darkness from isaiah 9

The very nature of light provides contrast. In juxtaposition, differing levels of light illuminate in extraordinary ways, helping us to see what we’ve been missing. In the late 1400s, the art world ma...

Pastor: Arise, shine, for your light has come,  People: and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.   Pastor: For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peop...

Following the lighting of candles, this prayer may be prayed by the congregation. Suitable songs include "Silent Night." Pastor: At just the right time, when all was still, and it was ...

It was a time like this,  war and tumult of war,  a horror in the air. Hungry yawned the abyss— and yet there came the star  and the child most wonderfully there. It was a time like this ...

In the great scheme of things, light is actually quite rare. Geo-physicists tell us that 71 percent of the earth’s surface lies under the ocean, which means that most of our planet abides in eternal d...

A few years ago, a journalist named Joseph Blackman wrote an Op Ed on an interesting subject, “Why Clubs are Dark.” That is, why is it when you walk into a nightclub or a bar, the lights are off, or a...

All: Gracious God, you promise that your light drowns out darkness, yet the darkness is so persistent. We cannot see in front of us, so we look to our own knowledge and ways. Forgive us for turning to...

Leader: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. All: The light has shined on those who lived in the land of the shadow of death. Leader: You have multiplied the nation. You have...

Leader: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light: upon those who live in the land of the shadow of death, a light has shined." People: "For to us a child is born, to us...

Ancient Lens What’s the historical context? Light in the Darkness Light is good. When God created the heavens and the earth, we are first told that “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was ...

Preaching Commentary Ancient Lens What’s the historical context? Light in the Darkness Light is good. When God created the heavens and the earth, we are first told that “God said, ‘Let there be l...

Just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil an...

Christmas is God lighting a candle; and you don't light a candle in a room that's already full of sunlight. You light a candle in a room that's so murky that the candle, when lit, reveals ...

Sigmund Freud tells the story of a three-year-old boy crying in a dark room of a home he was visiting one evening. “Auntie,” the boy cried, “talk to me! I’m frightened because it is so dark.” His aunt...

Psychologists tell us that one of the most difficult conditions a person can be forced to bear is light deprivation. Darkness, in fact, is often used in military captivity or penal institutions to bre...

The rural country roads where I now live are very different from the roads I grew up around in the suburbs. When I lived in the suburbs, the roads I traveled between my house and a friend’s, or the st...

Darkness. If you’ve experienced it, you know what I’m talking about. Darkness sets in long before we’re old enough to recognize it. It begins with anguish. We’ve been hurt, sometimes tragically, and w...