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“For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Read Hebrews 12:1-3. Christ knew the glories and splendor of heaven. And yet, He left heaven for earth, and He did so with joy. How can it be that Jesus was delighted to leave the majesty of heaven and come to this broken world in order to do the will of the Father? Though He was counted among the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low; though He was placed in a feeding trough normally reserved for animals; though most of His life was spent in a small town as a humble carpenter; though He had no place to lay His head during His earthly ministry; though He was betrayed by His closest friends; though He was falsely accused and arrested by the religious leaders of His day; though He […]

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Read Isaiah 53:4-9. God made us to reflect His goodness and righteousness to a watching world. But this life of purpose would not be possible if Jesus hadn’t known His purpose. He knew the reason the Father had sent Him. But He also knew that He was both God and man. He was uniquely suited to be the perfect sacrifice we need. We have all sinned and rebelled against our Creator. Not one of us is without scar or blemish. That is why we need a spotless Lamb—a perfect, sinless, beautiful Savior—to die in our place. Because He came as a man, Jesus understands life in our fallen world and the temptations of this world—even though He never sinned. Because He was fully man, He could represent us and take […]

“Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God’” (Hebrews 10:7).  Read Hebrews 10:5-7. In three short verses, Hebrews 10:5-7, the author of Hebrews gives us the Christmas story according to Jesus. You see, Jesus saw Himself as the fulfillment of Psalm 40. That particular psalm tells us that the sacrifices of the Old Testament were never enough to cleanse us from our sins. No matter how many bulls or lambs the people offered to God, the offerings could not deal with the root problem, and so another sacrifice—a better sacrifice—was needed. That is why Jesus said, “I have come to do your will, my God” (Hebrews 10:7; cf. Psalm 40:8). Jesus was born on that first Christmas for a distinct purpose: He came to die as a sacrifice for sins. That is why, in that field outside of Bethlehem, an angel of heaven pierced the night sky […]

“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).  Read Luke 1:26-38. I’ve often wondered what Mary and Joseph would say about Christmas. I imagine that if I had the opportunity to interview Mary, she might say, “I will always remember the agony, pain, and bewilderment of being pregnant when I had not been with a man.” She would probably tell me, “In the midst of this hurt, I remember the comfort that came when the angel Gabriel spoke to me and told me that, of all the women of Israel, I was privileged to carry the Messiah.”   Mary might also share about her visit to the home of her cousin Elizabeth and how John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb at the sound of her voice. She might explain in detail the shepherds’ visit on the night Jesus was born. She might describe the three astronomers from Persia and the gifts […]

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42).   Read Matthew 24:36-51.   To illustrate just how sudden His coming will be, Jesus told three short parables. First, He compared the generation that will be alive for His return to Noah’s generation, which was filled with wickedness, self-indulgence, and complacency. The people had no regard for God’s Word; they mocked Noah as he tried to warn them of coming judgment—and they were taken by surprise when the flood came.   As part of this first picture, Jesus described the separation that will take place between those who love the Lord Jesus and those who merely pretend to be Christians. Two coworkers, two relatives, two next-door neighbors, two roommates—one will go to heaven, the other one will go to hell. Our Savior, who paid for our salvation with His own blood, is warning us that not everyone will be saved. Only those […]

“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near” (Matthew 24:32).   Read Matthew 24:29-35.   Jesus gave us the supreme signs of His return, the things that will take place after the great tribulation: The sun will darken, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavens will be shaken (see Matthew 24:29). You see, though we are prone to forget, God is not only the Creator of the universe but also the sustainer of the universe.   In Hebrews 1:3, we read that Jesus is the one “sustaining all things by his powerful word.” He upholds all the stars and the galaxies by His power. And on the day when, just for one nanosecond, He withholds that sustaining power, you’re going to see thousands of stars pile up in the sky.   While […]

“For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27).   Read Matthew 24:15-28.   In AD 70, Satan instigated the Romans to attack and destroy Jerusalem, the birthplace and epicenter of the Christian faith. As terrible as those days were, they cannot compare to what’s coming next. Jesus revealed to His disciples that just before His return there will be a great tribulation “unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again” (Matthew 24:21). This tribulation is going to encompass the whole globe. No one will be able to escape it. And this will be a great indicator that the return of Christ is near. Now, Jesus also said that no one knows the day of His return. It could be today, or it could be one hundred years from now. Only the Father knows when it will […]

“All these are the beginning of birth pains” (Matthew 24:8).   Read Matthew 24:1-14.   There are many people wondering if we are living in the end times. Believe it or not, Jesus’ disciples also wondered if they were living on the edge of the end of days. They went to their Master and asked, “[W]hat will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3). It was a short question, but Jesus gave a long answer. That’s because the Truth was more complicated than the disciples knew.   You see, the Jewish people believed the Messiah would come only once. Thus, the disciples were wondering when Jesus would declare His global, eternal rule and usher in a new era. But through His answer, Jesus indicated that His visible rule on earth would be in the distant future; it wasn’t going to happen immediately, as the disciples thought. He went on to explain that […]

Read Genesis 35:1-15.   For the believer in Jesus Christ, life goes from disorder to order, from the deep pit to the highest mountain, from disobedience to surrender. We go from power to greater power, from strength to greater strength, from one point of glory to another.   I realize that things don’t always feel this way in the Christian life. Take Jacob, for example. He acts selfishly and dishonestly, but then he has an experience with God and begins to live by faith. Then time goes by, and he gets busy, and suddenly he’s operating out of his own strength again. But then he’s reminded of God’s promises, and his spirit is renewed. Is it any wonder that when we read about Jacob’s life, we see a bit of ourselves?   In Genesis 35, we read that Jacob was reminded of an experience he had had with God some twenty years earlier. God had spoken to him, saying, “Go […]

Read Genesis 33:1-20.   When a person surrenders to God, they are changed on the inside. They are freed from their striving, and they can rest in the goodness of God. As a result, they do not look at the world in the same way again. But this inward change cannot stay on the inside; it must overflow into every relationship.   We see this happen in the life of Jacob. When God appeared to Jacob as he camped on the bank of the Jabbok River, the pair had wrestled till daybreak. In that experience, Jacob surrendered to the Lord, and God changed the patriarch’s name from Jacob to Israel. God touched him, and he was never the same again.   The next day, Jacob finally met Esau. Although Jacob was a very different man from the schemer who had left home twenty years earlier, he still needed to clean up some past business. It didn’t matter how much time […]

Read Genesis 32:1-32.   Jacob was afraid. The entire reason he had fled to his Uncle Laban those many years ago was to escape his brother, Esau, who had threatened his life (see Genesis 27:41-45). Now he was on his way back home with no assurance that Esau’s feelings toward him had changed. So, he tried to buy his brother off. He separated his flocks and herds and counted out a substantial gift for Esau. “For he thought, ‘I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me’” (Genesis 32:20). It was a smart plan, but it was unnecessary. God was with Jacob and was watching over him as He had promised (see Genesis 28:15). No evil thing would come upon him without the Lord’s say-so.   Of course, Jacob didn’t understand that. He let his fears and worries overtake him. But then, in the midst of his […]

Read Genesis 30:25-43.   The word prosperity often has a bad connotation today. When we think of prosperity, we frequently associate it with the prosperity gospel—a false gospel that entices people with promises of wealth and material possessions. Of course, if someone bends their knee to Jesus in order to receive money, then money is their god, not Jesus. And there is no greater tragedy than for a person to neglect the true riches of heaven for the poverty of financial security in this life alone.   With that said, we need to understand that prosperity is a Biblical word. God does, at times, prosper His people with financial and material blessings. He prospered Abraham (see Genesis 12:1-3, 7). He prospered the Israelites (see Acts 13:17). He prospered King David and King Solomon (see 1 Samuel 18:14, 1 Kings 3:11-14). And God also prospered young Jacob.   If you recall, Jacob had gone to work for his Uncle Laban. Laban […]