COV LIFE BLOG

Psalm 44 – Remembering God When You Can’t Understand Suffering

The older we get, the more we are inclined to start talking about “the good old days.” The writer of this psalm must have been listening to such a discussion, because he writes, “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, the deeds You did in their days, in days […]

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Posted on: January 15, 2021 - 1:00PM

Luke 2:25-35 – Songs of Advent – Simeon’s Song

Then Simeon calls him “a light of revelation for the Gentiles.” Here is a completely new thought. You won’t find this in the other songs of Christmas. Mary’s song is completely Jewish. She thinks in Jewish terms and expresses her thoughts in Jewish ways. The Gentiles are nowhere in view. The same is true of […]

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Posted on: December 18, 2020 - 3:14PM

Luke 2:8-14 – The Songs of Advent – The Angels’ Song

Before we can make the message known, we must first know the message. What then, is the message of Christmas? Let me give you the message of Christmas quite literally from the mouth of an angel, “today in the city of David there has been born for you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” […]

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Posted on: December 11, 2020 - 12:00PM

Luke 1:67-79 – Songs of Advent – Zechariah’s Song

If we remember that four hundred dreary years, for the most part of which Israel had been groaning under a foreign yoke, had passed since the last of the prophets, and that during all that time devout eyes had looked wearily for the promised Messiah, we shall be able to form some faint conception of […]

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Posted on: December 4, 2020 - 12:00PM

Luke 1:39-56 – Songs of Advent -Mary’s Song

Mary’s hymn is one of three major hymnic pieces in the infancy material (the others are known as the Benedictus, Lk 1:67-79, and Nunc Dimittis, Lk 2:28-32). The Latin names come from the phrases that begin the hymns. Mary’s hymn expresses praise to God for his treatment of her, but then extends her praise to […]

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Posted on: November 28, 2020 - 10:46AM

Zephaniah 3:9-20 – The Overwhelming and Awe-Inducing Salvation of God

Can you imagine what it would be like if you could hear God singing? Remember that it was merely a spoken word that brought the universe into existence. What would happen if God lifted up his voice and not only spoke but sang! Perhaps a new heaven and a new earth would be created. God […]

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Posted on: November 20, 2020 - 12:00PM

Zephaniah 3:1-8 – Judgment for the People of God

There is a church against whom this indictment might be laid today—“She obeyed not the voice”— she did not hear the Gospel. “She received not correction”—when reformers came she sought their blood. “She trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God,” but she went after others and set up other intercessors […]

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Posted on: November 13, 2020 - 12:00PM

God’s love is set forth in this gracious call to Judah to come together and face the fact of God’s judgement, take heed, and repent. The sad thing was that Judah as a nation did not respond to this gracious call. What do we learn from this gracious call of God and the attitude to […]

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Posted on: November 6, 2020 - 12:00PM

Zephaniah 1 – The Coming Day of the Lord

SUCH was the state of the Jews for a long time previous to the Babylonish captivity, that the prophets had little to do, but to denounce the judgments of God against them. The promises which they were inspired to utter had respect to a different and distant period, a period for the most part yet […]

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Posted on: October 30, 2020 - 12:00PM

Romans 12:16 – Unity in the Church

For church leaders and elder boards everywhere, the last few months have presented a near-constant array of complex challenges related to shepherding a church. In such a precarious and polarizing environment, how can churches move forward in beautiful unity (Ps. 133) rather than ugly division? It won’t be easy. But by God’s grace and the […]

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Posted on: October 23, 2020 - 12:00PM