delighting in the names of Jesus

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A few of you may remember the Advent devotional I created a couple of years ago called “Christ the Lord.” It included twenty-four short devotionals and their corresponding Bible readings regarding twenty-four different titles of the Messiah used in the Scriptures.

It was a joy to meditate on the significance of some of the many, many names used to describe my Jesus as I wrote that study. Then, this past February, I spent two lovely weeks meditating on Him in the very places He walked in the Holy Land. It’s so easy to get caught up in the distractions and overwhelm of everyday life, but these short times of simply delighting in Jesus have been oases of spiritual riches in a couple of rather difficult years.

Those oases inspired me to create something that, maybe, can recapture a taste of those riches and bring us back toward that rest. I’ve bound all twenty-four studies on all twenty-four names of Jesus into a beautiful softcover photo book filled with some of my favorite photographs of the Holy Land - just in time for another journey into the Advent season, but also perfect for any time you need to re-center yourself on who Jesus is and what He has done. It would make a lovely gift, too. In the back, there’s a directory of exactly where in Israel each photograph was taken so that you can take a miniature tour of the Land within these pages.

If you’d like to have one, you can purchase your copy here. I hope it blesses you.

Note: Any proceeds from this devotional will be attributed to the costs involved with keeping this blog up and running.

your wait isn't wasted (an advent devotional)

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Behold, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash; those who are tall in stature will be cut down and those who are lofty will be abased. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

Isaiah 10:33-34

It’s the beginning of the Advent season, and maybe you’re wondering if I missed the memo, or opened up my Bible to the wrong chapter. I admit: these don’t sound like Advent verses.

A wrathful, axe-wielding God is not the God I often reflect on in the days leading up to His greatest and most sacrificial gift.

No, I’m far quicker to open my Bible to the joyous prophecies, the most obvious reminders of God’s love and grace and faithfulness. And indeed, when I set out to write this Advent devotional, I intended to start here instead:

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Isaiah 11:1-2

However, I couldn’t fully quiet the nagging voice of my inner Bible scholar, reciting to me the first three rules of excellent Biblical study: Context, context, and context. Chapter 11 of Isaiah begins with the word then – an adverb meaning “next” or “after that,” which begs us to ask the question, “After what?”

And our search for the answer leads us backward, to the end of Isaiah chapter 10, with those verses that don’t really sound like Advent verses.

If you find yourself in a painful season of waiting rather than a joyful one this Advent season, I hope you’ll read the rest of this post over at Living Free Indeed! (click here)

I was honored to share what God has been teaching me on Dani’s website. She has created some excellent Biblical resources that I hope you’ll check out.