The NCF 2026 Calendar

The theme of our 2026 calendar is "The Attributes of God." We've selected 12 of these for this year's calendar. Of course, this compilation is limited, but we hope it helps you to think biblically and deeply upon who our God is, as He has revealed Himself to us in His Word. See below to find the calendar, and also commentary for each attribute.

We who bear God's image must be careful to think about God rightly.

First, we need to think about God accurately. According to the futility of sinful man's thinking, we would try to make God in our own image (Romans 1:22–23; Psalm 50:21). Left to ourselves, we would think, "God must be like me, only perhaps a bigger and better version." These are the gods of man's inventing. They are no gods at all. So perish the thought! God Himself asks us, "To whom then would you liken God, or what likeness compare with Him? To whom will you compare me, that I should be like him? To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?" (Isaiah 40:18, 25; 46:25). Instead of measuring God by ourselves, we humbly look to His Word, the Scriptures, and receive from Him true knowledge of who He truly is.

Second, when we begin to think about God biblically and accurately, we need to think about Him holistically. Again, left to our own intuition, we tend to make our own caricatures of God. We tend to exaggerate one of His attributes while minimizing another, rather than seeing each of His attributes as being comprehensible only in connection to the whole of who He is. In Romans 2, for example, Paul addresses those who would highlight the riches of God's kindness and forbearance and patience. But they misunderstood these attributes because they did not see them in the light of God's justice and wrath (Romans 2:4–5).

Finally, we need to think about God's attributes in terms of simplicity. When listing out the attributes of God (as we do in this calendar), it's easy to fall into a way of thinking that God is this part, plus this part, plus that part. But God is not the sum of parts. Instead, God simply is who He is (Exodus 3:14). In the words of one theologian, "God is not made up of parts, nor is he compounded or composite in nature. That means he does not possess attributes, as if his attributes are one thing and his essence another. Rather, his essence is his attributes and his attributes his essence. God is his attributes. That means, all that is in God simply is God." Echoing these thoughts, Sinclair Ferguson reminds us in his brief meditation on the simplicity of God, "All of God's attributes are simply who He is."

To think about who God truly is—these are deep waters! But they are glorious waters, refreshing, cleansing, and good for our souls! What a gift that God has given to us, to know Him truly, even if not fully. God has graciously condescended, revealing Himself to us in His creation, in His Scriptures, and in the Lord of all, His Son, Jesus Christ (John 1:18; 17:3; Hebrews 1:1–3a). Our prayer is that this calendar and these commentaries (see below) will help you know God.

You can download the calendar pdf by clicking this link.

NCF 2026 Calendar.pdf

Download PDF • 2.84MB

January

Artwork by Quinn

Commentary by Tom Depew

When Isaiah hears the seraphim cry, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3), he is confronted with the infinite, unapproachable majesty of God. This holiness is not a mere attribute among others, but the very essence of who God is—altogether set apart, transcendent, and morally perfect. As J. I. Packer put it, “holy is the word which the Bible uses to express all that is distinctive and transcendent in the revealed nature and character of the Creator, all that brings home to us the infinite distance and difference …” In other words, God’s holiness communicates that He is totally different than us, yet completely righteous and without sin. This realization should humble us deeply: in the face of such holiness, our sin feels weighty, but so does God’s grace. God’s holiness also exposes our deepest need—not self-improvement, but divine mercy. It reveals that we cannot come to Him on our own terms; we must come through the cleansing He provides. And yet, because this same holy God calls us into his presence, we are invited to live in awe, repentance, and devotion. Recognizing God’s holiness moves us to worship with reverence, to pursue holiness in our own lives, and to depend on Christ’s cleansing for the forgiveness of sin—because only a holy God can forgive, and only a holy God is worthy of all our devotion.

February

Artwork by Liliana

Commentary by Andrew Beebe

March

Artwork by Anonymous

Commentary by TBD

April

Photograph by Ellie

Commentary by TBD

May

Design by anonymous

Commentary by Betuel Vararu

Scripture reveals that the one true God, the Creator of all things, is eternally three in person: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God; yet the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. As distinct persons they share the same divine essence, glory, and eternal fellowship of love, and thus are not three Gods, but the one and only God. In the name of this Triune God, Christ commissions His church to make disciples of all nations through baptizing and teaching. Though this mystery is beyond full comprehension, every baptized believer truly knows the living God as He is revealed in Scripture, through faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

June

Artwork by Ellen

Commentary by TBD

July

Artwork by Ruth

Commentary by TBD

August

Photograph by Beau

Commentary by TBD

September

Artwork by Samuel

Commentary by Dale Kellar

Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

In this single verse, the Holy One draws back the veil and lets us glimpse the grandeur of his eternal being. By calling himself the Alpha and the Omega, God proclaims that he is the source and the goal of all things; the One from whom everything flows and to whom everything returns. Time itself is his creation, and he stands above it in sovereign freedom. Our confidence as believers rests here: every promise God has spoken is anchored in his unchanging character. He is the Alpha, the eternal beginning, the Creator without whom nothing would exist. He is the Omega, the final end toward which all history moves, the One in whom every purpose finds its true fulfillment. He is the God who is, who was, and who is to come; the same God who formed the worlds, upholds every moment of our lives, and will one day dwell with his people forever. He is the Almighty, the One whose power has no boundary, whose will cannot be thwarted, and whose purposes unfold with perfect faithfulness.

As we meditate on this verse, we are reminded that our lives rest securely in the hands of the eternal, unchanging, all-powerful God. Whatever uncertainties we face, we can stand firm knowing that the Alpha and the Omega holds every moment, guides every step, and will bring all things to their appointed end for his glory and our good.

October

Artwork by Mathias

Commentary by Stephen Charnock via Wes Sharp

"God's unchangeableness is the firm footing of the saints; were it not for this, they might waver and be toiled in a tempest. What comfort could be extracted from a wavering, mutable Deity? But since God is of one mind, and cannot be turned, since He is an anchor that cannot be removed, our hope in Him is forever secure."

November

Photograph by Gideon

Commentary by Tim Pasma

December

Artwork by Chloe

Commentary by Ralph Hull

Divine Immanence is the reality of the Lord God Almighty who is high above and thrice Holy, who chooses also to be near and covenantly relational with His redeemed children. Isaiah 57:15 is a vivid verse where God reveals both His transcendence and immanence, two truths that cannot be separated from one another.

Because God is all-powerful and full of compassion in His nature, He condescends to man out of His own free will. Louis Berkhof states, “The presence of God, as it is described in the Old and New Testament, is clearly a personal presence. He is represented as a personal God, who comes and goes, with whom men can converse, whom they can trust, who enters into their experiences, who sustains them in their trials and difficulties, and who fills their hearts with the joy of victory.”

Throughout the Bible, God has revealed His presence. Jer. 23:23–24 states, ““Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?” The very existence of God’s written Word declares to us God’s immanence – relational nearness and redemptive presence. The book of Psalms is full of relational evidence of A believer’s fellowship with God, demonstrating God’s immanence. God’s immanence is most realized in God’s coming into His creation (Incarnation) in the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father sending the Son “Emmanuel,” God with us, to dwell among us in righteousness and then to die for a sinful people in order to reconcile us to a holy God. Not only this, but in His sovereign plan, the Holy Spirit applies this salvation of Christ to the soul of the believer, and dwells within each believer from the moment of salvation. Union with Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit magnificently illustrated God’s immanence in His salvific, covenantal relationship with us.

The whole history of salvation is the story of God’s plan to be relationally present with His

people and to dwell among those who are sanctified and made holy. The Bible reveals God who is drawing near to His own creation in order to bring glory to Himself. Those who have been made humble by the grace of God and who are trusting in the Savior Jesus Christ are promised that God’s Spirit will dwell with them, and that when Christ returns, the saved shall dwell with God for all eternity. Amen.