December 15, 2025
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Here at the Communion table, we gather as wanderers who have come home and are part of God’s forever family: his church.
Articles for tag: Joseph
November 25, 2024
December 1 Application | Was Mary Merry?
We shouldn’t idolize and worship Mary, but we can learn a lot from this faithful servant of God.
November 1, 2022
Vision Without Sight
A Short-Term Mission Trip to a Liberian Orphanage, an ‘Experiment,’ and a 6-Year-Old Blind Girl Named Princess
June 6, 2022
June 12 | Application
"Have you drifted away from the Lord?" David Faust asks. "Have you neglected God, separated yourself from the church, and allowed your faith to wane? It’s not too late to come back."
January 6, 2022
Throwback Thursday: ‘Why Do Preachers Want Crowds?’ (1941)
"We have so long listened to prattle about the sermon being a work of art that we have come to believe it," Joseph H. Dampier wrote in 1941. "The sermon should not be a work of art; it should be a tool and the art should be the work it accomplishes."
December 27, 2021
Our Hope
al, but they did not. However, it wasn’t just the days of Christ’s ministry for which they longed. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses saw a better day in the distance when God’s rule will be restored. Their hope has now become our hope.
December 21, 2020
God’s Ways
By Stuart Powell Have you ever thought you were the last to hear about something important? Why is that? Do you lack influence or political connections? Is your opinion not valued because of your lowly social status? Do you live in the wrong neighborhood? If the emptiness of your life is exposed by these questions, you are in good company. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the
December 7, 2020
Discovery Questions for December 13, 2020
COMPANION RESOURCES Lesson for Dec. 13, 2020: Fulfilled through Love (Matthew 1:18-25; 22:34-40) “The Second Choice” by David Faust (Lesson Application) ________ Study Questions for Groups By Michael C. Mack 1. What from this past week would you like to thank God for? 2. In what way did you bear fruit over the last week? Ask three people—two readers and one reteller—to help. Ask the readers to read Matthew 1:18-25 one after the other, preferably from different Bible versions. Ask the third person to retell the story as if telling it to a group of high school students. Then ask
August 15, 2020
Waiting Is Working
An Ancient Commentary on the Corona Quarantine from Joseph and the Famine By Mark E. Moore The most difficult thing about the coronavirus pandemic has been the quarantine. Call it “stay at home,” call it “shelter in place”—regardless what you call it, it is forced “waiting.” Waiting is hard work. It feels passive, stifling, a waste of time. However, the “waiting room” in God’s healthcare system is where much of the heart surgery takes place. Waiting is where our character is solidified so opportunities can be maximized. There is a pattern for waiting and then working that is as ancient
March 18, 2019
Lesson for March 24, 2019: God Blesses Those Who Forgive (Joseph)
Dr. Mark Scott wrote this treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson. Scott teaches preaching and New Testament at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri. This lesson treatment is published in issue no. 3 (weeks 9-12; March 3–24, 2019) of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ Lesson Text: Genesis 45:1-15; 50:15-21 Lesson Aim: Seek the blessing of healing, which comes through forgiveness ______ By Mark Scott “When deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive. . . . Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future” (Mary Karen Read, last journal entry before being
March 4, 2019
Lesson for March 10, 2019: God Blesses the Repentant (Judah)
Dr. Mark Scott wrote this treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson. Scott teaches preaching and New Testament at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri. This lesson treatment is published in issue no. 3 (weeks 9-12; March 3–24, 2019) of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ Lesson Text: Genesis 37:26, 27; 44:17-34 Lesson Aim: Experience the blessing of God through repentance. ______ By Mark Scott The website for futurologist Leonard Sweet is called “Preach the Story.” The thesis of the website is that in all the little stories of the Bible there is the embedded big story of God’s plan to rescue
December 11, 2018
A Second Coming
(This Communion Meditation originally appeared online in December 2012.) By Lee Magness So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David. . . . He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child (Luke 2:4, 5). As the time approached for him to be taken up, . . . Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). They journeyed to Judea—Joseph closing his shop, Mary pregnant, too pregnant for such a taxing trip. To Bethlehem, with its
December 14, 2017
Irreplaceable
By Doug Redford Every Christmas season a funeral home not far from where I live sets up a nativity scene in the front of its property. Live animals are part of the scene, and the people are represented by wax figurines made by the director of the funeral home. Each includes glass eyes and real hair, and a few (including the baby Jesus) have been sculpted after the likeness of the director”s family members. Just a few days after Christmas in 2002, someone vandalized the nativity set, stealing the Christ child figurine and replacing it with a stuffed monkey. The
July 7, 2017
Kidnapped by the Taliban
By Ron Davis Many Americans were introduced to one of the stories of the Afghanistan war when they saw the 2014 CBS interview of Dr. Dilip Joseph regarding his experience and the book he had just written with James Lund, Kidnapped by the Taliban (Thomas Nelson Publishers). Dr. Joseph was the medical director for Morning Star Development, active in Afghanistan, serving locals with medical care and training. Returning from a mission of mercy, Dr. Joseph and his party were captured by the Taliban and held for several days. Their captors kept them moving constantly, and they were in moment-by-moment fear
A Profoundly Influential Leader
By Ken Idleman One of the contributing factors in maintaining ourselves as a nominally Christian nation is the presence of moral leadership in the White House. Some of our presidents have used their considerable influence to point us to the God of the Bible: George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, to name just a few. Without question, we have been blessed as a people when our most prominent national leader has demonstrated godly convictions and character. Joseph, whose biography is detailed in Genesis 37 to 50, was just such a dynamic and deep
November 28, 2016
Lesson for December 4, 2016: God Promises a Savior (Luke 1:26-38)
Dr. Mark Scott wrote this treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson. Scott teaches preaching and New Testament at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri. This lesson treatment is published in the November 27 issue of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ By Mark Scott One thing that we can take to the bank is that God always keeps his word. He does not make a promise and then fail to keep it, and God could not have made a greater promise to the world than the promise of sending a Savior. During this Christmas season we are studying Luke
The Cup
By J. Michael Shannon The Christian world has long been fascinated with the cup of the Last Supper. One legend says that Joseph of Arimathea took the cup to England. There, it seems to have gotten mixed up with grail legends and become a part of the King Arthur stories. Dozens of churches claim to have the cup. A seventh-century legend says the cup was at one time in a church in Jerusalem. It was described as a two-handled silver chalice. In Genoa, Italy, there is a hexagon-shaped cup made from green glass that some thought was an emerald. In
December 20, 2015
The Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Christmas
By Bob Mink The Christmas season is a special time of year for almost everyone””especially its sights, sounds, and smells. Who doesn”t like the smell of a fresh-cut tree or of cookies baking? Who doesn”t appreciate a “Merry Christmas” greeting or festive holiday music? Who isn”t drawn to the lights and decorations? I enjoy all these at Christmastime every year. And why not? Christians can decorate a tree, bake special cookies, and give gifts all while fully embracing the meaning in the birth of Jesus. And maybe thinking about the sights, sounds, and smells of that first Christmas can make
December 15, 2015
Meditating on Peace: December 15
By Becky Ahlberg Tuesday, December 15 Read Matthew 1:18-25. Joseph is almost a mystery player in the Christmas story. We barely get to know him, and yet he may be the best example we have of someone who put his trust fully in the Lord. He would have had to. In the midst of the shame culture of that day, the events that unfolded with his betrothed Mary would have been excruciating. Another angel said, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife” (v. 20). In the movie The Nativity Story, there is a poignant scene in
December 9, 2015
Meditating on Hope: December 9
By Becky Ahlberg Wednesday, December 9 Start your thoughts this morning reading Romans 5:1-5. Perseverance and character“”these are two strong words, but we usually don”t think of them as the stuff of Christmas. And yet, they are at the heart of it. When you come right down to it, Christmas is a pretty rough story. Think of the cast in this play, and how those two words made Christmas possible: Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, Anna, Simeon, and Christ. For all of them, there could easily be a focus on shame and suffering, and yet each of them experienced and understood
