sleonard

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. -Matthew 26:11 Perhaps Christmas is a day your mind is focused on family rather than the poor; then again, maybe you really are thinking of the poor and serving them on a day like today. »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.’ -Luke 2:13-14 Can you picture the fictionalized “angels of Director Aronofsky’s movie Noah appearing to the shepherds »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“And she gave birth to her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. -Luke 2:7 It was the most important birth ever! Mary had traveled a lot of miles in this journey even »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ -Luke 1:38 She was a major part of the incarnation. After the baby who was called Immanuel, meaning “God with us, truly God in flesh, Mary was THE central part. »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse of utter destruction. »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. -Psalm 50:1-2 The words of this title today come from the most famous verse of Psalm 50, made more famous »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. -Romans 13:1-2 This is being written before »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood... -Revelation 1:5 “Keep yourselves in the love of God. -Jude 21 What is wrong with Jesus telling you He loves you? Is this a stupid question or does it point accurately to a problem with »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. -Acts 9:1-2 »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them...Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, Lord, have helped me and »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. -Romans 10:11 When my oldest daughter was two years old, she and I were playing hide and seek in the walled back yard of our Edinburgh, Scotland home. It was her turn to hide, and she couldn’t find a »

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. -2 Corinthians 7:10 My good friend Bob Petterson has written a fascinating book, The One Year Book of Amazing Stories. His very first story is set in Germany in the winter of 1894 »