Articles

The familiar Christmas story tells us that Jesus was conceived in a human mother without any human father—that He was conceived by “the power of the Most High” (Luke 1:35). Many modern people object that such an event is an impossibility. Even some Christians attempt to downplay the importance of Mary’s virginity in the Gospel accounts.

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In Isaiah 57:20–21, God tells us,

  “The wicked are like the tossing sea;
 for it cannot be quiet,
 and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

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When Christians tell about God’s mercies to them, it provides tremendous encouragement to others who are seeking to live by faith. In Psalm 34:6, we find just such a testimony: “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.” Three brief observations about this verse will serve as helpful reminders for our Christian walk.

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Psalm 145 is the only psalm that, in the original Hebrew, has the heading tehillah, which means simply “a psalm” or, more plainly, “a praise.” It is also the last of David’s psalms—and in some ways, it seems to gather together all of David’s experience of God to express his thanksgiving and adoration:

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Dear Friend,

“All good gifts around us are sent from heav’n above;
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all His love.”

These words are the refrain of my favorite harvest Thanksgiving hymn. It reminds us that while the farmer sows the seeds, we have God to thank, because it is He who “sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain, the breezes and the sunshine, and soft, refreshing rain.”

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When Paul expresses his thanks to God in the opening verses of Colossians, he says that he does so “always” (Col. 1:3). His gratitude, in other words, was not a temporary feeling but a consistent habit. Moreover, he was in no doubt about whom he should thank: “We always thank God.” The Lord, he acknowledges, is worthy of all the glory of gratitude, for He is ultimately responsible for everything good we receive.

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Faithful pastors often remind their flocks, “The church is not a building. The church is the people.” That is a true and important reminder. Yet it is also true that the New Testament frequently refers to the church as just that: a building—that is, that the people themselves are like a building on which God has broken ground and is constantly working.

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The book of Proverbs is timeless. Thousands of years after it was written, its practical precepts are still relevant. Men and women continue to face the perplexities of human existence, trapped between the apparent futility of life as we know it and the promise of life as we long to know it. What we hope to be and what we actually are is separated by a large chasm.

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A Chicago Tribune article published in 1991 reported an astonishing study: At the time, the American Association for the Advancement of Science said of humanity, “Proficiency at lying may be the best measure of advancement, with primates much more adept at it than other mammals and human beings the most masterful liars on the planet.”¹ Proficiency in lying, the Association reasoned, is the best measure of our progress as a people. We are what we are because of our ability to deceive, perjure, and distort the truth.

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