How many times have you heard or sung this song so far this year? Maybe dozens by now? (Maybe you think, "Too many".) And how many of those times were you struck with the weight of its message? Maybe, like me, not many. The popularity of this song, mixed with its confusing lyrics ("Thou Rod of Jesse"?), can easily hide its rich depth. But let's look again at this song for ...
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A man named Phillip Brooks penned these words in 1868 just three years after the end of the Civil War. He was inspired by a trip he had taken to Israel at the end of 1865 in which he had the great privilege of riding to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and taking part in a worship service that lasted until the Christmas sun broke over the horizon. Philip Brooks was an esteemed p...
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How would you respond if you witnessed the birth of Christ? Such an occurrence would elicit a range of reactions from all believers, but one treasured Christmas carol highlights one of these reactions. O Holy Night sings of the precious night when the son of God was born into this world, eventually to suffer the wrath of God. The carol contains three verses, each emphasizi...
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In the weeks leading up to the Christmas season, my heart began to swell with child-like joy. I could feel it rising. I began to question, Is this ok? Am I just having an emotional high? In Hidden Christmas, Tim Keller writes that "even when you seem to be enjoying something else, God is the actual source of your joy. The thing you love is from him and is lovely because i...
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2 Samuel 24:10-25 But David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly." And when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, "Go and say to ...
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Sermon Passage: Matthew 16:13-20 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son o...
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Sermon Passage: Ephesians 5:22-32 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave him...
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Ephesians 4:11-16 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longe...
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Psalm 130 A Song of Ascents.Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!O Lord, hear my voice!Let your ears be attentiveto the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,O Lord, who could stand?But with you there is forgiveness,that you may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,and in his word I hope;my soul waits for the Lordmore than wa...
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Watch as Pastor Steve Heron shares his thoughts about racial injustice and how to respond to the social unrest in our nation. ...
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