by Pastor Ray Viola | Dec 21, 2023 | Devotionals
The celebration of Christmas is not the celebration of something, it is the celebration of Someone, and that Someone is Jesus Christ. Let’s just take a moment to ponder and wonder at what God did when He became a man. Somehow, in a miraculous, marvelous, mysterious...
by Pastor Ray Viola | Dec 20, 2023 | Devotionals
As we saw yesterday, the very first promise of the incarnation of the Messiah was given in Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” This prophecy of...
by Pastor Ray Viola | Dec 19, 2023 | Devotionals
The incarnation, or human birth of Jesus Christ, was not His beginning. Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. He is the Uncreated Word Who was in the beginning with God, and was God Himself! This is what Scripture declares to be the blessed mystery of godliness. God...
by Pastor Ray Viola | Nov 18, 2023 | Devotionals
One of the snares that we face individually and congregationally is developing a mindset of “business as usual”. There is a real danger in becoming a Christian of habit and not heart, but it is “with the heart one believes unto righteousness”. We must keep our...
by Pastor Ray Viola | Aug 14, 2023 | Devotionals
Jesus Christ came to this earth to save sinners, not destroy them. Theology has misrepresented the teaching of Scripture about the mission of Jesus. Some have portrayed an angry God; others a racist God. Today, to be “politically correct” (which is usually Biblically...