God is in the Manger contains daily devotionals from the collected works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for the four weeks of Advent, plus an additional 12 devotionals for the Twelve Days of Christmas and Epiphany. Edited and compiled by Jana Riess, this simple, inexpensive book serves as an excellent resource for the Christmas season.
Month: November 2010
Waiting for Christmas
No season is more associated with waiting than Christmas. We count down the days, planning and preparing to celebrate the holiday with family and friends. We shop until we drop, by and large purchasing gifts we don’t really need with money we don’t really have. We bake and decorate to create an atmosphere that conveys…
Seeking God’s Will?
Perhaps no other question is more frequently asked than how to discover God’s will. Certainly it’s an important question, because God does have a will. If God has a will, then we have a significant responsibility to discover it and live in compliance with it. But before a person goes through the steps of discerning…
Teaching Obedience
The Great Commission of Jesus Christ can be understood in three parts. Make no mistake, its one command, yet it contains three significant elements. Jesus said that we are to make a lifestyle of gospel proclamation. Those who respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ are then to publicly profess faith in Jesus through the…
Breaking Jars
Sandwiched between stories of malice and betrayal we find the account of Mary of Bethany who was noted in the Gospel of Mark by her extravagant gift to Jesus Christ. The first 9 verses of chapter 14 describe the episode this way: 1 It was now two days before the Passover celebration and the Festival of…
Why Give?
During the month of November I’ve been speaking on the subject of giving. That may seem unnatural, given the state of our nation’s economy. Prices are rising as well as unemployment statistics. Giving to not for profit organizations is significantly down from 2009, yet members of our nation’s faith communities continue to be faithful in…
What to Do In Times of Trouble
Back in my days as a Bible beater…err college student…I can recall making fun of preachers who preached from the book of Psalms. “Soft,” I’d think. “Sissies,” I’d judge. “Dumb,” I was. Thankfully I’ve matured a bit, recognizing that the Psalms contain more than gentle musings and platitudes about sheep and sunsets. The Psalms are…
Get Uncomfortable
Acts 10 is the story of two people. The scene opens with a man named Cornelius, a prominent Roman military leader who was compassionate toward others. You get the feel that he was well respected by those who knew him. He was a good man; in fact, one of only five men in the Bible…
