SCRIPTURE: Job 11-14 “So commit yourself to God completely. Reach out your hands to him for help. Get rid of all of the sin you have. Don’t let anything that is evil stay in your tent. Then you can face others without feeling any shame. You can stand firm without being afraid.” (Job 11:13-15) Zophar has God…
Author: Norm
Other stories about Jesus’ childhood
MUB says in his comment: “We don’t get a lot of press coverage as to Jesus earlier life. We hear about his birth, and then this story when he was 12. The biographers tend to cover his years of ministry, when he was about 30.” There are other about Jesus’ childhood, stories from later centuries…
Human just like Him!
SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:41-52 He was sitting with the teachers. He was listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at how much he understood. (Luke 2:46-47) Was Jesus a prodigy, with a higher IQ than others… because He was God? We often think that because of Jesus divine origins, He was wiser,…
A powerful vision in song!
This song pictures the great multitude of those who will enter God’s eternal kingdom (see Revelation 7:14). We will all be singing then… but for now it is a joy to here these men sing. I went to school with the fourth guy who sings – second from left in the grey suit – Kevin Pauls….
Confident, no matter what
SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:33-40 Remember how the angel told Mary she was specially favoured by God (Luke 1:28)? Compare that with what Simeon says, “A sword will wound your own soul too.” (Luke 2:35) If this is what it means to be favoured, then who would want it? Or what about Anna, a deeply spiritual, pious lady, widowed for…
Rest in peace
SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:25-32 “Now let me, your servant, go in peace.” (Luke 2:29) St. Augustine once said, ‘Our hearts find no rest until they rest in God!’ Like Simeon, we are rest-less until we experience God’s love through Jesus. The Holy Spirit is at work in us too, prompting us to look for God and Jesus. Some…
Set free from the curse of the Law
SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:21-24 Circumcision symbolized the bond between God and Abraham’s family (passed through the male seed). A new mother giving birth to a son was unclean for 7 days; for a daughter it was 14 days (Leviticus 12). After a cleansing time (33 days for a boy, 66 for a girl), the family presented the child…
Persecuted for passion!
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 69 Have you ever been ridiculed for your commitment to God and Jesus? I have not, except one incident from my childhood, teased by my friend for going to church. David is zealously committed to God, yet people (even family and friends) laugh at him. When he struggles, they mock him, ‘let your God…
So right, yet so wrong?
SCRIPTURE: Job 4-10 After the Lord finished speaking to Job, he spoke to Eliphaz the Temanite. He said, “I am angry with you and your two friends. You have not said what is true about me, as my servant Job has. (Job 42:7) Before we go on, we need to hear what God says to Job’s friends….
Like Scrooge McDuck
SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:15-20 “Like a secret treasure in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) I like this line, it describes something I’ve felt before. I’ve had secret treasures that were not good in my heart. But I’ve also experienced God’s loving forgiveness deep in my heart. Deep down feelings, bubbling inside of me, good and bad. Though I sometimes…