In this Advent month, our lesson today celebrates the coming of the gospel to the nations. The tidings of great joy would come to the island of Cyprus. A proconsul would receive the Christ of Christmas and a sorcerer would cry, “Bah, humbug!” In both cases great discernment would be necessary to understand the victory […]
Why do we say that something “rings true”? The expression comes from the way manufacturers would test the quality of metal or glass by striking it and evaluating the sound it makes. Bells can clang with dissonant noise, but it’s better when they chime with pleasant tones. Based on intuition and experience we say things […]
The call to discipleship almost wrecked our lives. It seemed so illogical. Recently married, my wife and I were settling down and enjoying our first jobs, with our first child on the way. We were both raised in Christian homes, attended Christian churches, and met at a Christian college. We assumed our upbringing was all […]
When was the last time holiness came up in your conversation? It’s not a popular topic these days where truth is an abstract thought and purity is a stigma we assign to our grandmothers. It’s an old-fashioned concept that doesn’t inspire today’s culture. Maybe we’ve forgotten about holiness. Or we’ve kept it safely tucked away […]
Jesus said to his disciples, “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). The disciples said to Jesus, “Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). Few things in the Bible are as important as faith in Jesus. Our lessons for this quarter focus on faith—the faith proclaimed by the early church, the example of faith evident in the life […]
