By Ruth Tucker Martin Luther and Christmas While walking under the starry sky in a snowy woods just outside Wittenberg on a bright moon-lit night, Martin Luther was so overtaken by the glorious scene that he determined to recreate it inside his home, the Black Cloister. He chopped down a fresh blue spruce, brought it inside and attached lighted candles, their flames reminding him of the lovely stars in the sky. And thus began a long tradition of houses burning... Read more

Today we relight the first two candles of the Advent wreath. The candle of HOPE and the candle of PEACE. Now we light the third candle of Advent. This is the candle of JOY. As the coming of Jesus, our Savior, draws nearer, our joy builds with our anticipation of his birth. From the Book of Isaiah we read the words of our Lord: “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to... Read more

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen. Read more

Thanks to all who have sent me links this week, especially Kris. Thanks, too, to Terri Fullerton for this beautiful rendition of Mary. A beautiful story: The government in my home state of Western Australia has just passed some of the most far-reaching euthanasia laws in the nation, and they are proud.  Gleeful even. There was pushback, notably from one local MP who I know, Nick Goiran, who managed to get changes made in the weeks leading up to the... Read more

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By Mike Glenn A Drop Everything Moment Most of us have used the expression “I dropped everything” to mean when we heard some news, we stopped doing whatever we were doing and tended to some urgent matter. From the way most people use this expression, you would think we have these “drop everything” moments all of time. Yet, honestly, we only have a few moments like this in our entire lives. Most of the time, when we hear some kind... Read more

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Jonathan Moo in Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the Natural World (chapter 5) argues that Israel’s relationship with the land teaches us how to approach God’s good creation. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Gen. 1:28 The command to fill, subdue and rule... Read more

By Andrew Bartlett CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT Scot has been blogging the conclusions of the different chapters of my book Men and Women in Christ.. In response to Scot’s summary of my conclusions on women elders (1 Timothy 3), Tom Harmon commented: The Greek over English? How about the full texts in context? Paul addressed the specific question and answered it directly! Woman not to usurp. I agree with Tom that our understanding should depend upon the full texts in context. Here... Read more

By Kelly Edmiston Women Preachers and News Anchors I’ll never forget my first job as a Youth Pastor in 2006. I had just graduated from college with a social work degree and I moved to Cairo, Egypt as a youth ministry intern at the largest English-speaking Evangelical Church in the Middle East, at the time. After six months in the role, my boss asked me come on staff and I committed to stay for two more years. We developed a... Read more