Skip to main content

Preparing for Advent - This Year's Theme

Advent – When God Came To Earth

The page on the calendar turns to December, and Christmas is soon to come.  Christmas is almost here!  
The kids wait in anticipation counting down the days until the gifts are opened.  For many Moms and Dads its a busy time:  there are Christmas programs and parties; carol sings and ringing the bells; shopping for presents, getting the tree, and the decorations to put up; mail the Christmas cards, bake the cookies and candies and...sigh, I’m tired already!  
What’s amazing in all of this is that we find that the reason we are celebrating Christmas can easily get lost in milieu of endless motion of activities. 

Why do we celebrate Christmas?  We celebrate Christmas because God Came to Earth.

The gospel of John introduces this to us:  John 1:14
14  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Good News is that Jesus – God, the Son – Came to Earth; and that is the reason why we celebrate Christmas.  
Therefore, how can we take in the mystery of all that God did in Jesus’ birth?  

We can join thousands upon thousands of Christians around the world and celebrate Christmas as the Advent Season. 

Advent comes from the Latin word, “Adventus” and it means “arriving, coming”.  Advent has been celebrated as part of the church’s calendar for over a thousand years.  
Advent takes in the four Sundays preceding Christmas.  This year it begins on Sunday, Nov. 30th and ends on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24th.

Why Celebrate Advent? 

I do not celebrate Advent because I have nothing else to do around the Christmas season.  I celebrate Advent because it slows the season down and allows us to become immersed in the story of the incarnation.  
Christmas is a story that reminds me over and over again that God saw in us – his people – the beauty and wonder of His “image” - so much so that he entered the world through the Incarnation – Jesus, the Word, became flesh to save us from our sins.

I grew to love the season of Advent – slowly.  I did not start my Christian walk with it, but several years into my walk with Christ I embraced it.  Why?  Because I was leading a church and busy “with Christmas”.  What I did not see was the beauty of Christ in the Incarnation – the reason why we celebrate Christmas.  I put all of my attention on getting to the one day, Christmas, and missed the days of celebration that led up to it.  I came to the end of each Christmas with a sigh of relief, not a heart filled with renewed faith, joy and worshiping love.

It was Helmut Thielicke who said, “When I am asked why, as a Christian, I celebrate Christmas, my first reply is that I do so because something has happened to me, and therefore — but only as I am receptive and give myself to it — something can [now] happen in me.”

I wanted something to happen “in” me.  I embraced the Advent season.  Every year I grew to anticipate and love the Advent season like no other time of the year.  Now, I savor Advent like someone does a great meal…slowly, intentionally, deliberately.

Over the last 20 years I’ve blogged my way through the Advent Season and many have joined me.  A year ago I finished an Advent devotional book and published it on Amazon as a Kindle book (at a low cost of $1.99 a book).  Here’s the link for those of you reading this in my blog, but if you’re reading this in print just go on to Amazon and enter in the title of the book.  http://www.amazon.com/Advent-Sojourn-Elliott-Pollasch-ebook/dp/B00FN1130C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415292202&sr=8-1&keywords=an+advent+sojourn.     If you have purchased the book last year, thank you; but consider buying another book this year and give it as a gift to someone in your family, or a friend.

This Advent Season I’m going to do something I’ve not done before.  I’m going to blog through Advent again, but design the devotionals towards children.  As a Grandfather I have a desire for my grandchildren – and kids in general - to understand what this season of Advent is all about.

Each day of Advent – beginning Sunday, Nov. 30th – I’m going to post simple readings that parents can share with their kids; and with those readings, there will be suggestions for projects, crafts, or other things that I hope will be fun for kids, and help to make the Christmas story relevant to kids.  My target age is 4-10, so as parents you might need to adjust the things to do according to your children’s age.  What I would love is your comments, suggestions, and even your own ideas on how you made this relevant to your own kids.

With that as my goal, I have another suggestion which is that you purchase “The Jesus Story Bible” which sells on Amazon for $10.50.  Here’s the link, or if you’re reading this in print, just go on to Amazon and enter in the title of the book.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310708257/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.  I’ll use this as the basis for many of the daily meditations during Advent.

Lastly, we’ll celebrate the Advent Season in our church – New Life Fellowship - http://www.nlfellowship.org/.  We’ll worship and learn through the Advent season.  Each Sunday we’ll let Christ’s Advent become front and center with music, readings, candles, and teaching. 

This year the theme for our Advent worship is the title of this blog: 
“When God Came to Earth”
Nov. 30th          -           God came to show fulfill his Promises
Dec. 7th            -           God came to show us He wants us to Know Him
Dec. 14th          -           God came to show us His Love (our Christmas Kids program is this Sunday)
Dec. 21st          -           God came to show us His salvation, joy, & life
Dec. 24th          -           Christmas Eve, “Oh Come Let Us Adore Him”.

The time for Advent approaches quickly.  I pray you can “enter in” with me and let us celebrate together all that God has done for us in the Advent of our Lord, Jesus Christ.


Peace

Comments

Joel Alberti said…
Thanks Elliott. What a great tradition. I will let my kids know about the special "children's addition."

Popular posts from this blog

The difference between defending and explaining

The news of recent has focused the suffering of Christians in the middle east who have been martyred for their faith in Christ at the hands of Islamic Terrorists. Through the centuries many Christians have lost their lives as a result of their faith. For us, who live in America, there is little chance that we would have this happen here - but it's entirely possibly that terrorism will strike out at Christians sometime.  But, for many Christians in the western world - especially here in the U.S. - being a Christians who believes God's word there is a form of persecution that is defined by words like "ostracized", "passed over", "ridiculed", and more. What do we do in the face of opposition to faith? When the Apostle Peter writes to the early believers who are undergoing great pressure, even persecution for their faith in Jesus, he gives them this charge. 1 Peter 3:8-18 8  Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly lov

Wednesday, Day 25: Christmas Eve - God Loves Us (So We Can Relax)

For Kids: There’s a lot of things we have to do each day. Get up from our sleep, Get dressed, Eat Breakfast, Get ready for School, Listen to the teacher, play with friends, eat our lunch, and after it’s all done, go back home. There’s time to play, Then we eat our supper… And eventually we have to get ready for bed and go to sleep! And then we do it all over again the next day. Sometimes there’s a vacation - like right now - and we get more time to play, to have fun and not have to do work at school. Our parents are good at helping us know what time it is and what we need to do next – even when we don’t want to move on to the next thing.  God is also good at helping us know what time it is, and what is next.  He doesn’t shout at us, or yell, or even scream…he does it peacefully, quietly.  He wants us to understand that he does it, most of all, for us. Christmas can be quite busy and there’s lots of things going on at once…but let us not forg

The Tabernacle

The readings today are Exodus 36, 37, 38 I wanted to post some pictures of what these various parts of the Tabernacle looked like. It's not the easiest read in the world, but if you persevere through it, you can get a picture of all the different pieces that made up the tabernacle. It is a replica of the various parts of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness: First thing in the chapter listed is the outside of the tabernacle which consisted of curtains tied together and put on cross bars through loops. Next at the beginning of 37 is the table and lampstand: Also, the altar of incense: And, the altar for the burnt offering which was in the courtyard: Finally, the courtyard which made it all come together: Hope that helps with what it might have all looked like. Most importantly, this was their "place" of worship they were building. I hope you have a great day of worship. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad