Darkened Glass Reflections

Category: Church Calendar: Holy Days and Seasons

  • Triumphal Entry, Worship, Betrayal, and Abandonment

    Triumphal Entry, Worship, Betrayal, and Abandonment

    Christians know the triumphal entry story so well that we can miss the point. We can learn a lot from the disciples because they are terribly human. They are a lot like us. Sometimes, they show us heroic faith that we hope to imitate. At other times, they show us just how badly we can…

  • Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone

    Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone

    Those who fast during Lent reflect on Jesus’ fasting and temptation in the wilderness for 40 days after His baptism in the Jordan River. As Jesus prepared to begin His public ministry, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and ate nothing for 40 days.

  • Transfiguration, Glorification, and the Christian Life

    Transfiguration, Glorification, and the Christian Life

    Perhaps the great lesson of Lent is that we miss out as we continue to devote our time, resources, and energy to trivial things, when God is eager to pour out His blessings upon us and conform us to His likeness. We are His children: may we come to look more like Him as we…

  • Wise Men and Wisdom

    Wise Men and Wisdom

    The flaw of worldly wisdom and common sense is that it focuses on everything that happens “under the sun” and does not recognize its source and focus in God Himself. The pleasures, passions, and purposes we often seek are temporary; a focus on God Himself is eternal.

  • The Blood and the Name of Jesus

    The Blood and the Name of Jesus

    On the eighth day since the birth of Jesus, we commemorate the circumcision of Christ, at which time He was formally given the name “Jesus.” On the eighth day, Jewish boys would be circumcised (Leviticus 12:3), and it is during this ceremony that the baby received his name. One can essentially say that Jesus shed…

  • Shepherds, Wise Men, and Ordinary People

    Shepherds, Wise Men, and Ordinary People

    A nativity scene depicts the main figures in the account of Jesus’ birth together in one location at once. It works as an effective story-telling device. However, the story of Jesus’ birth has become so familiar to most Christians that many of us miss a few key points.

  • Advent, Christmas, and Parallel Universes

    Advent, Christmas, and Parallel Universes

    Christians can often sympathize with the person who travels between parallel universes. We seem to do it all the time. This is most obvious during “the most wonderful time of the year.” Over the next month, we will be bombarded with “holiday savings” ads, Christmas songs on the radio (ranging from “Oh Holy Night” to…

  • A Few Thoughts About the Trinity

    A Few Thoughts About the Trinity

    This is part of walking by faith: We trust God and believe Him to be Who He says He is, even when we do not fully understand it. When I was a small child, I had faith that my mother and father were my parents, long before I learned what that meant or how we…

  • Looking Beyond the Hilltop—John 14:1–7

    Jesus’ promises are most completely fulfilled not in this world, but in heaven. Yes, we receive a foretaste of those blessings now, but our eyes need to grab the bigger picture.

  • The Christian’s True Identity

    How am I known in heaven? Who do I say I am? Who does God say I am? Such questions about identity guide our lives. A person with a distorted, diminished, or deficient understanding of who they are will act on that sense of self-identity. A person who views himself or herself as a “loser”…