The angel’s announcement of Jesus birth is a message of comfort and hope.  Interestingly, in virtually every case of human interaction with angelic beings in the Bible, the immediate human response is sheer terror (verse 9, for example).  As God’s […]

Joy is one of the most important themes in Paul’s letter to the Philippians.  This verse repeats Paul’s early exhortation in 3:1.  His point is not that sadness or even discouragement are inherently sinful responses, for Jesus himself experienced such […]