Many years ago I taught a Bible study entitled “Christ BC” (Christ Before Christ). It was a beautiful study of Jesus found in 12 or 13 people and events in the Old Testament. I was reminded of that study today as I read a challenge to look for the phrase “this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet,” or similar phrases in the Gospel of Matthew. Mind officially blown.
Are you ready for an Advent challenge? In Timothy Keller’s book Jesus the King, he explains, “When I went through confirmation classes in my church, I had to memorize Scripture. But during college the Bible came alive in a way that was hard to describe…”
Simeon is often left out of the Christmas story. He did not visit baby Jesus in the manger. He received no visit from angels. He did not arrive with gifts…
The magi (sometimes referred to as the “wise men” or the “three kings”) are a mysterious bunch. Although we are not given many details about them, Matthew (the only biblical…
Many years ago, I shared a house for a time with my youngest brother and sister. During that time my brother got a job with a local company that manufactured…
We just don’t know a lot about Mary, the young woman who would become the mother of Jesus. We assume from historical records that she was fairly young, perhaps 14 or 15 years old, since that was the age when most young girls became engaged.
When Joseph and Mary brought their infant son Jesus to the temple eight days after His birth, they were greeted by two people about whom we know very little—other than the fact that they were at the temple.
Imagine the first Christmas through the eyes of Joseph. A young carpenter in small-town Nazareth, his life was turned upside down when he discovered the woman he planned to marry…
What relevance do the genealogies of Jesus have for believers today? We’ve all done it. We open our Bible to Matthew 1 and settle down to begin our reading plan…
Most commentators suggest that these words were not included in the model prayer given by Jesus and recorded in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. Albert Mohler explains, “As a result of studying ancient manuscripts, scholars now believe with some certainty that these words were probably a later addition to the Lord’s Prayer. Since the Lord’s Prayer seems to end rather abruptly, Christians in the early church added a doxology to the end of the prayer so as to give God the final word of praise in corporate worship settings.”[1]