Christmas Luke 2:6–7 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Stables, buildings used for the shelter and feeding of animals such…

Fourth Sunday of Advent Psalm 63:3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.  In Psalm 63, the psalmist confesses his longing for God’s presence in his life. He knows that a close personal relationship with God will offer a joy not found anywhere else. Why? God is love. There is…

Third Sunday of Advent Psalm 95:1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.  Joy is a feeling of great happiness or delight. How do we find joy in a world that is filled with the problems that we all face on a daily…

Second Sunday of Advent Matthew 1:16 …and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. Genealogy involves tracing the lineages of families. It is most often used to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. Look at your family tree and marvel…

First Sunday of Advent Psalm 33:22 May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you. We all hope for something—something expected to happen, or something longed for to happen, or something surprising to happen. During this time of Advent, we expect the birth of the Christ-child because we…

Have you ever asked the questions: What is my purpose? Why was I born? Will my life ever amount to something worthwhile? Most of us would probably answer that we have not only asked these questions but also have pondered them the majority of our lives. We seem to spend an inordinate amount of time…

In our world today, many do not feel protected, and the most vulnerable of society often feel abandoned. Even through the efforts of law enforcement, neighborhood watch programs, and advocate groups, there is still crime, child and elder abuse, hunger, homelessness, and various other disastrous social conditions that leave us overwhelmed and plagued with confusion…

In the world today, it is often difficult to find unity among groups with differing religious beliefs, political views, or family values. But unity in its simplest definition is that of coherence, a balanced integration of diverse elements into one unit. The unit can be defined as family, the workplace, community, or society as a…

Unforgiveness is a cancer that holds us hostage for a long time. It leaves us in spiritual desolation by robbing us of the joy in our lives. When we do not forgive others, we attach ourselves to that hurt and pain, and it continues to weaken and damage our spirit. Forgiving someone for the harm…

In the simplest terms, surrender means to cease resistance. In other words, when we continue making the same decisions with the same results, while expecting different results, we often resist the consideration of another way. And when we resist other possibilities, we limit our choices. For most of us, surrender is a process that often…