Skip to main content

Week 1 Advent Saturday, "What If?"

Hi my friends,  I hope your first week of Advent was good.  I have some catching up to do and I want to share what I've written each day during the Advent season so that we might have time to reflect, ponder, and anticipate the joy of Christ's birth.

Today I wrote about "What If?"

Happy Saturday to all of you.  It's the end of the first week of Advent.  Here's a scripture to ponder, a thought to meditate on:

Isaiah 60:1-2
1  Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
2  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

I am asking the simplest of questions: "What if?"
What if the darkness around us witnessed in addictions, refugees fleeing war, radical terrorism fueled by demonic hate, gun violence, and sex-slave trafficking - things I read this morning in the news I get - evil that is pervasive and relentless...
What if God's purpose in our lives was to put us "in" the darkness so that the Lord would rise upon us and his glory seen?

Jesus said, John 17:14-18
14  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
16  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
18  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

What if we took this evil we see and prayed...and sanctified our lives in the truth of God's word...and then went out to be the light in the darkness?
Just thinking, What if?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joy to the World - Help is On the Way

It’s the first day of Advent– while you prepare for Worship this morning at church take a minute to ask God to direct you through this season that you might be prepared to “receive your King”. In the first week of Advent we celebrate the PROMISE of His Coming. His promise is based on our need. We were made in his image, but there is emptiness in our soul that is the result of the Fallen nature of sin. But why did Jesus come? What in his coming announces God's heart? His desire for us to know and experience? 10 BUT THE ANGEL SAID TO THEM, "DO NOT BE AFRAID; FOR BEHOLD, I BRING YOU GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY WHICH WILL BE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE; 11 FOR TODAY IN THE CITY OF DAVID THERE HAS BEEN BORN FOR YOU A SAVIOR, WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD. GREAT JOY! Did you know that God is Joyful? 1 CHRONICLES 16:23-27 (NASB) 23 SING TO THE LORD, ALL THE EARTH; PROCLAIM GOOD TIDINGS OF HIS SALVATION FROM DAY TO DAY. 24 TELL OF HIS GLORY AMONG THE NATIONS, HIS WONDERFUL DEEDS AMONG ALL THE PEOPLES....
46 comments
Read more

The Gospel of Matthew - Coming: An Exposition and Devotional on the Life of Jesus

Preface  I just finished writing a daily devotional of the book of Matthew with an emphasis on expositing the text and bringing some daily devotional thoughts to the text.  It will be a 40-day journey reading the book of Matthew and the things I wrote within it. Why do it?  Well, first of all, I have loved reading the Scripture for over 50 years now.  I taught the Scriptures on multiple levels from Sunday messages in a Church, to Bible Studies, to Young Adults' discipleship formation, to lectures in a college setting.  I love the Scriptures because it is the Word of God delivered to us from God through human authors, and as Paul reminded Timothy, “it is profitable”. Matthew was a disciple of Jesus, also called Levi, he was not like most of the other disciples. Many of the disciples were middle-class, some commoners, and several were fishermen by trade (which made them middle-class commoners).  We don't know what all of them did, but we do know what Matthew ...
Post a Comment
Read more