Read: James 1:12 Study:  After arriving in Rome, Paul was placed under house arrest.  House arrest in ancient Rome was not like house arrest today. They didn’t have those little ankle monitors. Instead they chained the person under house arrest to a Pretorian Guard. These are the Imperial Guard mentioned here. Paul would have been…

Read: Philippians 2:8-10 Study:  Humility is the theme of Christ throughout the Gospels. God not only humbled God’s self by becoming human, he also set an example of extreme humility by his death on a cross. But in this humble nature, Christ was exalted. Are you living a humble life? In our modern society where…

Read: Isaiah 9:6 Study:  This verse is a perfect example of who the people (especially the disciples) thought Jesus was supposed to be. Everyone expected a king to rise up and lead the Jewish people to the prominence they once held in Jerusalem. They thought the Kingdom of God would be a physical kingdom ruled…

Read: Galatians 4:4-5 Study: The law was a very important part of the Jewish faith. The law was a meant to guide and help people lead a life that reflected God. Over time, the followers of the law became more and more legalistic in their adherence to it. This meant that the law was no…

Read: John 1:14 Study: Merry Christmas! Jesus is God and God is Jesus. Remember that this very same God that breathed life into the clay; this very same God who said, “let there be light”; this very same God who parted the waters and led his people through the desert; it is this same God…

Read: Luke 2:8-20 Study: For many of us, this scene (seen mainly in crèches and Christmas pageants) has a lovely glow about it. But not so much when it happened! Remember that the shepherds were sent to find the newborn king “in a parking garage” (that’s what a first-century stable was), lying on a bed…

Read: John 10:11-16 Study:  Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd” to a culture where the Pharisees and aristocrats often saw shepherds as “uneducated, unsophisticated and unclean” (The Journey: A Season of Reflections). Yet God honored shepherds at Jesus’ birth and Jesus undoubtedly grew up hearing the story. King David himself was a shepherd. And…

Read: Isaiah 40:9-11 Study: Throughout history, humans typically associate triumph with toughness, with superior strength that demolishes whatever stands in its way. Isaiah’s prophetic poem, however, struck a different note. In the poem, the strong, triumphant God bringing salvation does so as a caring shepherd, carrying lambs in his arms and gently guiding ewes who…

Read: Micah 5:1-4 Study: The scribes in Matthew 2:3-6 used today’s reading to tell King Herod and the magi where to seek the Messiah. The prophet Micah wrote about a king who would come from Bethlehem, “shepherd his flock” well, and make his people secure. In Micah’s day, the Assyrian Empire loomed over Israel, and…

Read: Psalm 23:1-6 Study:  David become Israel’s greatest king—but he knew a shepherd’s job description from his own experience. In this Psalm, David portrayed God as his shepherd. He found in God the perfect expression of the qualities he himself had exercised as caregiver to his flock of sheep. News of Jesus’ birth was first…