Wednesday, December 7 (Suggested Reading: Romans 5:1-5) Because Jesus came, we have hope. Without a holy, loving, righteous God who was willing to be born as a man so long ago, who was so determined to have us that He willingly and personally paid the penalty for us… without Jesus, we would have no hope.

Tuesday, December 6 (Suggested Reading: Isaiah 9:2-7) All that God was yesterday, He still is today, and will be forevermore. In a world where changes seem to be rapid-fire, making us feel insecure and unstable, His constancy sustains and strengthens us.

Monday, December 5 (Suggested reading: Deuteronomy 30:9; Zephaniah 3:14-17) It’s hard to picture the nativity scene without a lullaby being sung. In fact, most of our Christmas carols were written as lullabies for baby Jesus.  Lullabies have been proven to have a soothing and restorative effect on infants and to strengthen the emotional bonds between the…

Sunday, December 4 (Suggested Reading: Revelation 4:1-11 One afternoon as I was driving home from work, the red lights on a school bus several vehicles ahead of me began flashing, and the driver slowed to a stop. I sat and watched as about seven or eight elementary-aged Hispanic children of various shapes and sizes departed…

Saturday, December 3 (Suggested Reading: Psalm 40) The love that God has for us is incomprehensible. It is unlike any human, earthly love that we have ever known. The best part is that the love He has for us is bound up in truth. It is unconditional, eternal, and pure love- love that isn’t based…

Friday, December 2 (Suggested Scripture Reading: John 15:1-11) Two of the biggest news stories to come out this summer were issued by the FDA. First, in August, the United States Health Department issued the announcement that all of that flossing we’ve been griping about doing for so long really isn’t doing as much good as…

Thursday, December 1.(Suggested Scripture: Luke 2:25-32; Isaiah 9:2; John 8:12; Rev. 21:23) A missionary spoke of following a car blindly through the winding roads of a mountainous region.  It was the darkest of night, and the only point of reference she had was the small bit of light from the car in front of her.  The…

Tuesday, November 29 (Suggested Scripture Reading: Psalm 139) In 1982, psychologist Peter Gollwitzer published a book called Symbolic Self-Completion. His work built on social experiments dating back as early as 1933, in which it was discovered that people who speak of their goals and plans to others are less likely to actually achieve them than…

Monday, November 28 (Suggested Scripture Reading: Romans 12) Dr. Helen Roseveare, a medical missionary to West Africa for many years, was the main speaker at a missions conference when I was in college. When I think of the purpose of Advent- to prepare us for the coming of Jesus- I go back to one of…

It’s the same Christmas story that has been told for over 2,000 years. In the Old Testament, we heard it from the perspective of the prophets; in the Gospels, from that of the disciples. Writers have imagined it from the perspectives of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, and even the animals, and the…