Mary offered a little prayer of faith to receive the birth of Christ and the world has never been the same! It’s like a breath of heaven for Christmas! It’s a powerful prayer of submission or abandoning outcomes to God. These days in the Christmas season can be hectic. Many people find their calendars too…
The Christmas gospel shows us how very fun God is. Appreciating the Lord’s fun-natured personality can have a huge positive impact on our life and ministry to others. We expect God to be a judge, holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere present, eternal, and totally loving. But is God really fun? That sounds nice, but it seems…
When we tell Mary’s part in the Christmas story it’s easy to idealize her. It’s as if she had such great faith in the word of the Lord, even as a young woman, that all she needed was God. It was Mary and God, alone in a world of people who scorned her — even…
Christmas isn’t all happy. Trying to make it that way actually diminishes our enjoyment and meaning of this sacred season. Consider the first Christmas. The backdrop is that God’s people go four centuries without hearing a word from God. When God finally speaks, Zechariah (John the Baptist’s father) refuses to believe it and is struck…
To become like Jesus we need to befriend his emotions. It’s important to appreciate that Jesus is a feeler who experiences and expresses deep and vivid emotions about many things in life. Jesus is a feeler? You may disagree with us. Most Christian leaders today seem to. Early in my (Bill) life and ministry, I…
As a mother, I connect with Mary and the emotional ups and downs she experienced in caring for her child Jesus. To prepare for Advent I meditated on Mary’s story recently in my women’s small group. My friend Nancy shared the fruit of her meditation on Mary being “highly favored” by God (Luke 1:28). This…
The light of God on the face of Jesus is what warms our hearts. This is the joy and energy of our lives! Advent is the season to renew and cultivate this vision for Jesus. Kristi shares on how she has been experiencing Jesus’s delight by journeying with Mary and her Magnificat. Join the conversation as Bill unpacks Kristi’s upcoming devotional.
In a few months I’m going to be a “Papa!” Our daughter Jennie is pregnant with a baby girl! This is helping Kristi and me have a fresh and joyful celebration of the birth of Christ. The precious gift of a baby girl reminds me of Jesus’ free gift for you: God is your Abba…
Living in a broken world we so often have a distorted view of God our Father, but Jesus demonstrates that our Abba Father delights in us. What a beautiful gift! God the Father sees you and delights in you as a precious daughter or son! Let’s join Bill and Kristi and receive the love of Abba with open hearts. Their closing meditation will help you jump into Jesus’ arms to experience Abba’s love, grace, and healing!
As Christmas approaches it seems we have to go faster and faster! How can we be unhurried? The traffic keeps getting worse. The lines in the stores keep getting longer. We don’t want to miss out on special events, parties, and gathering with family and friends. We have presents to wrap and food to prepare.…