Click on the image to the right to see the Advent Doodle for Tuesday, December 6. For the last seven years, I have put up an online Advent calendar during the season of Advent. It featured pictures suitable for the season, matched with passages of Scripture. This year, I’m doing an online Advent Calendar once again, but with some exciting new content. I am using Advent Doodles by my wife, Linda. She has a unique ministry of doodling, combining her... Read more
During Christmastime, oops, the holiday season, or, um, whatever, I find it interesting to observe the institutional gyrations as businesses, schools, and governments deal with the challenge of Christmas. Traditionally, of course, “Merry Christmas” prevailed, along with Christmas trees and even nativity scenes. But, in recent years, concerns about the feelings of non-Christian folk have led to the masking or squelching of Christmas celebrations in favor of neutered “holiday happenings.” In my children’s elementary school, for example, we had a... Read more
Click on the image to the right to see the Advent Doodle for Monday, December 5. For the last seven years, I have put up an online Advent calendar during the season of Advent. It featured pictures suitable for the season, matched with passages of Scripture. This year, I’m doing an online Advent Calendar once again, but with some exciting new content. I am using Advent Doodles by my wife, Linda. She has a unique ministry of doodling, combining her... Read more
Advent is like learning to ride a bike. No, you don’t have to wear a helmet. No, there is little risk that you will scrape your elbows. No, you don’t even need training wheels. Actually, I can think of several similarities between Advent and learning to ride a bike. For one thing, neither is really that hard to get into. For another, once you start doing it, whether practicing Advent or riding a bike, it’s something you’ll keep with you... Read more
Click on the image to the right to see the Advent Doodle for Sunday, December 4. For the last seven years, I have put up an online Advent calendar during the season of Advent. It featured pictures suitable for the season, matched with passages of Scripture. This year, I’m doing an online Advent Calendar once again, but with some exciting new content. I am using Advent Doodles by my wife, Linda. She has a unique ministry of doodling, combining her... Read more
Advent Reflection on Forgiveness and Hope Psalm 130:1-8 LORD, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you. Psalm 130:3-4 Psalm 130 begins with a desperate cry for help. The psalmist calls out to God “from the depths of despair” (v. 1). We do not know the exact predicament in which the psalmist found himself, but we do know that it was related to... Read more
Now we have a new challenge to our social order and general peace of mind: people talking to (not on, but to) their phones, their “virtual assistants,” if you will. This problem was highlighted in an article in the New York Times, “Virtual Assistants Raise New Issues of Phone Etiquette” by Nick Wingfield. Here’s is basic issue at hand: The sound of someone gabbing on a cellphone is part of the soundtrack of daily life, and most of us have... Read more
Click on the image to the right to see the Advent Doodle for Saturday, December 3. For the last seven years, I have put up an online Advent calendar during the season of Advent. It featured pictures suitable for the season, matched with passages of Scripture. This year, I’m doing an online Advent Calendar once again, but with some exciting new content. I am using Advent Doodles by my wife, Linda. She has a unique ministry of doodling, combining her... Read more
It’s not uncommon these days to hear pop psychologists, fitness gurus, and even serious scientists claim that exercise helps us think better. There is some connection, it is asserted, between physical exercise and the brain. Now, we are beginning to understand this connection, which supports the notion that exercise actually helps us to think better. A recent article in the New York Times, “How Exercise Benefits the Brain,” Gretchen Reynolds reviews recent scientific studies that demonstrate the connection between physical... Read more
Click on the image to the right to see the Advent doodle for Friday, December 2. For the last seven years, I have put up an online Advent calendar during the season of Advent. It featured pictures suitable for the season, matched with passages of Scripture. This year, I’m doing an online Advent Calendar once again, but with some exciting new content. I am using Advent Doodles by my wife, Linda. She has a unique ministry of doodling, combining her... Read more
Mark D. Roberts
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