“God has done this. God will manifest his power. That is what Christmas is about. Not what men are going to do, nor what they should do. No, no—what God has done. We are asked to stand back and to look and listen.”
—David Martyn Lloyd-Jones
John, Jesus, and Us (Luke 1:57-79)
“As always, the people of God must decide what reading of their experiences they will live by. Are they to look at the darkness, the hopelessness, the dreams shattered and conclude that God has forgotten them? Or are they to recall his past mercies, to remember his present promises and to make great affirmations of faith?... Hope is the present reality, part of the constitution of the ‘now.’ The darkness is true, but it is not the whole truth, and certainly not the fundamental truth.”
— Alec Motyer, Commentary on Isaiah