During his life Augustus Caesar was the most powerful man in the history of the world – a man who used his supreme power to subjugate his enemies and enforce a sterile peace throughout his dominion. Into this context of oppression and cruelty, a baby was born in...
The God who created the world also sustains the world. And because he is the sovereign Lord of nature, he can personally guarantee that no power in the natural world can overcome those who trust in him. He does this by promising that he will use his strength to give...
The message of the angel to Joseph that his pregnant wife's child had been given to her by the gifting of the Holy Spirit was as perplexing to him as it is to contemporary westerners. How can such a thing that never happens, happen? But if God is God, and if he...
If God is the creator, and human idolatry is our attempt to manufacture something that can take his place, then the fact that those idols are reflections of their maker – us! – completely undermines their ability to rescue us. Instead, God promises his...
John the Baptist, in prison and about to die, struggles to reconcile his current experience with his prior beliefs about Jesus the Messiah and the imminent arrival of his kingdom. Jesus, however, reminds John of who he is and what he does, encouraging John to trust...
Isaiah promises Judah that God is committed to his project of redeeming them, and the guarantee that God is able to fulfill this promise is that as creator he is wiser and greater than all humans and thus alone is able to accomplish what he sets out to do. Readings...
