Our Advent Devotional begins this Sunday! There’s still time to sign up—click here to sign up on our Christmas devotions page. Our Advent Devotional is a unique and interesting way to journey through the holiday season. Several days each week, you’ll receive an inspirational quote, sermon, story, or Bible reading that highlights an important aspect […]
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George Frideric Handel’s Messiah is one of the most beloved musical works of the western world, playing an especially sentimental role in many people’s Christmas traditions. The libretto of the work, taken directly from the King James Version (KJV) text of 14 books of the Bible, has turned many phrases into memorable, singable, cherished lines […]
It feels like it’s been an especially turbulent year, doesn’t it? To be honest, by the time Christmas season rolls around, most years have started to feel a bit exhausting and overwhelming. As 2016 has rolled on, we’ve been challenged to respond to multiple acts of terror and violence, we’ve slogged through a contentious American […]
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Does the rush of celebrating Christmas get in the way of appreciating its profound meaning? A baby in a manger became the King on the cross. Christmas proclaims the truth of Easter to come. This year seize the significance. Start early. Focus on what matters. [Sign up for the 5-day only Because of Bethlehem free […]
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Christmas is here! Today we remember and celebrate the fulfillment of a promise that God made to humanity many thousands of years ago. Long before Jesus Christ was born in a manger in Bethlehem, God’s prophets predicted the arrival of the Messiah: Isaiah 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son […]
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The story of the gospel as depicted in The Saint John’s Bible (@SaintJohnsBible) frontispiece to the Gospel of Luke: “The Birth of Christ.” Read Luke’s description of the birth of Jesus from Luke 1-2. “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those […]
Chances are you’ll be reading or hearing the Christmas story sometime this week! As a companion to your reading, here’s a timeline that shows where the myriad characters of the Christmas story were during events surrounding the first Christmas (click on the image below to enlarge): (Also available: high-resolution image and PDF.) This visualization traces […]
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December 9, 1965 is when the TV animated special A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered on the CBS network. It has continued to be loved by successive generations for half a century. The pinnacle scene in the program is when Linus recites the Gospel of Luke, second chapter, verses 8 to 14, after which he says, […]
The birth that occurred in the out-of-the-way town of Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago was, of course, of monumental importance and is now recognized internationally as the world-changing event it was. The account of that birth is recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. [See and sign up for any of our free […]
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Now that Advent is here, several of our Christmas devotionals are officially underway! And since they’ve only just started, it’s not too late to sign up for them—see our Christmas Newsletters page to read about and sign up for our Christmas devotions! They include our popular Advent devotional, as well as a new kid-focused devotional […]
Filed under Christmas, Devotionals