Matthew 2; Luke 2:39-end When Jesus was 12 years old, his wisdom and understanding of the Scriptures completely amazed the religious leaders of his day. My own daughter will be 12 soon.  She amazes her teachers and is a delight to teach…how much more delightful must it have been for the student Jesus to teach the teachers in those days! If I had a time machine, I would definitely go back to the time when our Lord walked this earth.  To sit at His feet would make everything else pale in comparison.  No trial that I am going through can … Continue reading How He Loves Us

Matthew 1; Luke 2:1-38 The prophets Simeon and Anna saw Jesus as a newborn baby and proclaimed His destiny right there in the temple.  All newborns are special and have a heavenly smell, don’t they?  I have a difficult time imagining our Savior as a helpless newborn…yet He was!  It doesn’t matter what I can or can’t imagine.  Our ways are NOT the Lord’s ways. Today has been a tough day…in fact, this has been a very difficult stretch of time over the past couple of weeks.  I feel somewhat like the captain of a sinking ship.  Yet I remember … Continue reading Staying afloat

Luke 1; John 1:1-14 The miraculous circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth never fail to amaze me.  I can’t even begin to put myself in Mary’s shoes. I only hope I have enough courage to respond to God’s call as Mary did: 8 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” Continue reading Courage like Mary’s

Malachi Today marks the day that I have read the entire Old Testament!  Wow…I feel a bit like the Little Engine that Could.  I chose to take this Bible Reading journey in a chronological way, and I am so glad that I did, because in a way I am walking the journey with the Israelites. I’ve been with them as they were given the covenant with Abraham…as Moses led them out of Egypt…as they repeatedly messed up and then turned back to the Lord.  I was right there when David knocked Goliath out and when Solomon built the temple.  I … Continue reading Milestone!

Nehemiah 11-13; Psalm 126 Nehemiah was not a political person.  He confronted sin in sometimes ostentatious ways: 23 About the same time I realized that some of the men of Judah had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24Furthermore, half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of some other people and could not speak the language of Judah at all. 25 So I confronted them and called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair. I made them swear in the name of God that they would not let their children intermarry with … Continue reading Pulling virtual hair