God's Pleasure in His Provision (Exodus 2:1-10)

“Though there be no light for us, but in the beams, yet we may by the beams, see the sun, which is the fountain of it. Though all our refreshment actually lies in the streams, yet by them, we are lead up onto the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream; where in, though actually all our light, our refreshment lies. Yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sum of eternal love itself. Would believers exercise themselves here in, they would find it a matter of no small spiritual improvement in their walking with God.”

—John Owen, Communion with God

Fearless Worship (Luke 1:57-79)

“For many, Christianity is just a beautiful dream. It is a world in which every day reality goes a bit blurred. It is nostalgic, cozy, and comforting. But real Christianity isn’t like that at all. Take Christmas, for instance: a season of nostalgia, of carols and candles and firelight and happy children. But that misses the point completely. Christmas is not a reminder that the world is really quite a nice old place. It reminds us that the world is a shockingly bad old place, where wickedness flourishes unchecked, where children are murdered, where civilized countries make a lot of money by selling weapons to uncivilized ones so they can blow each other apart. 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 is so murky that the candle, when lit, reveals just how bad things really are. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…Christmas, then, is not a dream, a moment of escapism. Christmas is the reality, which shows up the rest of ‘reality’. And for Christmas, here, read Christianity.”

—NT Wright, For All God’s Worth