The passage from Luke 1:46-55 is known as "The Magnificat" or "The Song of Mary."  I like to look at a passage of scripture in context of the contemporary situation.  By "contemporary situation" I am referring to the events, feelings, emotions, stressors, and all other life experiences that are going on at the time.

In this case, Mary was a single unwed teenaged mother-to-be.  As bleak as this situation would be for a girl in the 21st century USA, think of the context around Mary's pregnancy.  Her pregnancy was beyond socially unacceptable -- it could have resulted in punishment up to and including death.

But despite this, Mary is grateful, and has faith that God has selected ...

I'm studying James 1:17-27 for this Sunday's sermon.  It's funny how God gives me experiences that I can use, but I was had heard something recently that got my mind working on this far before this morning.

I was listening to J. Vernon McGee's "Through the Bible" program yesterday on XM as I was driving Princess Rachel to the Triad area& ...

It has been difficult for me to choose a text to preach on this Mother's Day.  I thought I had picked my text a month ago, but God has been tugging me towards these goals:

• I want to suspend Children's Church and have them stay with their mothers in the sanctuary for the message. This of course affects what I preach on and how I tell the story.  I want to tell the children how important mothers are.  Since the people who work in Children's Church are all mothers (well, other than Zakk), I think they would be too ...