My husband teases that I’m secretly Jewish—me, the preacher’s kid from Oklahoma. I must have some Hebrew roots, he says, considering the mezuzah by our door and the Jewish holidays I make our family celebrate. It’s true. Over the years our family has probably celebrated more Jewish holidays than Christian. We observe Passover each year, […]
MONDAY Reading for Today: John 14:22-31 Revelation 2:1-17 Job 25–26 Hosea 7–8 John 14:22-31 There’s a huge difference between someone coming to visit and someone moving in. It’s not difficult to clean up and be on your best behavior for an hour or two when someone visits. But it’s a different scenario if that person […]
In December we celebrate the incarnation of Christ. Jesus came into the world for many reasons (Luke 19:10; Mark 10:45; Matthew 10:34; 1 Timothy 1:15). But one reason he came into the world was to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Since the church is to continue what Jesus began to do […]
In our land of abundance it’s tempting to eat more than our bodies require and accumulate more possessions than we need. Keep buying new clothes and soon your closet will overflow. Keep acquiring more books and eventually you will run out of shelf space and feel like you live in a library. Keep buying tools […]
Use one or both of these questions to introduce the lesson: 1. The decades since the middle of the 19th century have seen an increased interest in spiritualism. Why do you think these practices have been attractive to people such as Mary Todd Lincoln, Queen Victoria, Heinrich Himmler, William S. Burroughs, and Elvis Presley? What […]
