Epiphany reveals that God’s mercy must never be separated from his glory. Without his majesty, his love becomes mere sentiment. Yet in his compassion lies the power to triumph over sin, death, and all that seeks to destroy us…

The bearer of the winnowing fork has made common cause with the chaff…

The “dividing wall of hostility” has been torn down, but we’ve spent a whole lot of time trying to reassemble its fractured bricks. Still, the One who began tearing down the insider/outsider distinction can be trusted to finish the job He started…

The King sought by the Magi came not just for the chosen, the celebrated, or the deserving, but for the stranger, the outcast, and even the ungodly…

When we pray that God would plant love in us, we’re not asking for a little help from our Friend, we’re asking that God would birth love in us…

God became flesh because the body keeps the score. We need more than a new mindset or an emotional tune-up—we need the One who can make us new…

Every vice in us will be cut off—and let’s be honest, we won’t like it. We love our greed more than we realize; that’s why we cling to it. But take heart, friends: the Judge, who has already borne our judgment, prunes not to condemn but to save…

When Isaiah calls us to “prepare the way of the Lord,” we might be tempted to think we are the change agents. Yet in the very next verse, the prophet reveals that the Lord is the true change agent: “Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill made low…” This means that everything matters, and, thanks be to God, the Lord’s cut-and-fill operation does not depend on us.

*With thanks to Fleming Rutledge for all kinds of inspiration.

“Advent isn’t just about Christmas or the Second Coming—it’s about Christ breaking into the here and now. In a world gripped by conflict and uncertainty, we’re not called to retreat into Hallmark hope but to stand, lift our heads, and believe: our redemption is sure.”

A Lord of Lords Encore