It is set to be a quiet Christmas in the Challies home. Like so many other families, we had plans for today that have been interrupted by illness. And so we will spend the day—and, I’m sure, enjoy the day—with just the four of us. And as we begin, this prayer is on my lips: On this Christmas Day, my Father, I come to you with a glad heart. Help me to observe the day fitly, with loving remembrance of …
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I was once told of a man who, over the course of his life, had risen from poverty to riches. He had grown up in the most difficult of circumstances, in a setting in which his parents could barely provide for even his most basic needs. But as he came into adulthood, he proved to be a man of unusual talent and founded a business that eventually thrived and made him exceptionally wealthy. And while this man was willing to …
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May the Lord be with you and bless you on this Christmas Eve. Know the Ideal Church. Commit to a Real Church. Here are some practical steps for applying the doctrine of the church to real life. A Real Christmas “As a mother, I wanted to shield my children from the harder parts of the Christmas story in order to create memories untainted by ugly truths. So we focused on singing angels, wondering shepherds and a miraculous star. The familiar …
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Good morning. Grace and peace to you. (Yesterday on the blog: The Way I’ll Be Reading the Bible in 2022) Can You Feel the Incarnation? “I don’t know about you but I cannot grasp that grace of the incarnation.” Chap Bettis offers a neat illustration of it here. When a Good God Seems Far From Good “Have you ever stood before a spiritual fork in the road? One where you know the ‘godly answer’ to your painful circumstances, but there …
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Speaking broadly, there are two approaches to daily Bible-reading: reading for intimacy or reading for familiarity. Intimacy with the Bible comes by slow, meditative reading that focuses on small portions—deep study of books, chapters, and verses. Familiarity with the Bible comes through faster reading of larger portions—the entire sweep of the biblical narrative. Both are perfectly good approaches to the Bible and Christians thrive on a healthy mixture of the two. There is great benefit in knowing the Bible as …
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