You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus;
and what you have heard from me through many witnesses
entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.
2 Timothy 2:1-2
I am mindful, as one year ends and another begins, that we, as a VantagePoint3 (VP3) community, continue to live and grow and serve in the wake of Paul’s threefold encouragement in 2 Timothy 2:1-2. Paul exhorts a younger leader, Timothy, to:
Over the past 18 months, we have been working to refresh our ministry’s signature offering – The Journey process. We love how it has turned out. It has now been about three weeks since the refreshing, rewriting, and formatting have all stopped, and The Journey Stage 3: A Shared Life is off to the printer. Cheers!
Since then, I have begun reflecting on what we have been learning along the way as we worked on this project. And perhaps, because the timing of this reflecting coincides with the weeks of Advent and the anticipation of Christmas, my initial thoughts have mostly landed on this theme—embracing God with us, Immanuel, is at the center of our ongoing, lifelong formation in Christ as individuals and communities.
A compelling way to look at God’s character and mission is to notice a defining thread woven through the entire biblical Story–God desires to be with his people. From the garden of Eden to the Tabernacle and the Temple to the Incarnation of Jesus to the new heavens and new earth, the Triune God seeks to dwell among his people (e.g., Gen 2-3; Ex. 29:45-46; Lev. 26:11-12; 2 Chr. 6:18; Ps. 90:1; John 1:14, Rev 21:1-5). Read More
It has been years now, but I can still hear the knock.
That single, hurried knock upon my door—
the sound of it still splits the silence of my sleep.
The city was crowded that night, Bethlehem bursting like a wineskin.
Every corner filled, every room claimed by those come to be counted.
And me? I was proud of it.
A full house means full hands, full pockets, a full purse.
As an innkeeper—well, I thought myself fortunate.
But then came the knock.
There’s a hush to those words, isn’t there? They hold a gentle ache, a tender longing. Every December, when papers are graded, the last emails are sent, and the house finally falls quiet, we hear it again and again — ‘Are you going home for Christmas?‘
That question is so simple.
And yet it opens a door into a deeper hunger inside us.
A hunger for a home where we belong.
A home that feels safe and warm.
A home where we can breathe, be ourselves, and know we’re loved. Read More
—Psalm 146, Revelation 1:1–8
The surprise of Advent is not that Messiah comes—but where He comes, and what He comes to do.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)
As a child, I imagined that Almighty One as enormous and untouchable—robed in fire, seated on a throne somewhere above the stars. Holy and distant. Fearsome and vast. But the psalmist paints a different portrait of the One for whom we wait. Read More
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