December 13, 2020 | John 3:22–31 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Your church may celebrate the season using a traditional Advent wreath embedded with five candles. The wreath is often made of evergreens, which symbolize eternal life. Four of the candles are arranged in a circle, one lit for each Sunday of Advent. The fifth in […]
December 12, 2020 | Luke 15:1–7 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue What does it mean when we say, “The Lord is my shepherd” (Ps. 23:1)? Phillip Keller offers an answer to this question in his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. “This thought alone should stir my spirit, quicken my own sense of awareness, and […]
December 11, 2020 | 1 Corinthians 13 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue “Love Divine, all loves excelling,” begins Charles Wesley’s famous hymn. “Joy of heaven to earth come down / Fix in us thy humble dwelling / All thy faithful mercies crown./ Jesus, thou art all compassion / Pure, unbounded love thou art; / Visit us […]
December 10, 2020 | 1 John 3:11–24 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue During a lockdown in Vietnam to combat the COVID-19 virus, some people had difficulty obtaining enough food. In response, a Ho Chi Minh City businessman set up free “rice ATMs” to help. Anyone who needed it could withdraw (at no cost) one day’s worth […]
December 9, 2020 | John 15:9–17 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue We are living between two Advents: Christ’s birth and His return. How should that affect the way we live? A.W. Tozer answered: “In the midst of our lives, and between the two great mountain peaks of God’s acts in the world, we look back and […]
December 8, 2020 | John 14:23–31 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Do you believe that being a Christian means denying yourself? While this is a basic biblical truth about discipleship, a recent survey revealed that only 36 percent of churchgoers “strongly agreed” with it. Nineteen percent actually “disagreed.” What we may choose to forget is that […]
December 7, 2020 | John 13:1-35 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue The classic Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” celebrates the sacrificial love of its main character, George Bailey. As a young man, George gave up his dreams of success and travel, to stay and help his father and his community. When he almost lost everything, […]
December 6, 2020 | John 3:1-21 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue In China, some parents follow their freshman children to university. They’re allowed to camp nearby for a month in order to help them adjust to life away from home by, for example, cooking their meals or washing their laundry. Tianjin University offers “tents of love” […]
December 5, 2020 | Isaiah 40:25-31 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Forty Roman soldiers in 4th-century Armenia disobeyed the emperor’s order. These brave Christians stood firm, refusing to offer a pagan sacrifice. They were imprisoned and tortured, stripped, and herded onto a frozen pond. Warm baths were offered to anyone who would deny their faith. But […]
December 4, 2020 | Psalm 130 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Do you have biblical hope? The great nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon responded: “When you are cleaned right out, when even the last rusty counterfeit farthing has been emptied out of your pocket and you stand before your God as a wretched, starving and bankrupt beggar, […]