We are still in the feast. While the rest of the culture has dragged the tree to the curb and returned the unwanted sweaters, we know that the Twelve Days are not a countdown to Christmas, but a lingering within it. We are still in Christmastide. The light has come, but it has not yet fully dispensed the shadows. We are moving toward Epiphany, toward the revelation, but we are not there yet. And yet, I feel it. You likely feel it, too. The phantom pressure of January 1st. It hovers at the...

(This post comes from the talented, Pastor Michael Smith... known to us as MDubs) This child isn’t mine. I remember the feeling, the fear, the reeling, Scandal, embarrassment, no hope of concealing that my love, My wife-to-be, had conceived.  And deceived?  How could this be? This child isn’t mine. Head spinning, knees weak, that thought on repeat, She’d just come home - it was barely a week since she’d arrived From three months at her cousin’s and, unpleasant surprise, Visibly pregnant, no...

(A guest post written by my dear friend, the esteemed Laurie Kemhus) Magi from the east, pagan astrologers, sorcerers and wizards. But kings? No. They did appear to be wise, though, because they actually stopped and asked for directions: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” A Star is Born A brand new star appeared in the sky, and God told them why it was there. These foreign magicians remembered the Hebrew prophecies they had studied. Numbers 24:17 “ I see him, but not now; I...