“This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12).   Growing up, I could not wait every year to sit in front of the television and watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” These were two of my favorite Christmas specials, and they still are today. As I got a little older, Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” was added to my list. You know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, whom Dickens described as “a squeezing, wrenching grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner.”  One […]

There are many ways for Christians to “give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). Since we celebrate Thanksgiving this month, let us focus on one of the best ways to witness to the truths of the Gospel – Thanks-Living, by which we demonstrate to the watching world that we are more thankful for the Giver of the gifts than the gifts themselves. Here is one of the best examples in all of sacred Scripture of what Thanks-Living looks like in a child of God. “I heard […]

“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39). Christ’s Favorite Book Did you know that Jesus had a favorite book? Scripture makes it clear that our Lord did indeed have a favorite book — the Old Testament — the “Hebrew Bible” or the “Tanakh” — as evidenced by the fact that He quoted from it and alluded to it numerous times throughout His earthly ministry. The books Jesus quotes from most are Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah.   I must confess that Jesus’ […]

  “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).   We have been looking at how the life of Jesus Christ makes the Gospel both reasonable and desirable. We have seen how the Good News that Jesus declared and demonstrated during His earthly ministry speaks to both the head and the heart of the listener.  Sensitive Mercy In June we saw Christ’s Searching Mercy displayed in His encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4; in […]

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).   We have been looking at how the life of Jesus Christ makes the Gospel both reasonable and desirable. We have seen how the Good News that Jesus declared and demonstrated speaks to both the head and the heart of the listener. We saw His Searching Mercy displayed in His encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4 and His Scandalous Mercy bestowed on the unwanted, sinful woman […]

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).   We saw last month that the good news of the Gospel is both reasonable and desirable. During this cultural moment, it is important that we share Christ through both reason and romance, engaging both heads and hearts with the Truth and Beauty of Jesus. Last month we saw the Searching Mercy of Jesus displayed in His encounter with the woman at the well; this month we will […]

The best way for Christians to get an audience in our cultural moment is by communicating how the good news of the Gospel is not only reasonable, but absolutely desirable. We must share Christ through reason and romance as we engage both the head and the heart with the Truth and Beauty of Jesus. For the next few months, I will share some beautiful biblical stories of how Jesus engaged both the heads and the hearts of those He encountered. The Bible is God’s story about His mission of mercy; Jesus declared that His mission was “to seek and to […]