Tag: Advent

A Sunday to Celebrate Joy, Advent’s 3rd Sunday

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Today is the lighting of the third candle in the Advent wreath. It is called the Shepherd’s candle and represents joy. During the lighting the story is told of the angels appearing to the shepherds announcing the birth of the Christ child and where He could be found. Joy is contagious and once the arrival of the Messiah was proclaimed the shepherds wanted to find the child and worship Him. May you feel that same joy today and may it draw you closer to the Savior.

This next week we will be diving deep into Elizabeth and Mary’s parting, John’s Birth, Zechariah’s Song of praise after being muted for 9+ months, and Joseph’s story. Here are some words of JOY for today as we worship.

Psalm 5:11 “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
    let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
    that those who love your name may exult in you.”

Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Luke 2:10 “And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

Romans 10:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

May we be filled with the joy of the Lord today as we continue to anticipate the coming of the Christ child who brought freedom from bondage to sin through His life, death and resurrection.

Linda

Advent 2021 Begins… my word is Joy!

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I love the season of Advent as it means renewal, hope, a blessed message from God, His love, redemption and Jesus our Savior all rolled into the story of the season. Personally, December 1 brings memories of my daughter’s arrival from Korea at the age of 3 months. We had been planning and waiting for her arrival but did not know exactly when it would happen. We got a call the night before that she was arriving the morning of December 1 at LAX. We hurriedly booked flights and made our way to Los Angeles. It was a scary but gloriously exciting time for our family and a day I will never forget. Seeing and holding her for the first time, bringing her home to Oakland and having friends and family members there to greet us was amazing. That day and that experience was indelibly imprinted in my memory and on my heart.

The story of Advent, Jesus’ miraculous coming to earth as a babe, is another story that always evokes memories for each of us as we encounter the living Christ in our lives. We are reminded of His humility and sacrifice in coming for us, leaving the grandeur and power of heaven for our sake. It is a sacrifice that imprints itself into the heart of every believer and helps us relive and rejoice each Advent season. Jesus is the reason for this season of the year and what joy He brings to our lives.

I pray that as we journey through this Christmas story of Jesus’ birth and as we experience the many people both earthly and heavenly: that we will be impacted by His coming in a new and fresh way, that we will focus in on the emotions and feeling this story evokes and that each story part will lead us into a deeper understanding of God. May we see God’s hand in each person and circumstance. May it lead us to realize that God is with us and in our lives just as He was that first Christmas.

I’m looking for the joy of the season. This year my verse was Habakkuk 3:18 “yet I will rejoice in the Lord;  I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” and Nehemiah 8:10b “for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Be strong, be filled and Be joyful this season! Jesus is reason enough for JOY!

Linda

Advent begins with Love

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The story of the coming Messiah, who was to save his people, began in Genesis 3:15. Adam and Eve had sinned in the Garden of Eden by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil as God had forbidden. They were deceived by the serpent, Satan, and then cast out of the garden lest they eat of the tree of life and suffer in their sins for eternity. God cursed the serpent and proclaimed there would be enmity between the offspring of Satan and hers. Her child would crush Satan’s head and Satan would bruise his heel. This is the first prophecy of a coming redeemer who would defeat Satan. The Amplified translation gives us some good insights into who is who and what will be accomplished. “And I will put enmity (open hostility) Between you and the woman, And between your seed (offspring) and her Seed; He shall [fatally] bruise your head, And you shall [only] bruise His heel.”

Why start Advent here? There needed to be a compelling reason for God to send His Son to earth to live among mortals and died. John 3:16 gives us God’s motivation for this sacrificially act. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” The Christmas story is all about God’s great love for us. His great desire is to restore the relationship He had with mankind before sin entered the world. Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even though we are filled with a sinful nature and prone to wander, God loves us and desires to restore man unto himself. Christ came to accomplish this. He was the perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins once for all time. Hebrews 10:10 “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

So as we begin our journey through Advent, we need to remember it is because God loved us and desired a relationship with us that He sent Jesus. What a loving God to fix our problem of sin through His own sacrifice.

Linda

Prepare your heart to be blessed during Advent! 1st Candle lit today!

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I love writing during Advent. It allows me to spend time with the story of Christ’s birth and all the events that lead up to and surround His birth. We see the amazing character of God, promises fulfilled and the moment in history that changed the world. Prepare your heart as Advent begins in my blogs on December 1.

You may have begin preparing for Christmas with an Advent wreath at home or in your church. Since Thanksgiving was late this year, the first Sunday of Advent falls on November 29. The four Sunday’s leading up to Christmas Eve are celebrated by the light of a candle remembering part of the Christmas story. The first is to be lit today. It is the Prophecy candle proclaiming the coming birth of Christ, Isaiah 7:14, and it represents hope. The second is the Bethlehem candle highlighting the manger and coming Christ child, Luke 2:12, and it represent love. The third is the Shepherd’s candle highlighting the announcement to the shepherds of Christ’s birth and it represents joy, Luke 2:8-11. The fourth is the Angel’s candle which represent peace from Luke 2:13-14. The last or center white candle is the Christ candle. This candle is lit on Christmas Eve and represents the arrival of our savior who came to cleanse us from sin, Isaiah 1:18.

Prepare your hearts to be blessed this season as we walk through the story and see what God will teach us together.

Linda

God’s Revelations Through Advent=God’s Abounding Attributes

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Advent of 2019 has been very confirming and uplifting to me.  As I wrote about the Christmas story, Messiah’s long awaited arrival on earth, I was filled with wonder and praise for our Almighty God.  Seeing the story anew through the lens of who-is-godGod’s attributes gave me a glimpse into the magnificence and depth of our God.   I saw God’s accessibility, grace, omniscience, as a person, His incomprehensibility, invisibility, holiness, as a preserver, merciful, a promise-keeper, righteous, sovereign, perfect, omnipotent, provider, merciful again, glorious, Savior, faithful, just, wise, Father, guide, love and eternal.

For 25 days we have looked into the character of God and reflected on how His character could impact us.  God desires that we are accessible to Him and to others.  He gives us grace and asks that we show grace to others.  God alone is omniscient, incomprehensible, invisible, personal, preserver of all things, righteous, sovereign, perfect, omnipotent, glorious, Savior, promise keeper and the giver of eternal life.  He calls us to be holy as He is holy and to wear the righteousness of Christ though faith in Him.  Be merciful towards others and lend them helping hands.  God wants us to be faithful to Him and to those around us, just in our dealings with others, a giver of wise council, good father’s and mothers, guide others towards Him and to be open to His leading.  He wants us to keep our word and follow His Word.  God desires that we love Him and love those He has placed in our life as much as we love ourselves.

David reached the following conclusion about God in Psalm 86:10-13.

psalm 86 10No pagan god is like you, O Lord.
    None can do what you do!
9 All the nations you made
    will come and bow before you, Lord;
    they will praise your holy name.
10 For you are great and perform wonderful deeds.
    You alone are God.

more like JesusThank you for joining me this Advent.  May you be blessed as you endeavor to live for Jesus and grow more and more life Him each day.

Linda

Let Advent Begin with a Call to Understand- Join me!

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AdventSeveral years ago, I endeavored to see the Christmas story through the lens of God’s attributes knowing that all God ordains reveals His character to us.  His plan and will always brings Him glory and us good.  I invite you to join me this Advent Season to journey through the scriptures with an eye towards God’s character and see what wonders we can discover about our Almighty God.  Jeremiah 33:3 will be my guiding verse this season- “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”   I am asking God to reveal His character to us though the Christmas stories.  May we be mightily blessed and find out many things that were previously hidden to us.

God’s attribute that gives me confidence to ask and call upon Him is His Accessibility. James 4 8James 4:8 promises “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”   Ephesians 3:12  “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence”  and Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  These are just a few verses that confirm to us that we can indeed approach God and seek Him through prayer and study.  As we draw near to Him this Advent Season, He will meet us  just as He has promised.

Seek Him with me knowing with confidence He will reveal Himself to us through His Word.

Linda