2023 is upon us! Where did the year go? Seems like yesterday we were on the cusp of 2022. For some, time seems to move so fast they are heard to say, “Time is a thief!” Is time really a thief? What is time stealing? Time is a gift from God, owned by God, and…
Have you ever wondered how you could be full of wisdom when the world is full of folly? It just never seems to end, does it? Recently, a foolhardy group of artists posed as construction workers to hang a giant banner on a statue of Christ in Arkansas. The banner read, “God Bless Abortions.”1 Talk…
Over the past decade or so, a new word has made its way into the American vocabulary by means of the advertising industry. It is the word “gifting”. It is an odd word since we already have the word “giving” which had been used in the same way that “gifting” is today. The presumed distinction…
Every year around the first Sunday of the year, I pass out Bible reading schedules to the people of our church. I had it in my head that I did the same thing here on P&D each year, but in searching for it I found the last one was posted at the beginning of 2020.…
We’re almost at the time of year when bloggers start considering their word for the next year. For many, choosing a word for the year replaces a list of resolutions. That one word gives them focus for the year. Christians who do this usually pray about it leading up to the new year and feel…
The neighborhood in which I grew up teemed with kids my age with whom I had great fun, mostly playing backyard, alley, and ballfield sports, where I made many fond memories. But I recall many an occasion after school trying to round up a pickup game, and my buddies would say, “I gotta go to…
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men (Titus 2:11). Every person in the world is within the reach of God’s salvation. No one is beyond having their sins forgiven and obtaining everlasting life. The word “appeared” in our text is the Greek word ἐπιφαίνω/epiphainō. From this word, we get…
Luke 2:8-14 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be…
No doubt you’ve heard the widely repeated story that the Christian celebration of Christmas is a form of syncretism, where the church decided to accommodate the celebration of Christ’s birth to the pre-existing pagan holidays. Commonly cited precedents are either the feast of Saturnalia or the celebration of Sol Invictus. The theory goes that by…
At the perfect time in history, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin to save us from our sins (Gal. 4:4). But not everything we say about this crucial moment in history is true. Here are six such fast facts (or “un-facts”) about the birth of Christ. Did Mary ride…