Advent Scripture Series
For many, the holidays are not a happy time. They're less a celebration and more a mourning. We may find ourselves weighed down by the could've beens, should've beens, would've beens. Hearts and minds may be hardened to the joy of the season, we may have forgotten what all we have to be thankful for. This is the purpose of Advent, to prepare our hearts for the celebration and the coming of Christ. It is an intentional focus on Christ in the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas. Truly though, each and every day of our lives should be spent in an Advent preparation. We should continually be preparing our hearts for His return. But for those of us who can't seem to find our Christmas spirits, who can't see through the tears of sorrow, or worry, we must remember that to celebrate His coming, we need to remember why He came. To give us life, to resurrect us! He is the Resurrection! The God that rolled the stone away from the tomb, is the same God that can break the cold stone away from our hardened hearts and give life blood to it once again. Though we may feel all hope is lost in whatever situation we are facing, if we believe in Him, though our spirits may feel dead, He will give us life!
Week 2
For many, the holidays are not a happy time. They're less a celebration and more a mourning. We may find ourselves weighed down by the could've beens, should've beens, would've beens. Hearts and minds may be hardened to the joy of the season, we may have forgotten what all we have to be thankful for. This is the purpose of Advent, to prepare our hearts for the celebration and the coming of Christ. It is an intentional focus on Christ in the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas. Truly though, each and every day of our lives should be spent in an Advent preparation. We should continually be preparing our hearts for His return. But for those of us who can't seem to find our Christmas spirits, who can't see through the tears of sorrow, or worry, we must remember that to celebrate His coming, we need to remember why He came. To give us life, to resurrect us! He is the Resurrection! The God that rolled the stone away from the tomb, is the same God that can break the cold stone away from our hardened hearts and give life blood to it once again. Though we may feel all hope is lost in whatever situation we are facing, if we believe in Him, though our spirits may feel dead, He will give us life!
In the midst of a holiday season rife with mythical creatures, it would seem that the world does not have difficulty believing in what they cannot see. Santa Claus is touted as the source of the magic of Christmas, elves in Toy Land busily crafting away toys for good boys and girls, and reindeer seem to know how to fly. It is amazing what a little imagination can dream up. But I am thankful this Christmas for a Savior that I know is real. I don't need wildly concocted tales to fuel some fabrication passed down for generations. I have my Divinely Inspired Bible, God's Holy Word, that tells me of my Savior's magnificent birth, His miraculous life, sacrificial death, and extraordinary resurrection. I can feel Him alive and working in my heart and soul, drawing me nigh to Him. I wait with anticipation, not for reindeer hooves on the rooftop, but to meet Him in the clouds in the twinkling of an eye. I am headed North, not for Santa's workshop, but heaven and homeward bound. Do you believe in the true magic of Christmas, Christ born of a virgin, come to save mankind from sin?
Tonight I am thinking of some special Mommas in my life who have borne the pain of losing a child. It is a pain unlike any other I've ever known. Soul shattering, heart breaking, mind numbing, crippling pain of a child taken from us all too soon. Yet in the midst of that pain is a another Momma's Son willing to bear it. A Son foretold of and born of a virgin, magnificent and perfect in every way. He came as a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. God Himself made flesh. And He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. The Highest of highs is with us in our lowest of lows.
My sweet boys like to sleep with a night light at night. It's a comfort to them, keeps their fears at bay, reminds them they're in their very own big boy beds but not alone because they can see one another in the room they share and lights their path to our bed in the middle of the night. The little light isn't much but it does the job. Wouldn't it be nice if our adult fears were banished with just a little light? Wouldn't it be nice if just a dim light was enough to keeps the stress and worry monsters away? Wouldn't it be nice if a little light gave us a clear path to the comfort we need most? I've heard tale of a light that can do just that. A light that once shown so bright in the sky, that the shepherds and wise men followed it and found their Savior asleep in the hay of a manger in Bethlehem. That same light now resides in me as a child of the King. He came as a baby, was crucified a man. In His death, He gave life and light to men.
Have you ever tried to help someone who didn't want help? When try as you might they reject your help, your advice, your love? It doesn't seem to matter that you came only to help, to save them from themselves, the situation they're in, the world around them, and you want nothing in return but their love. You want only to hear them say "Yes, I need your help. I need your love. I believe in you and what you've done for me." Knowing that if they would just accept you instead of rejecting you, you could give them the power to change their life. Finally, most of us, will at some point give up, tired, weary, and discouraged.
I imagine Christ felt very much like this. Hated from His prophecy, hunted by a murderous king as an infant, despised during His ministry, and finally crucified out of hate and fear. The very people, His people, that He came to save, refused Him, denied Him. And yet, unlike us, in spite of being forsaken, He bore our sorrows and our pain. He shouldered our sins upon the cross. Beaten and bloody, He carried the cross up Calvary's hill, and willingly laid down His life, for all mankind. No exceptions.
As we celebrate His birth this Christmas season, let us remember the glory of His life, and the magnitude of love in His death.
A friend of mine just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, another friend just had a beautiful baby boy. And I love babies. I love everything about them. From the time I was just a little girl, I have been baby crazy. My niece is due at the end of May and I am so excited I can't hardly stand it. But thinking of her baby boy on the way and her becoming a mother for the very first time, reminds me of the first time I held my own boys.
During my pregnancies, I had read everything I could get my hands on about what was going on inside my body, how my babies were growing, what to expect during labor...I felt prepared, I was ready, my body was made to do this. And then the baby was born and I realized that I hadn't read a single thing on what to do after he was born. Suddenly I was panicked. No one told me that breastfeeding was hard. No one told me that he would cluster feed for hours on end during the night. No one told me that the baby blues would play hard and fast with my emotions. I was a wreck. And yet, when I held my newborn son in my arms, when I quieted his cries with my touch and my voice, when I nourished him at my breast, there was nothing more perfect in my world. It's amazing what one tiny baby and the grace of God can do.
I don't know Mary's state of emotions that night in Bethlehem, after a long and tiresome journey, 9 months pregnant, laboring in a stable, surrounded by animals, but I imagine they were like any other first time Momma's. Excited, scared, overjoyed, overwhelmed, determined and discouraged. But with the birth of her Son, God's Son, came the very truth and grace she would need to be His Momma. That night, in a dirty stable, under imperfect conditions, God gave her His Perfect and Only Begotten Son, One who with His fullness would give me grace some 2,000 years later.
So often I hear a common misconception about Jesus and Christians. "Kendra found Jesus." "Brandon found Jesus." "Ole Kendra found Jesus and she don't come round here no more." (Yes, the grammar is on purpose. Just imagine my Southern twang and you'll understand).
Friends, I have some truth to impart. I didn't find Jesus. Brandon didn't find Jesus. I don't frequent the establishments I once did because I found Jesus. HE FOUND ME.
For the Son of man came to SEEK and to SAVE that which was LOST. He came for no other reason than to seek out the sinners and to save them! Just as the Shepherd leaves the ninety and nine to seek and to save that one lamb that is lost, so my Savior did for me! He found me in a Sunday School room 23 years ago, crying because I knew I didn't want to be bad anymore and He moved right into my heart. And a dozen years later, when I strayed from the straight and narrow and I could not find my way back to Him on my own, He came again to find me.
This Christmas season He is seeking you out. He has come to save you. Let Him find you, let Him save you, let Him dwell within you.
