‍This Advent, we’re giving you a weekly gift from Darrell Johnson’s new devotional, Awaken Wonder: Daily Devotions for Advent. This week’s excerpt, from Week Two: Sunday, invites you to sit with the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth as you continue your Advent journey.

‍This Advent, we’re giving you a weekly gift from Darrell Johnson’s new devotional, Awaken Wonder: Daily Devotions for Advent. This week’s excerpt, from Week One: Sunday, invites you to sit with the story of Mary as you begin your Advent journey.

As disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, as His apprentices, we are regularly encouraged to “Pray the Psalms,” or, “Let the Psalms tutor you in prayer.” Very good advice. For the people of God have for centuries found in the ancient Psalms just the right words to pray in the various circumstances of life.

A couple of years ago now, towards the end of the Covid-19 restrictions, along-time member of a church I once served wrote a very thoughtful letter, lamenting the fact that she was losing the sense of wonder as the Christmas season approached.

I have been asked over the past months, “what are the ten most important books you have read – beyond the Bible – that have kept your soul going over the past fifty years of discipleship and ministry?”

As far as I am concerned there is no more thrilling time of the year to be called to preach than during the Christmas season. I suppose part of the reason is, frankly, sentimental. There simply is no season of the year like the Christmas season: the candles, the music, the decorations, the parties, the food, and, yes, the presents. But without doubt the biggest reason for the thrill is the Story we read, and indwell, and tell, and sing during the Christmas season.

Today we remember that on August 28, 1963, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., before a crowd of some 250,000 people, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his now world-famous 'I Have A Dream' speech.

During the past days and weeks, many believers (and many not-yet believers!) have been praying over the alarming, disarming, disorienting, and for many folks, frightening phenomenon of the coronavirus pandemic, and its associated disease, COVID-19.

I have been asked by various preachers, what I would preach in light of what governments worldwide have been doing to help stop the spread of COVID-19.