When an angel appears, you can bet that something amazing is going to happen! The amazing certainly took place when the angel Gabriel told Zechariah that he would be having a son. For Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, that dream had died long ago.
Daily Devotion
Daily Devotion
Hope Unwrapped: The Light Revealed
Years ago, a group of us walked through Hezekiah’s tunnel in Jerusalem. In the days of King Hezekiah, it provided water for the city. This tunnel is about a third of a mile long and takes approximately thirty minutes to wade through from one opening to the other, with water mid-thigh deep in some sections.
Hope Unwrapped: “Be a light!”
“Be a light!” That’s what Beth Ann Schaeber said to her three boys every day. Before she dropped them off at a friend’s house or their sporting event or when they walked out the door to go to school, “Be a light!” was the last thing they heard.
Hope Unwrapped: Redeemed
Temptation comes from three sources: The world. The flesh. The devil (Ephesians 2:1-3). While all three of these sources are involved in temptation, one will lead the way. Today, let’s focus on the times when the world takes the lead.
Hope Unwrapped: Experiencing Contentment
One of the first classes I taught at The Bible Chapel was a class on parenting teenagers. Lori and I had two children at the time, both under the age of three. But I had been a middle school teacher, a middle school and high school coach, a youth group leader, and had read a lot of books on parenting, so I was an “expert”, or so I thought. About fifteen minutes into my introduction, I broke into a sweat.
Hope Unwrapped: Walking in Obedience
One writer captures our need to trust God when he writes, “You’re a soul made by God, made for God, and made to need God, which means you were not made to be self-sufficient.”[1] Trusting in ourselves, our achievements, and our accomplishments is a losing proposition. Great men and women of God were people of faith. Abraham trusted God’s leading, even when he didn’t know where he was going.
Hope Unwrapped: Pathway to Trust
Scripture’s call to faith is not an invitation to blind belief. An unsubstantiated belief system is what superstitions are made of. Rather,
Hope Unwrapped: The Rescuer
There is a great story involving Jesus and his disciples that reminds us that even great men and women of God have times of doubt, especially when the storms kick up. Here’s the story from Matthew’s account of Jesus walking on the water and Peter giving it a try.
Hope Unwrapped: Daily Faith
The armor of God includes a shield as an essential piece of equipment. This shield is needed to “extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16). The believer’s shield is not constructed with wood like the ones that the Roman soldiers carried. Our shields are built with faith.
Hope Unwrapped: My Sins Blotted Out
So, what does God do with our sin? I don’t mean to be flippant with that question. I know that my sin separated me from God, and Jesus paid the penalty for my sin on the cross. He took on God’s wrath for sin and satisfied the Father by his amazing work.
Hope Unwrapped: From Filth to Forgiveness
The room was tense as we sat around folding tables in a small room at our church. One person had said something to hurt another person. We were there to make things right—to seek and grant forgiveness. Those are hard meetings, and on this day, forgiveness never came. The exchange was sharp; the emotions were high. After much discussion, prayer, and reading Scripture, one person got up and stormed out of the room. He never set foot in our church again.
Hope Unwrapped: Remorse and Change
Repentance is a word that doesn’t get a lot of positive press these days. We would like to blame it on the times we live in, but honestly, people have had trouble with repentance since Genesis 3. Today, let’s consider what action repentance requires.