Advent - a season of JOY

This week we light the forth advent candle. These candles help us to remember the hope, peace, love, and joy found in God that were proclaimed through Jesus' birth. These weeks leading up to Christmas Day are a great time for reflecting on the first coming of the Messiah and our hopeful expectation of His return.

The shepherds in Bethlehem experienced great joy when the Angel announced, “I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior – yes, the Messiah, the Lord – has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David,” Luke 2:10-11. After they had gone to see this small Savior Luke 2:20 says, “the shepherds went back to their fields and flocks, glorifying and praising God for what the angels had told them, and because they had seen the child, just as the angel had said.”

Like the shepherds, joy naturally flows out of our hearts when we encounter the saving power of Jesus in our own lives. As we stand in wonder of what we once were and what we are in him today, we have reason to rejoice! Once we were lost and now we're found, once an enemy and now a friend, once brokenhearted and now made whole. And the promise of Jesus' coming again gives us reason to live in expectant joy!

May we make time to joyfully celebrate the gift of Jesus and share the wonderful news with those around us.

Advent - a season of LOVE

This third week of advent we light the pink candle. These candles help us to remember the hope, peace, love, and joy found in God that were proclaimed through Jesus' birth. These weeks leading up to Christmas Day are a great time for reflecting on the first coming of the Messiah and our hopeful expectation of His return.

The Scriptures tell us in John1:14 and 3:16-17 “So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father… For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it but to save it.”

Every heart longs for love. At just the right moment in the flow of time God sent his Son to express his deep love for us. How can we imagine the sacrificial gift of love that was given when God the Son, in obedience to the Father’s will, wrapped himself in flesh and stepped into our world? His death was in his hands and our salvation was his purpose. Our hearts can be satisfied by his love alone. And we learn how to love one another through his example.

May we thank him today for his generous gift of love that brings salvation and purpose to our hearts.

Advent - a season of PEACE

Today we begin the second week of advent, remembering the hope Jesus' birth brought to our dark world. The longing of every needy heart was fulfilled in that one moment.

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen! Isaiah 9:6-7

The Israelites of Isaiah's day were longing for peace, both personally and as a nation. Peace was made possible in the coming of Jesus, the High King, powerful to reign. In our own world today glimpses of peace are fragile and precious. Peace in our own life can elude us. However, wherever a heart kneels in submission to the King of Heaven peace is possible.

May you be comforted by the peace Jesus brings to your heart as he rules as Lord today. While looking forward with anticipation to the day of his final earthly reign!

Advent - a season of HOPE

Hope is a theme present throughout the Bible. In fact the season of Advent, which we begin today, is all about hope and expectation. The act of lighting candles during the Advent season fans the flame of expectation. They remind us of the light of Jesus Christ that God's people anticipated long ago and the light of Jesus' second coming that we anticipate still today.

Isaiah 9:2,4 says, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. For you will break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.”

 

At the time this prophesy was written there was no salvation outside of rules and sacrifice. The people lived in spiritual darkness and gloom, waiting and watching for the day the true light would dawn and their chains of sin and despair would be broken. Just like children afraid of the dark long for a light to dispel their fear the Israelite's hoped for the promise of “The true light that gives light to every man.” 

 

At just the right moment in time Jesus’ birth pierced the darkness on a Bethlehem night. Jesus fulfilled the promise of God that one day a light would dawn on those living in the shadow of death. He was born to penetrate our darkness and ignite hope in our souls. We light candles at advent to remember that Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise of hope. 

 

How are you like the Israelites today? Where are you looking for hope? There are many things in life we hope for. Titus 2:13 reminds us that “we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.”

Word

It pulses, warm and alive. Inviting me to open and yield myself to it's power. Is it magic? No, it's better. The Word; inspired, bread, sharp, cleansing, purifying, powerful, living word. A drink that at once quenches down to the very fiber and yet leaves a thirst stronger than before. The line between person and paper blur. The veil is pulled back and more is seen than before, the end will never be found. Power found not in letters, ink, paper but in a Person. Points to prove, arguments to win, sides to take are irrelevant. Truth is the side, choose to join or not. The invitation issued is to a death, mine; and to a life, his. Plunging in over my head I'm consumed, the word soaks in to my very soul. Words leap off of the page and come to life in my heart.

Coming Again

The Christmas season is drawing to a close, wrapping itself back up for us to open again next year. For the past few days I've felt quiet, introspective, withdrawn. Taking a break from the routine of life and our busy schedule I've just rested and relaxed. I've read a novel, something I rarely do, and have put aside my regular study of the word (I've been reading Piper's Seeing and Savoring Jesus, the book of Revelation, Simpson's commentary on Revelation and a devotional by Tozer, all wonderful food for my soul). Why did I do that? I told myself I was taking a break, my bible studies and responsibilities temporarily suspended. My heart knows the truth, you can't take a break from God. If I do I pay the price and must come again on bended knee, sorry I've been away; he never left, thank goodness.

The novel set in the south with themes of home, family, roots, need for belonging have re-reminded me of my old longing for home, The Home. In a way it echoed the deeper truths I've been reading in Revelation, this world cannot satisfy completely, we were made for something more. Happy truth!

I find myself hungry for anything southern; books, poems, pictures, stories, memories, music. I read the southern novel with relish and when it was over I was still hungry. Why do I not turn to scriptural promises of my eternal home with such vigor? How does my heart forget the happy shadows of earth point to true fulfillment? The Word made flesh for me, revealed to me everyday, for every need, every sorrow, every question; united in love, joy, pain.

I think back over Christmas and remember a conversation with Max. As I was busily preparing the church for Christmas Eve he asked what I was doing. My answer prompted his response "Yes, we're getting ready for Jesus to come." I smiled and responded that that was exactly what we were doing.

Oh, that everyday my life would include preparations for Jesus to come, come to me now. A quiet moment seeking his presence. A prayer connecting me with his heart and will. Moments reflecting on the Word, guiding my actions and thoughts. Preparations for that final coming. The second coming made possible by the first. The day when I go home.

Worship

“In the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back…Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty – the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.” Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one who lives forever and ever. And they lay their crowns before the throne and say, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.”” Revelation 4:6b, 8b-11.

As special as this season is to us, in heaven Christmas is not a special holiday. Everyone in heaven does that day what they did the day before and what they will do the day after, they completely and wholly worship The Father, the perfect, sevenfold Spirit and the Lamb that was born to die. God is worshiped perfectly by his servants in heaven; he can’t be worshiped more or less.

Christmas is a wonderful, beautiful time to remember and focus on the gracious gift the Father sent to this world, his beloved Son. However, as we engage in the Christmas season may we remember that everyday should be a day of worship and gratitude to the Father for his gift of love. May we strive to daily worship the Lamb for his sacrifice and offer our praise with our whole selves. Even on earth God is not deserving of praise on one day more than another. So, let’s not save our times of special reflection or thanks just for Thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter. Let us strive to be mindful that we were created for God’s pleasure and we can live in the joy and expression of that everyday of the year. We are most satisfied when God is glorified in our lives.