The Gospel

Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.Luke 2:11Each year and just in time for Christmas, my dear family gathers in the warmth of our cozy living room on a winter’s eve. The wood stove has been freshly stoked and the nostalgic scent of citrus and clove diffuses through the air as a fresh pomander dries on the mantle.

Written by Sarah Guthrie:It had become a treasured Sunday morning rhythm in the "coming of age" season in my life. While the rest of our house had a classic case of get-out-the-door-in-time-for-church mayhem, time slowed to a leisurely pace as I admired the adept movements my step-mom made in sweeping a trace of blush across her cheek.

It was only four hastily scrawled lines on a torn sheet of notebook paper.

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.  And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us...Ephesians 5:1-2With a deep groan, the iron gate slowly swung open.

When the Church and the world can jog comfortably together, you may be sure there is something wrong.  The world has not altered.  Its spirit is exactly the same as it ever was, and if Christians were equally faithful and devoted to the Lord, and separated from the World, living so that their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the world would hate them as much as it ever did.&mdash

Raucous laughter and pulsating music resounded through the crowded, chaotic street.  Eric tried to keep his fellow missionaries in sight as hundreds of drunken revelers surged around them on all sides.  Eric (who later became my husband) was twenty-three, and this was one of his first missionary assignments—doing street evangelism on Bourbon Street in New Orleans during Mardi Gras&

I stood nervously in front of the microphone, trying to smile at the audience of forty teen girls who were sitting at beautifully decorated tables nibbling on cupcakes and sipping tea.  I was eighteen.  It was the first time I had ever been invited to speak publicly.  The organizer of a mother-daughter tea at a large, wealthy church in our community asked me to share about my d