Topic > Christian Beliefs
It’s 2016 Hottest Christmas Gift: A Toy Egg
Six months ago, I would have scoffed at the idea that the most wanted toy for the Christmas season was a toy egg.
Gift of Grace
We can easily get consumed by the activities and extravagance of Christmas. We can also be burdened by the sadness of our situation and emotions. No matter the circumstances, you can lean into Jesus—the best gift we could ever receive—and He will calm your spirit.
God Himself becomes the face of grace in human form
Abstract concepts can be hard to grasp until someone makes it real to us. Like the story of Abraham Lincoln walking miles to return a few pennies to a customer he had shortchanged. It’s a memorable story that embodies the concept of honesty! Today on Discover the Word, we will bring the abstract concept of […]
A Personal Story
A baby just hours old was left in a manger in a Christmas nativity outside a New York church. A young, desperate mother had wrapped him warmly and placed him where he would be discovered. If we are tempted to judge her, we can instead be thankful this baby will now have a chance in life.
This gets personal for me. As an adopted child myself, I have no idea about the circumstances surrounding my birth. But I have never felt abandoned. Of this much I am certain: I have two moms who wanted me to have a chance in life.…
Discover the correlation between Genesis 1 and John 1
Perspective matters, because sometimes it takes multiple viewpoints to make sense of the whole. Today on Discover the Word, we will show the correlation between Genesis chapter one, and John chapter one. At first, God sounds like a “far off” God, until He unexpectedly bursts forth on the scene in the body of a human. […]
An unusual slant to the Christmas story
We all have our favorite Christmas memories, and often it’s a shared story, told from different angles. It’s the same with the various accounts of Jesus’ birth. Each gospel writer tells the same story—but from a different vantage point. Today on Discover the Word, we will discuss an unusual slant to the Christmas narrative. It’s found in the […]
Who Do You Say He Is?
In a 1929 Saturday Evening Post interview, Albert Einstein said, “As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. . . . No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”
The New Testament Scriptures give us other examples of Jesus’s countrymen who sensed there was something special about Him. When Jesus asked His followers, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” they…
Our Covering
When talking about faith in Jesus, we sometimes use words without understanding or explaining them. One of those words is righteous. We say that God has righteousness and that He makes people righteous, but this can be a tough concept to grasp.
The way the word righteousness is pictured in the Chinese language is helpful. It is a combination of two characters. The top word is lamb. The bottom word is me. The lamb covers or is above the person.
When Jesus came to this world, John the Baptist called Him “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John…
One Short Sleep
Henry Durbanville, a Scottish pastor from another era, tells the story of an elderly woman in his parish who lived in a remote part of Scotland. She longed to see the city of Edinburgh, but she was afraid to take the journey because of the long, dark tunnel through which the train had to pass to get there.
One day, however, circumstances compelled her to go to Edinburgh, and as the train sped toward the city, her agitation increased. But before the train reached the tunnel, the woman, worn out with worry, fell fast asleep. When she awoke she had already…
Joseph chose to lay his power down
When Joseph discovered that his fiancée, Mary, was pregnant, ancient Jewish law gave him the option of having her publicly stoned to death. Yet while that was his right, it wasn’t his heart. Today on Discover the Word, we continue the discussion of Joseph’s role in the Christmas story. In a first-century patriarchal world, Joseph had […]
God’s Perfect Plan in My Imperfect Birth Story
I never imagined that I would have to undergo a cesarean section when I was pregnant with my first child. At the time, I was young and healthy.
Are you brave enough to embrace limits?
We often struggle when we’re given rules that limit what we can do. We see boundaries as enemies of our freedom. But today on Discover the Word, the team, and guest Nicole Unice talk about embracing the limits God sets on our life. Is it possible that God’s protection often comes in the form of […]
Are you brave enough to use the “gifts” God gave you?
Have you ever wished you could leave what is safe for what could bring you greater joy? Well, today on Discover the Word, the team is joined by author Nicole Unice to issue a challenge. Are you brave enough to explore new territory—using your personality and gifts to reveal God’s love to a broken world? Join […]
Surround Sound
Walt Disney Studios was the first to introduce a new concept in listening to movies. It was called “stereophonic sound” or surround sound, and it was developed because producers wanted the movie-going audience to hear the music in a new way.
But this wasn’t the first use of “surround sound.” Thousands of years earlier, Nehemiah introduced the idea at the dedication of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem. “I had the leaders of Judah go up on top of the wall,” he explained. “I also assigned two large choirs to give thanks” (Neh. 12:31). The two choirs began at the southern part…
