to temptation. Temptation, if not morally recognized and resisted, gives rise to indulgence. Indulgence eats up wealth. Hence, the “rewards of affluence produce the disorders of affluence.” (Finish the Mission, 79)

The rewards of affl…

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Are you struggling with doubts in the middle of painful circumstances? So did John the Baptist. As he sat in Herod Antipas’s prison waiting likely execution, he was afflicted with doubts about Jesus.

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“Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

This was a surprising question coming from John the Baptist.

It’s unclear exactly when John first consciously knew that Jesus was the Son of God, whose way he had come to prepare. The Apostle John quotes him as saying, “I myself did not know him” (John 1:31) around the time he baptized Jesus.

This is remarkable because John’s mother, Elizabeth, had known. She knew because John announced it to her in utero by leapin…

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I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. (John 10:16)

Jesus Christ is hard at work gathering the rest of his sheep that he “bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28) and that are “scattered abroad” (John 11:52). This is the main thing that is happening in the world. All the great geopolitical shifts in the world are connected to this mission. The world doesn’t know it.

But the church on earth, the sheep that are in the fold already, must remember this. It’s what history is all about and it’s why they are still here. It’s why God installs and removes rulers. It’s why economies surge …

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