Roses of Grace

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!  Last week, we talked about how the holiday season is a good time to remember how far the Lord has brought you . That's not all the remembering you get to do this time of year, though! Christmas is also a time to slow down and think about the Incarnation.  It's a really powerful mystery. We can't understand the full significance of God becoming man—we can't understand the incredible humility Jesus showed in lowering himself so much, the glory of that night, or just how important the Incarnation is for our salvation.  There's a lot to be said about it, and a lot gets said around Christmas time. But right now let's focus on just one aspect of the Incarnation: the prophecies throughout the Old Testament, and how they prove that the Bible is completely true and trustworthy.    The Prophecies You've probably heard them already this Christmas season. Many Messianic prophecies are commonly read this time of year—passages like I...

A few weeks ago, we put up our Christmas tree. It was only a few days after Thanksgiving, which is as it should be—though I'm sure that those of you who start the Christmas season before Thanksgiving are perfectly lovely people regardless. 😉 Anyway, we usually get a live tree from a local farm, and we decorated it with all the ornaments we had in the attic. Looking at the ornaments is one of my favorite things to do. We have such a wide variety of them that it's really entertaining to go through the boxes, and it brings back a lot of old memories—a ballet shoe picture frame ornament that I used to put hand-drawn "art" in, for instance, or the set of silver, pink, and green mushrooms with sparkles on the top.  I'm sure you have ornaments that bring back a lot of memories for you when you look at them, so you know what I'm talking about. And decorating our tree this year was a very interesting experience. It made me think a lot about the traditions around Chri...

One day in ancient Israel, two men went to the temple. These men were very different—one of them was a Pharisee, a renowned teacher of the law, and one of them was a tax collector, a job infamous for its corruption and uncleanness.  If you grew up in the church, you probably know this story. In case you don't know it, I'll quote the rest from Luke 18:11–14:  'The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”' What if, instead of a Pharisee, it was a clean-cut church kid who's been ...

What do you do when you've been hurt by someone you love?  I don't mean when you've been hurt a little by someone you love, like when someone's having a bad day and they snap at you.  What do you do when someone you know consistently hurts you? When your friendship with them is doing you more harm than good?  The world's answer, of course, is to cut them out of your life completely. Friends who hurt you are hastily labeled as "toxic," and you're encouraged to get rid of them ASAP. They aren't worth you. And in extreme cases, that might be right. Sometimes you need to get away from someone for your own safety.  But is that loving? Is that the Christian way to live?  What does the Bible say about loving people who hurt you?  Note: This is something of a sensitive topic, and I've tried to base my thoughts entirely on the Bible to make sure they're as sound as possible, as I usually try to do. However, I want to make it absolutely clear that...

In China, believers meet with fear. The threat of the government storming their church looms over their heads as they worship. Many churches are closed down, their leaders imprisoned. Constant surveillance by the government endangers the lives of any churchgoer. Children and teenagers are not allowed to attend church. In North Korea, anyone suspected of being a Christian is imprisoned in a brutal labor camp where they are starved, tortured, beaten, and worked to death. Their families are often punished in the same way, regardless of their own beliefs. In Nigeria, the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram places the lives of every Christian in danger. Street violence is common. Those who profess faith in Christ run the risk of a swift and brutal murder by Muslim extremists. Persecution is real. Christians who live in dangerous areas like China, North Korea, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and countless other nations face an unimaginable amount of danger and fear every day. Many things that ...

What makes something (or someone) beautiful?  If you ask this question to a variety of people, you'll get a wide variety of answers. Beauty is something that almost all of us think about, and there are many different answers.  There's physical beauty, of course. But beauty ideals have shifted over the years, and focusing on how beautiful you are never helps anything. And everyone has different taste in what's pretty, so it's hard to pin down a definition.  But there's a difference between what the world calls beautiful and what God calls beautiful, and beauty has one purpose: to glorify God.    False beauty (Note: The Bible doesn't specifically say "false beauty" or "true beauty" in the verses I'm citing, but there's definitely a distinction in the ways the word "beauty" is used.) False beauty is what the world calls beauty. And—not much of a surprise—it's a lie. When the world says that a person is beautiful, they usual...

Christian, you're at war.  All around you is a cosmic struggle between good and evil, between the forces of the Lord and the forces of the devil—and this struggle has gone on ever since the world was created.  It's a little intimidating to be at war, to be honest. We'd like to stay safe, living our lives like nothing's going on around us. But it is. Spiritual warfare is real , and it's something we've got to think about.  So what do we know about this war that we've entered into?   This war is active. Ephesians 6:12 says, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places." Notice the wording. Paul specifically uses the word "wrestle" to describe the conflict that we're a part of. Not "oppose." Or "disagree with." Or even "resist," in this context. Wre...

Have you ever been scared? Well even I know the answer to that. Yes. Everyone on this earth has been scared at one point in their lives.  You know what it is like when you are scared. You get nervous, sad, angry, or depressed, but most always you feel helpless. The truth is, though, you basically are. You can’t control things or manipulate it to turn out how you want it to.  Though if you are Christian like me, you know someone who can. God controls how things turn out. That is pretty calming. At least for me. Isaiah says it pretty well: "Do not be afraid, for I am with you." (Isaiah 43:5)   Now let me ask you another question. Have you ever been through scary or hard circumstances? The answer again is yes. Everyone has been through at least one circumstance where they were scared. I have for sure.  Last year I struggled with anxiety badly. Every day was spent fretting and every night spent fearing.  It took almost a whole year until I would not become anxious a...