If we focus on the soul-piercing pain caused by Jesus' response, we will miss the point of what He said. Jesus must be in His Father's house because He must do His Father's will.

Anna’s name means grace. Her witness to the identity of Jesus is an act of grace. It is how God continues to encourage Joseph and Mary that He is with them

Sometimes God delays fulfilling our hope so that we will devote more time to thinking and praying about what we are hoping for. The longer we wait the greater the joy when God fulfills a hoped-for-desire. This seems to be the case for Simeon. His entire life is embodied by what Solomon wrote in Proverbs 13.12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life,”

In Philippians 4.4-9 the apostle Paul exhorts us to make a resolution based on what God has resolved to do for His people, namely: to protect them with His peace. The text itself is a marvel of simplicity. It’s meaning is clear; the language plain. It’s in the application that things get dicey.

Were we to celebrate Christmas in the truest sense we would hold this service at midnight. And when the clock struck twelve a little child would ask: Why is this night different than all other nights? And a grownup, perhaps the child’s grandfather, would answer, This night is different than all other nights because on this night long ago, God did an amazing thing. He sent His Son to be born of a woman wrapped in human skin. And he would read Luke 2.1-20. And then we would break out in singing Joy to the World the Lord is Come!

Advent is an annual reminder that God has remembered His people. Mary's song celebrates the dawn of redeeming grace in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Mary risked everything by saying “Yes” to God. She risked being rejected by Joseph, to whom she was engaged. She risked being rejected by, her family, and her community. More dramatically, she risked death by stoning in order to bear the Son of God. When the power of God overshadows us we are willing to risk our reputation.

The gospel of Luke opens with an overture in the form of a story about a husband and wife chosen by God to play a role in His plan of redemption. And yet, inasmuch as the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth is the overture to the greatest story ever told – for those familiar with the Bible – there is something very familiar about their tale.

Jesus says the truly wise person is one who chooses to build on something solid rather than on the quicksand values of the surrounding culture. The truly wise person understands that a life that is well-built requires more than hearing Jesus words. It means doing them

The seven words we fear the most are the seven words we hope we never hear Jesus say to us: “I never knew you; depart from me.” As if those words are not bad news enough, Jesus adds four more, “you workers of lawlessness.”