UNIVERSITY
UNITED
ADVENT
DEVOTIONAL 2007
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Have a Blessed Christmas |
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December 2
Salvation is Nearer than Ever
Romans 13:11-14
This scripture passage is a great way to start the
Advent Season. We are to get ready for
the coming of Jesus the Christ. We
are to prepare heart, soul, and minds for the coming of our King and
Savior. We need to be focusing on
the real reason we have Christmas.
It is the birth of Christ, not how many things we can buy for one
another, or how many decorations we have put up, or getting the Christmas cards
out. These things should come
second to the preparations for the coming of Christ.
For
me and I would hazard a guess that for many of us that preparing for Christ is
not the number one priority. I
can’t remember a Christmas when all the “Christmas stuff” is
up before Halloween. The stores and
commercials don’t want us to celebrate the saints that have gone on
before us or giving thanks for all that we have. They diffently don’t want us to
get ready for Christmas in the religious sense. They wouldn’t get all the sales if
we did.
This
year I am going to challenge myself to work on the expectation of
Christ’s coming. I will try
not to get caught up in all the commercialism of this season and prepare my
soul for his coming. We don’t
know when he will come again. So,
we need to be ready everyday of the year.
Give yourself a very special gift this year – Jesus, and the rest
will take care of its self.
Liz Roark
December
3
He Hears Our Cry
Psalm 130
Psalm 130: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord tugs
at 'heart-strings' throughout the ages.
The soul in agony cannot contain himself. All of him explodes like lava gushing
forth, driving us back on our heels.
We melt before him, arms raised as if to shield ourselves from the
intense heat. He speaks for all who
see no escape from the threat of ultimate destruction.
At first sight he appears in terror at his own death
coming at him, casting its shadow over him. His peers grasp the imagery of the
"great deep," from their world view, the waters on which the world
rests, as if those waters of "Sheol" (our common grave) were reaching
out to make their final claim upon him (Jonah 2:5). It brings to mind a person floundering
in vast waters and at last being swallowed up, sinking out of sight. Unmistakably this is literally the
language of death, but inevitable physical death is not the psalmist's
immediate concern, for he stares beyond death to the God he feels has abandoned
him to his sin. We join with the
psalmist in seeing through the imagery to its spiritual significance, as
penitents desperately seeking to bridge the gap and break through the wall
separating us from God.
Psalmist 51 likewise prays, “Hide thy face from my
sins, and blot out my iniquities.” Psalmist 130 doesn't use the word
“sins,” but it is obvious his iniquities are his burden. I prefer the word “iniquities,”
because it shows that this is not a trivial matter. I suspect that the word
“sin” has dropped out of everyday usage---even in sermons, because
of a long history of over-usage, in applying it to matters which are, in fact,
trivial. The problem is that one
person's definition of trivial, like sin itself, is not another's.
For example, see the parable of Jesus in Luke 18:
9-14: "Two men went into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other
a tax collector. The Pharisee stood
up and prayed thus “I thank God that I am not like the rest of men,
greedy, dishonest, adulterous; or for that matter like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes on all I get." But the other kept his distance and
would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but pummeled himself, saying "O
God have mercy on me, sinner that I am." Jesus concluded: It was this man ...
and not the other, who went home acquitted of his sins.
Writers of Psalms 130 and 51 nourished no illusions
about themselves. When push came to
shove, they'd taken the easy way.
For a long time everything had seemed all right, when the sin overtaking
them showed how far they'd strayed.
Unlike others, they blamed neither others nor the devil, claimed no
mitigating circumstance, and taking full responsibility, threw themselves on
God's mercy. They required no
patch-up job, pardon for this or that particular sin. They offered no record of valor or
righteousness. God owed them nothing.
They owed God everything.
Belief in the character of God was their only hope. Their attitude: though I perish, yet
will I trust him. A.J.Gossip in
Experience Worketh Hope, wrote:
"Rely, not upon anything in yourself, but upon
… God--not on your faith, which is a fickle thing, but on His
faithfulness which is ... sure and certain: not on your love to Him, which
flows--and ebbs, but on His love to you which is from everlasting to
everlasting: not on your crumbling efforts after something better, but on His
eternal purposes of mercy towards you, which go the length of Calvary--for
you. As Browning said,
“Beware of sin that steals back on a soul half saved. Hold nothing out. Trust Him to do for you what you've
proved powerless to do for yourself."
The ancient world was haunted with a pervasive sense
of having offended God, who one way or another would hold one accountable. When tragedy came, as it must, sooner or
later to us all, this was taken as clearly demonstrating the way of the
transgressor is hard. Does
modern man deserve an easy conscience?
What's happened?
Ordinarily we do not live at the edge of
survival. We know there's no
free lunch. Someone must work,
but most have considerable lead time before desperation sets in. Likewise, vast numbers who don't know
each other provide us with a shield of anonymity. We cut corners here and there, now and
then. Everybody does it and nobody
cares! Well, everybody doesn't do
it, and those who suffer for others having done it do care -- together with the
Lord who suffers along with the violated, betrayed, victimized and exploited.
Within the reach of memory half the adult population
of this country had counted themselves church members. We'd grown accustomed to thinking of
this as a Christian nation, whose conventional standards should serve as
adequate moral guidelines. If we
manage to stay out of trouble, avoiding gossip or jail, we congratulate
ourselves we're not as others are, and certainly better than most, which
should be good enough.
Psychologists have researched what most folks call average. It should come as no surprise that the
vast majority, like the cartoon character Yogi, tell themselves they're better
than the average bear. Obviously
an error of perception, but one which serves to make us so very comfortable.
If we grant (which we shouldn't) that we're better
than average, that is, we're conventionally good, how good is that? Do we not despise abandonment and
betrayal as among the worst sins?
We remember what Judas did, and forget what Peter did. At the public execution of Jesus all
the disciples forsook him and fled.
May we presume we'd have done better, when we turn deaf ear and
blind eye to the plight of innocents, with whom our Lord identifies? How long did it take to free the
slaves? How long before we force
public policy to provide for the ill and homeless? Again and again we fail to take
initiative in this democracy, as if the effort were too much for us, shoving
the responsibility to those who, by default, have attained political power. We support their inhumane blindness and
dereliction of duty because we can't face our own. Wouldn't Jesus say: You do it to
them, you've done it to me. Fail
them, and you've failed me!
To return to Psalm 130: 3: "If Thou, O Lord,
should mark iniquities. Lord, who
shall stand?" Likewise, when
Paul wrote to the Romans, "There is none righteous, no, not one, for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God," he had in mind, not only
his stoning of Stephen, but the whole social outlook which created that sort of
possibility, which he once shared, with everyone else. What to do? As the psalmists have, and as Paul
wrote, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord." verse 4: "But there is forgiveness
with Thee." This is what we
mean by the "Grace of God."
Sin and grace are meaningless concepts apart from a
belief in God. Without God there is
no basis on which for them to operate.
Sin and grace take their meaning from the relationship between humankind
and God. Sin signifies alienation
from God. Grace indicates God's
bridging the gap and reestablishing the relationship. Paul summed up the Christian point of
view in writing the Corinthians, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself."
Sin is something that rebellious human beings do in
the presence of God, whereas grace is something that God does to overcome the
distance, and restore the relationship, as if there had been no rupture at
all. The psalmist says with regard
to our sins, that "He remembers them against us no more (Psalm
103)." For all practical
purposes, when God forgives, He forgets.
Not in the sense that He no longer knows what happened, but that,
despite their having happened, He remembers them against us no more. Our lives are all so interconnected that
the consequences of our sin must run its course, and for the sake of everyone
else, God must keep track of it. One might say, He continues picking up the
pieces, making whatever adjustment the situation allows.
Psalm 130 concludes with "I wait for the Lord,
and in his word I hope ... more than watchmen for the (coming of)
morning." Watchmen who have
fought sleep all night long, and eagerly watch for the break of day find in the
dawn the clear evidence their labor is done. When we face the enormity of our sin,
and realize there is nothing we can do which will sufficiently make up for it,
and at last look beyond ourselves to God's love for us, we have hope.
We celebrate Advent season, for that is when God
through his Son showed he loved us so much, waiting in hope was not in vain. But how can God show us that in the
birth of the baby Jesus? He
couldn't at the time the baby was born, but He does so now, because we now know
in that particular birth our Lord come forth, in a few short years leading us
through Gethsemane, to
December 4
The Advent of Peace
Isaiah 11:1 through 9 (NRSV)
1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge
and the fear of the LORD. 3
His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear; 4 but with righteousness he shall
judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall
strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he
shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness
shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his
loins. 6 The wolf shall
live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the
lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall
graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like
the ox. 8 The nursing
child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its
hand on the adder’s den. 9
They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will
be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Recently,
I’ve been preaching on the reality of the
That
is kind of like what Isaiah prophesied for
We
Christians now use this passage from Isaiah in Advent to proclaim that all of
creation will be radically different with peace and harmony when the Second
Advent of Jesus the Messiah happens soon.
I believe this concept of a different earth will be fully realized when
Jesus returns.
However,
the message of Jesus was that the
Therefore,
my question is: what happened to the
Recently,
the
Pastor Glenn Hoskins
December 5
Belief
Matthew
15:29-37
Matthew 15:29-31 And
Jesus went on from there and passed along the
Matthew 15:32-37 Then Jesus called his disciples to him
and said, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me
now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I am unwilling to send them away
hungry, lest they faint on the way."
And the disciples said to him, "Where are we to get bread enough in
the desert to feed so great a crowd?"
And Jesus said to them, "How many loaves have you?" They said, "Seven, and a few small
fish." And commanding the
crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish, and
having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the
disciples gave them to the crowds.
And they all ate and were satisfied; and they took up seven baskets full
of the broken pieces left over.
These two passages describe two separate groups of
people who found themselves in the presence of Jesus, God’s Son. One group is the crowd of people who had
heard of Jesus’ miracles from their friends and neighbors. Many had probably listened intently to
what their friends were telling them and could not believe that an ordinary man
could perform such miracles. They
were the skeptics who had to see these miracles for themselves.
The other group of people who were out there were the
disciples. These were the men who
had been called to serve with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry and had
witnessed the miracles of Jesus.
Their knowledge of Jesus was not from friends and neighbors; they had
personally witnessed his miracles and were the knowledgeable people in the
crowd.
Once Jesus begins performing the miracles of healing
the sick, the skeptics began to see for themselves that this man was not an
ordinary man. He was extraordinary
and they were witnessing the Son of God’s healing powers. Though they were skeptical, they must
have had some belief that it was possible for Jesus to perform miracles, or
they would not have brought the ailing to Jesus. The skeptics were amazed by the miracles and praised the God of Israel.
The disciples asked Jesus “Where will we get
enough food for all of these people?” Even after they had traveled so long
with him, personally witnessed his miracles, prayed with him, ate with him,
served him and been served by him, they still ask. Jesus, in all of his kindness, does not
say to them, “How many miracles do you have to see?” Instead, He gently asks them, “How
many loaves do we have?” and, once again, performs the miracle of feeding
the crowd.
The question is, which group of people do you belong
to? Are you a skeptic in the crowd
who has belief that Jesus can heal the sick and want to come and see the
miracle for yourself, or are you the skeptical disciple who has to see the
miracle again and again? It seems
that these two groups of people are not too much different. Who are you most like?
Prayer: Dear
Lord Jesus, help our unbelief so we may see the miracles of God in our lives
today. Amen.
Jackie
Hoskins
December 6
The Two Foundations
Matthew 7:24-27
Please
Read Matthew 7:24-27 May the Lord
add His blessing to the reading of His word.
Sand or rock?
I can see times in my life when I have laid a foundation on one or the
other. I can also look back and see
the effects of both.
A few years back, as my life seemed to be crumbling
around me, it was the secure foundation of rock that sustained me. Frequent prayer, trusting in God. Having a spiritual community to uphold
me in prayer, share my burdens, and hold me accountable. Though I was angry and hurt, my life was
brought to a place of peace and happiness as I lived out the words of Jesus in
my life.
I can also look back and see the times when I felt so
distant from God that I chose to build on sand. I could not bring myself to listen to
the words of Jesus, let alone actually hear them. Rather, I took a role in the blame
game. How could God let or make
this happen. . . I fell out
of the practice of praying, not trusting and feeling sure I should bear the
burden alone. Peace and happiness
evaded me and my house collapsed.
Until finally, after I recognized that my efforts were futile, I found
my way back onto the rock Jesus had given me.
Let
us pray,
Dear
God, let me cling to you in all things.
Lord, help me build my house on the rock of Jesus’ words and His
salvation and not on the sand of my anger and fear. Amen
December 7
Turning Things Upside Down
Isaiah 29:13-19 (message)
13-14The
Master said: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but
their hearts aren't in it. Because
they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it, I'm going to step in and
shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears. The wise ones who had it all figured out
will be exposed as fools. The smart
people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know
nothing." 15-16Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside
track. You shut God out and work
behind the scenes, plotting the future as if you knew everything, acting
mysterious, never showing your hand.
You have everything backward!
You treat the potter as a lump of clay. Does a book say to its author, "He
didn't write a word of me"?
Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it, "She had nothing to do
with this"? 17-21And then
before you know it, and without you having anything to do with it, wasted
Wow. This scripture is pretty specific. I have been reading Isaiah lately, and
it seems that God has become pretty frustrated in this book. There are many places in Isaiah where
God has “laid down the law”, but he always provides that little
out. He always provides that prize
for the ones who do worship Him the way we are supposed to. In this passage he is ready to shake
things up. The frustration here is
not that they aren’t worshiping him, but that they aren’t doing it
from the heart.
God loves us so much. He sent His son to die for us. He didn’t do it because He had to,
He did it because He knew that we were struggling under the expectations. He took away the need to offer sacrifices. He took away all the rules when Jesus
died on the cross. Talk about
shaking things up. The only thing
we have left to do is love Him.
Wow. All we have to do is love Him. Love Him enough to want to worship
him. Love Him enough that when we
wake up on Sunday mornings we shouldn’t feel the need to say, “Oh
God, I have to go to church today.” But we should want to be able to say,
“Wow, I’m so excited that I get to worship my God today with my
church family.” He
doesn’t want us to have to do stuff because we are Christians, but he
wants us to be so excited about our love for Him that it spills over into the
rest of our lives and relationships.
When God sent His son, he pulled the rug
out from the riches feet. No longer
did you have to be able to buy your offering, you just had to be willing to
offer yourself. Now the cast offs
can sing and dance in the street.
The down and outs can shout praises. God gave us that right.
So, those who are deaf, hear what God
has told you for years. Those who
are blind, see what the Lord has done for you. He loves us so much, PRAISE THE LORD!
Prayer: Lord, thank you for sending your
son. Thank you for making it simple
and easy to praise and worship you.
Help us from trying to make it a chore and from making it harder than it
has to be.
Berta Rickman
December
8
He Has Chosen Us
Ephesians
1:3-10
God chose us
to be His adopted child and gave us all the spiritual blessings of His true
son, Jesus Christ.
Just
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as
sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.”
Ephesians
1:4-5
God predestined us to be His children. He didn’t wait to see how
beautiful we were, or how smart, or successful before he adopted us. We don’t need to beg, whine, or
try to earn God’s love and grace; He chose to give it to us freely even
before we were born. This
predestination does not exclude anyone, everyone is included in God’s
love and grace.
In
Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of His grace.
Ephesians
1:7
God’s grace is given to us through the death of
Christ on the cross at the expense of Jesus’ redeeming blood. Through this alone does God offer
forgiveness for our sins. God has
adopted us and through Christ’s blood redeemed us.
God gives us His love and grace freely, but this does
not take away our responsibility to accept it. Only through our belief in the Gospel
and in our salvation through the blood of Christ can we be forgiven and accept
God’s grace and be adopted into His family.
As you look at the baby in the manger this Christmas,
celebrate your adoption into the family of God, and if you have not accepted
Jesus as your Lord and Savior and received God’s grace in your life, all
you have to do is ask and it will be freely given to you.
Prayer: Lord, I thank you for all that you do and
praise you for all that you are. I
pray that this Christmas my thoughts and actions will be for your glory.
December 9
The Baptizer’s Proclamation
Based on Matthew 3:1-12
An ax at the root of trees and
unquenchable fire passage! The hard
words below make up part of this passage.
10The ax is already at the
root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut
down and thrown into the fire.
12His winnowing fork is in his
hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn
and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
This kind of passage used to send me running from the
Bible angry and disillusioned.
We are told to bear fruit worthy of repentance …
or else! Somehow these words tapped
into the perfectionist in me that knew I would never be good enough.
However, what if a tree is every action we take? What if a tree is just a moment in
time?
Every action that does not bear good fruit will be cut
down and thrown into the fire.
Every moment that does not reflect God’s grace and love will be
chaff burned with unquenchable fire.
All those actions and moments erased. They say the Bible is the Good
News. If all the trees, actions and
moments that do not bear good fruit are burnt, erased, eradicated … what
is left?
Then only the good is left. All my loving, honest, and caring
actions matter. Everything else
amounts to nothing. The moments I
live in God’s love, trusting and acting out of that love are forever.
Prayer – Gracious God, help me
use today to create moments filled with love, truth and grace. Help me see clearly so if a kind word is
needed, I will say it. If I need to
do something out of truth and love, let me do it. In my work, let me feel and magnify your
presence. Thank you for everything
… . Amen.
December 10
The Redeemed Shall Come Home
Isaiah Chapter 35
The thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah describes a time of
great joy. The desert wilderness
bursts into life with streams of water and growing things. The infirm are strengthened and the
people return home singing with joy.
As
I briefly summarized the chapter, I was struck by how the transformation of the
desert wilderness is like the Christmas season. In preparation for Christmas we see
homes and stores transformed with decorations, gifts, and music. We also work to transform our hearts and
attitudes as we focus on giving and hospitality. Christmas is also a time of homecoming
as many travel to be with family.
All
these sound like good things, but as we all know the holidays can also be a
stressful time. There is so much to
do to get ready, so many things to do, and the spending can be a strain on the
budget. We need to remember to take
time to focus our joy on the change that God works in our lives through the
birth of His son.
Prayer: God we pray for your transforming streams of
joy to wash through the desert of our lives in this season as we remember the
gift of your son.
Kristin Wintergerst
December 11
Comfort My People Says Your God
Isaiah 40: 1-9
The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are characterized by
Biblical scholars as “The Book of Judgment” – God’s
indictment and judgment against
“Comfort,
comfort my people, says your God.”
The people of Dafur are suffering; two million people,
forced from their homes due to continued fighting in
Who are God’s people? To the Jewish people of Isaiah’s
time, it was clear that they were God’s people; the chosen ones with
God’s special blessing (“I will bless you, . . . and all peoples on
earth will be blessed through you.” Gen
12:2-3, NIV). Isaiah’s
message points clearly to Jesus, the coming messiah. But is that all there is to this
prophesy? No, the words of Isaiah
are as relevant today as when they were written, over 2,700 years ago. Like many of the prophecies of the Old
Testament, we see a future fulfillment through New Testament eyes.
“In the desert, prepare a way for our God.” How can we prepare a way for our
God? We are each called according
to the gifts we have received, whether it is supporting the Food for the Hungry
program, buying groceries for Family Service, holding a bake sale to support an
overseas missionary, visiting a homebound neighbor. You get the idea. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth,
whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for
me.” (Mat 26: 40, NIV)
“He gathers his flock like a shepherd; he
carries them close to his heart.”
God desires a personal relationship with every person in his creation. Each one was created as a special act of
his love, and he sent his Son to show us the way to an eternal relationship
with him... As you prepare for this
holy season of Advent, may God fill you with His Holy Spirit that you may see,
in the birth of the babe of
Blessings, Alan Graham
December 12
God Roused for Exiles
Zechariah 2:10-13
I volunteered for this devotion, because of the
title. I’ve been through a
few periods of life lately that seemed like “exile” periods. But, contemplating what to write for
this devotion, I hit a mental block.
While waiting for inspiration, I’ve been reading a few books
ordered from the Upper Room website.
You might like to visit it too (www.upperroom.org).
A featured book recently was “Lighted Windows,
Advent Reflections for a World in Waiting”. I’m planning to give it as a
gift. In the meantime, I’ve
been skimming some sections. The
opening week is “Glimpses of Guidance”. The first day is based on the story of
Zechariah in the first chapter of Luke.
I really liked what was written, but didn’t see how to relate it to
my assignment. (Other than the name
“Zechariah” appearing in both.)
Among what she (Margaret Silf) wrote was:
“Perhaps, as the years go by, our attempts to follow the path of God,
however we envision it, may become like Zechariah’s – refined but
also reduced to the faithful fulfillment of a set of obligations… Such faithfulness is never to be
despised. It can be the seedbed of
God’s kingdom. Unfortunately,
it can all too easily turn into a comfort zone. We feel so settled in our holy niche
that we stop even expecting God to intervene in our lives… We keep on tending that flickering
little fire within us that still burns with a love for God. But we don’t expect to wake up one
morning and discover that the flames are suddenly leaping out of control. Neither did Zechariah!
“In short, our waiting upon God can become
simply the habit of waiting for its own sake – like waiting day after day
in line at the bus stop but being wholly unprepared for the possibility that
the bus might actually arrive. So
stunned are we when the bus turns up that we step back in disbelief and refuse
to get on board. How do we know
that the bus isn’t some figment of our imagination? How do we know that this is really our
bus and that it will take us to where we want to be? Maybe it would be just so much easier,
and safer, to stay in line at the bus stop. After all, we know where we are when
we’re standing at the bus stop.
Who knows where we might end up if we get on the bus?
“We might imagine Zechariah going through a
similar thought process. His
faithful, lifelong prayers for God’s guidance are suddenly answered, and
he doesn’t know how to respond.
His coping mechanism is to try to interpret the divine touch of God in
terms of merely human logic. But
God’s touch, as we know from experience, confounds human logic and goes
far beyond it…
“Zechariah’s story encourages me. It reminds me I’m not the only one
to fail to recognize God’s guidance even when it is given to me on a
plate, and that however stubbornly I fail to respond, God’s purposes will
not be deflected…
“God will wait for our response. And God will wait for as long as it
takes.”
As I thought about it, maybe there is a relationship
between the thoughts in this devotion and my “God Roused for
Exiles” assignment. The
exiles waited a long time before the signal came to return to
10Sing and rejoice, O daughter
13 Be silent, all people,
before the Lord; for he has roused himself from his holy
dwelling.
Janice Moody
December 13
God takes your hand
Isaiah
41:13,17-20
I am not a profound thinker, and I do not have all the answers. I only know that God is with me all the
time, standing by my side, holding my hand. However, I am most aware of His presence
in times of trouble. When our
babies died, He was there. When my
parents passed, He was there. In
the aftermath of the
Thank
you, Lord, for holding my hand, leading me on when I lack the strength to go on
my own. Amen.
Carole Radford
December 14
Prepare the Way of the Lord
Matthew 11:2-19
Matthew 11:2-19 tells the story of John the
Baptist seeking to find out whether or not Jesus was "the one who was to
come." John is in prison and
sends his disciples to ask Jesus if they should expect someone else. It is natural that John should have
questions—especially when things are going so badly for him. I don’t know about you, but when
things aren’t right I sometimes find myself questioning the Lord. I’ve even had thoughts about whether
my beliefs are true. Can all this
we believe really be correct? Is
salvation a reality? Can God heal? Am I doing what I should in putting my
trust in Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
If you never have any of these questions then you are very lucky. I take some comfort from the fact that
John was also questioning. I wonder
if he was related to Thomas?
John’s disciples get an answer:
"Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive
sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised, and the good news is now preached to the poor." (Matt 11:4-5)
Reading this passage this time I
realized that I have the same "proof" that Jesus offered John’s
disciples. When I begin to
experience doubt I just need to remember what Jesus has done in my family’s
life. I especially recall when we
were in the
Have I stopped having doubts because of
this and other miracles? I’m
afraid not, but when the doubts come I try to remember, "Go back and
report … what you hear and see …" I can report that God is
still in charge, that His Son, through us, still has the power to act, and that
His Holy Spirit is ready to fill us with grace.
During this Advent season I pray that
all of us will report what we see and hear so that others will know that our
God lives!
Bob
Denham
December 15
“They
saw no one except Jesus”
Matthew 17: 5-13
The story of Matthew 17: 5-13 is contained, in
essentially the same detail, in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Peter and the two brothers, James and
John went with Jesus to the top of a mountain (unnamed, but scholars suggest it
might be
Suddenly, Jesus stood before them in some sort of
supernatural form. His face glowed
as bright as the sun, and his clothing was as white as the brightest light
imaginable. It seemed as if the
light was emanating from Jesus himself and was not simply a bright reflection
of some external light shining on him from above. Then, two other individuals appeared in
this vision of intense light: Moses, the giver of the Law, and Elijah, the
greatest prophet of
But even before Peter was through speaking, the three
disciples were enveloped in a bright cloud, and they heard a voice saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with
him I am well pleased. Listen to
him!” They fell face down
on the ground in terror, but Jesus came and touched them,
saying, “Get up. Don’t
be afraid.” When they looked
up, they saw no one except Jesus.
We often want to memorialize the special moments in
our lives. We take photographs of
spectacular mountains, canyons, and sunsets in an attempt to relive the
experience at a later time.
Peter wanted to erect a memorial of the event – booths
representing Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, when God wanted them to focus all of
their attention on Jesus. Maybe
that is something we should focus on as we go about our daily lives. If we saw Jesus as the grocery store
cashier, the gardener mowing our lawn, the homeless person in the city park,
and every other person we meet, perhaps we would treat them differently. And Jesus would say, “Whatever you
did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for
me.” Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
In this season of Advent, let’s all “Keep
our eyes upon Jesus!”
Blessings, Alan Graham
December 16
Patience Despite Suffering James
5: 7-11
Patience is something I have always had to deal with, especially as a
child with a younger sister who had to have everything first. I didn’t like it much, but I
learned how to be patient and then I became a Mom, and the patience I had to
have.
I always
remember the phrase, “Patience is a Virtue.” I didn’t really understand it to
the fullest, but kept in mind all the time. I even told it to other people. Then things started getting a little
tougher in life, bills not meeting up like they should (do they ever?). Then my Mom getting ill and what seemed
like out of nowhere my Dad passed away and I just wanted to rush through life
and get the pain to leave and then I hurt my back again. I thought, “Oh, here I go, I will
just keep on going and try to ignore the pain.” But that didn’t help. I just kept stressing over everything. Every day I would see this picture my
Uncle scrolled for me that says, “Today is the tomorrow we worried about
yesterday, and all is well.” When I looked at that I would say “Another
day and here I am; I made it.”
My parents
would always tell me to just pray about it and it will be OK. Ask God to help you and when you ask you
must believe it yourself. Really
believe it. Then something happened
one day, and heard “be patient and trust in the Lord.” The more I was able to let myself relax
and hear the Lord’s word, the more I was able to really believe. I realized that I have had the patience
despite suffering.”
De Colores,
Pamela Fulton
December
16 – Second Reading
Blessed are the Enduring James 5: 7-11
Some among us live for the bottom-line. We want to see results, and we hardly
allow enough time for the seed we've sown to bring forth its harvest. Yet we find we must rely on conditions
beyond our control, such as timely and sufficient rainfall. Any farmer knows the end result is not
entirely up to the farmer. One
works in cooperation with the natural processes all about us. But this is not all.
Those involved in commerce may find others who oppose
their efforts, for many are jealous of another's success. There's not much room at the top. But we must persist, especially in the
face of renewed opposition.
Remember that the Lord is at the door. He knows your situation, better than you
know it yourself. He sees what you
may have missed. Nevertheless, be
sure your faithfulness will be rewarded.
If not in the way you may have expected, but in a way that meets your
real needs. A hostile world may
make bad things happen, and the Lord may have allowed it, but even before the
roof fell in, the Lord was nudging here and nudging there to mobilize a
response, yours or someone else's, that will lead
toward ultimate victory.
The prophets and Job remained faithful despite all
their enemies could do against them.
Take them as your role models.
For Job it was a test. Job
was equal to the testing, because he never compromised his integrity nor lost
his confidence in God. When we see
things in their proper perspective, we find that God is always compassionate
and merciful.
To make the matter plainer, the Lord is at the door
watching. As he sees you suffer, he
suffers with you. Under extreme
pressure, we sometimes imagine he has abandoned us. Our pain has focused all our energy and
attention on the immediate. In the
story of the Lord's temptations, we find him aware of the larger process, and
capable of making the better response.
But what happens when pushed to the extreme? In
We all die, and final suffering is a common
experience. We may not be in a
position to blame anyone. Indeed,
it is futile that with the wisdom of hindsight, we blame ourselves. We do all that we can to remain as long
as we can, but in the end he calls us home, because our work is done, and must
be carried out by those we've left behind.
As parents let go of grown up children, so must we leave the
'henceforth' in God's hands. He
alone can tidy up for us. So why do
we fear? If God be for us, who can
be against us? Remember, the Lord
is near. He never calls upon us to
endure more than we can, by his grace, endure. So let's keep our heads up, and our eyes
resting on him. For God was in the
suffering and dying Jesus, to draw the world unto himself. God suffers with our suffering, and
makes use of our fortitude through it all, to see us all the way through.
When we thrill at our babies, we do not think of the
struggles that may lay ahead. Joseph and Mary were aware that an
awesome responsibility lay before them in nurturing Jesus. Mary couldn't predict that her son would
be crucified while he was still a young man, but she lived to see it happen. The world did its worst, then God did
his best, and she came to know he'd been raised from the dead. And what had happened to him, both the
bad and the good, can happen to us too.
One difference. On this side of the crucifixion and the
resurrection, we have an expectation that they had to take on faith. What is required of us is to believe
that in him, we shall be lifted up too.
Blessed are the enduring.
Don Miller
December 17
God's Deliverance Prevails
Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8, 17
Psalm 72:7-8 - In his days may
righteousness flourish and peace abound until the moon is no more.
According to the
polls, to the news media and indirect evidence of it in our everyday life--cost
of food and clothing, at the gas pump, to mention a few examples--war
dominates. God's deliverance from
war's hardships and suffering comes chiefly through the good will and our faith
in the democratic system of our government. This help can be facilitated through
changes in the structure of our government.
At present we
have a war department in the form of the Department of Defense (the war
department established in 1789 was reorganized after World War II to the new
name). Why not have a Department of
Peace? Doing so doesn't mean
substituting a Department of Peace for our Armed Forces. Of course, we know sometimes force is
needed to protect our vital interest.
A Peace Department would be a partner, not an alternative, to the
Pentagon. This is not a new idea.
Back in 1792,
Dr. Benjamin Banneker (famed African-American inventor and scientist) and Dr.
Benjamin Rush (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence) proposed
a Department of Peace for the new nation to their friends George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson. Their prophetic
suggestion was not implemented; but now, more than 200 years later, the need
for a Peace Department is too compelling to ignore.
We have seen new
eruptions of violence in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and even
A bill has been
introduced in Congress to address this issue. It is clear and comprehensive. In it there is a provision for a
Above all, the
department would address the fundamental psychological and spiritual challenges
that threaten peace at home and abroad; the common threads that underlie them
all are the root causes of violence and man's relationship to his fellow
man. Here are some questions we
should ask ourselves:
·
What is more pressing than preventing the violent
death or injury of our citizens and of our fellow human beings everywhere?
·
How better to support our troops around the globe
than to create a Department of Peace?
Our young soldiers should know how to defuse a confrontation in a
foreign land, if possible without bloodshed. At the same time, our leaders should be
adept at preventive diplomacy, rather than preventive war.
·
How better to reduce the threat of terrorism around
the globe than to create a Department of Peace? It would respond to the growing national
consensus that we must understand and reach out to millions of people around
the globe who we can turn aside from the path of terrorism.
·
Most important, how better to revive
Some may claim
that there are enough offices scattered among existing departments that already
deal with arms control, negotiations and reconciliation. They may be skeptical about creating a
whole new department. But when we
recognized the need for a Department of Education, a Department of Homeland
Security and Environmental Protection Agency, Congress acted.
The key point is
what happens when the President and his top advisors confer in the Oval Office
about an international crisis.
We need a
cabinet member at the table, who will solely focus on, forcefully make the case
for, peaceful alternatives.
We need someone
there who will warn the President about the implications for world violence
tomorrow, if he takes aggressive actions today.
We have had
enough politicians assuring us that war is “absolutely a last
resort,” while they secretly plan to attack a land that poses no imminent
threat. We need to ensure:
· that
war really is
· that we
dramatically strengthen our peace-building capability;
· and
that nonviolent alternatives for dispute resolution become our first line of
defense.
Gandhi, Dr. King
and Nelson Mandela, who pioneered the paths of peace and nonviolence, are now
hailed as heroes of modern history.
Congressman
Dennis Kucinich, a renegade minor Democratic candidate for President, who along
with Gravel, differs significantly with all the other candidates (and no chance
of winning) introduced a bill (HR 808) to create such a cabinet-level position. I am not advocating that he should
become president, nor am I suggesting his bill is the one to be passed. But I do believe the idea has merit.
The bill also
includes:
·
A formal title: "Department of Peace and
Nonviolence"
·
The department is partly designed to "work to
... divert from armed conflict"
·
The department is to:
·
"... monitor and analyze causative principles
of conflict"
·
"develop new programs that relate to the
societal challenges of school violence, gangs, racial or ethnic violence,
violence against gays and lesbians, and police-community relations
disputes"
·
"...advise the Secretary of Defense and the
Secretary of State on all matters relating to national security"
·
"...develop policies that address domestic
violence, including spousal abuse, child abuse, and mistreatment of the
elderly"
·
"...develop policies to address violence
against animals"
·
"...develop such security measures as the
protection of human rights and the prevention of, amelioration of, and
de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict"
·
"...help with the enforcement of international
arms embargoes"
·
"...submit to the President recommendations for
reductions in weapons of mass destruction"
·
"...make annual reports to the President on the
sale of arms from the
·
"...study the role of the media in the
escalation and de-escalation of conflict"
·
Proposed additional positions include:
"Assistant Secretary for Arms Control and Disarmament"
·
Proposed transfers include: "Office of the
Under Secretary for Arms Control, and the International Security Affairs of the
Department of State.
"Blessed
are the Peacemakers." May God
bless our inspired efforts to make lasting peace a reality.
Jo Tyler
December 18
The Earth is the Lord’s
Psalm
24:1-6
Psalm 24:1-6
– 1The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to
him. 2For He laid the earth’s
foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths. 3Who may climb the mountain of the
Lord? Who may stand in His holy
place? 4Only those whose hands and
hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. 5They will receive the Lord’s
blessing and have right standing with God, their savior. 6They alone may enter God’s
presence and worship the God of
Because
“the earth is the Lord’s” all of us are stewards or
caretakers. We should be committed
to the proper management of this world and its resources, but we are not to
become devoted to anything created or act as sole proprietors because this
world will pass away. (1 John 2:17)
This
Psalm may have been to celebrate moving the Ark of the Covenant from
Obed–Edom’s house to
The
Psalm refers to all lies, especially those told under oath. How greatly God values honesty! Dishonesty comes easily, especially when
complete truthfulness could cost us something, make us uncomfortable, or put us
in an unfavorable light. Dishonest
communication hinders relationships.
Without honesty, a relationship with God is impossible. If we lie to others, we will begin to
deceive ourselves. God cannot hear
us or speak to us if we are building a wall of self-deception.
Carl Lee Gerber, Del Rosa UMC
Taken
from the Life Application Study Bible
and
the footnotes therein.
“A certain man …, named
Manoah, … had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the Lord appeared to her
and said, ‘… Now see to it that you drink no wine or other
fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will
conceive and give birth to a son.
No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite,
set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of
The woman gave birth to
a boy and named him Samson. He grew
and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him while
he was in Mahaneh….”
Judges 13:2-5, 24-25
A
Nazirite was a person of either sex, consecrated to God for a fixed period of
time—30, 60 or 100 days. The
Nazirite was bound by a vow of abstinence from intoxicating drink, forbidden to
cut his hair, or approach a dead body.
On rare occasions a child was consecrated before birth--Samson (Old
Testament) and John the Baptist (New Testament) are two examples.
Samson
had everything going for him—an angel foretold his birth, his family
diligently raised him apart from sin in accord with God’s wishes, and he
had the blessings of the Spirit stirring within him. Nevertheless, Samson later succumbed to
a carnal life and ended up a pathetic captive, blinded by his enemies. He did repent before his death and,
although severely flawed, Samson is mentioned in Hebrews 11 as a man of unwavering
faith in God.
We
can read the story of Samson, roll our eyes, and think, “I’d never
do the things he did!” But,
in truth, we all have flaws that have tarnished the favored beginnings of our
birth. We have also known those
thrilling moments when the Spirit has stirred within us, only to turn right
around the next day (or the very next moment!) and act in a way that betrays
our Creator’s plan for us. To
sin literally means “to miss the mark ”
During Advent, the Spirit will once again stir within
us, perhaps triggered by a special song, a glance at a rose-colored mountain, a
kind comment from someone important in your life, or even a devotional
scripture! But this is also a time
of increased stress, excessive eating, drinking and spending. Frustrations, anger, and complaining
will cause us to “miss the mark” almost daily.
Let’s find one new way to consecrate ourselves
to God’s plan—a short prayer about the day before turning on the
ignition of the car, read a single verse of scripture with coffee, or attempt
to attend worship for each Sunday for a month. Above all, let’s vow to have our
only “excess” be in the area of Love!
Prayer:
Holy One, we praise you for the Spirit stirring within us and for Your Son who
came to show us how to live in this carnal world. Help us to avoid the excesses that kill
the Spirit, and to learn how to love others as You love them. Amen.
Stephanie
Denham
December
20
God With Us in a Baby’s Birth
Isaiah
7;10-14
When I read the scriptures, “He
will give you a sign" popped up at me. In our daily lives we make instant
decisions both physically and mentally.
Sometime in the spring of this year, a man made a sudden and some might
say a courageous decision. In
Linda L. Smith
December
21
From Shame to Praise
Zephaniah 3:14-19
What a great message of hope from
God! I know that I certainly
don’t always feel like God can sing over me, or be proud of me, or happy
with me. There are plenty of times
I’m ashamed of myself, for any number of reasons. I’m short with my family. I drive by a homeless man asking for
food because stopping is inconvenient.
I am lazy in my studies, and yet want professors and classmates to think
well of me. I am frequently
inconsistent, self-absorbed, petty, irritable … and yet God loves me just
as much. Not my behavior, clearly,
because God is good and righteous and just, but God loves me. Just as I am, without
one plea, as the hymn says.
God loves me right now, right where I am, even as much as we are loved
when we feel blessed and loving and compassionate, selfless, humble, and bold
in our unspoken or spoken proclamations of God’s gracious Son. In fact, God is singing over us. The creator of the world is brought to
melodious joy because of the creation we are. How much more should we praise God, who
is so good to us, and promises enduring goodness? Praise God today, with every breath, and
try to listen for the music of God’s love.
Jessica
Moore
December 22
A Woman’s Prayer
1 Samuel 1:24-28
Elkanah
had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah.
Peninnah could have children, but Hannah was barren. She was devastated because she so
desperately wanted a son for her husband.
Elkanah assured her he loved her and treated her fairly. Hannah prayed year by year to the Lord for
a man child and promised that his hair would never be touched by a razor and he
would be lent to the Lord. So long
as he lives he will lent to the Lord.
Dedication and prayer assist us to witness for God’s son Jesus in
whose name we pray. Hannah’s
prayer was answered and so can our prayers with our belief in and dedication to
our Lord, Jesus.
Hannah
is one of the first examples of motherhood in history. As a Levite, her son Samuel would serve
in the tabernacle from age 25 to 50, but Hannah didn’t wait. She saw to it that her son
“ministered before the Lord” (2:18) during his childhood. Mothers today can guide their children
and encourage them to pray and serve the Lord. They can do it by example and prayer.
My
prayer and thought for now is: Our Father, please assist us in demonstrating
our dedication as we witness for your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Bob
Holt
December 23
Joseph Accepts God’s Child
Matthew 1:18-25
I selected this passage because there was some
resemblance of Joseph’s story and mine. The year was 1979, the month was
November and the date was 15th.
This was the day I was engaged to Mary –not the Mary in the Bible
– my wife Mary. It was an
arranged marriage as that was the custom then. After the engagement I left our home
town and went to
In our Bible reading for today we read the same story
like mine but with a different twist.
In the Bible, the news was Mary was pregnant. Joseph was a good guy. We do not read much about Joseph. Even in the life of Jesus we do not see
much about Joseph. Even though we
do not have much information about Joseph, we can derive some insight into his
character. Matthew writes Joseph
was a righteous man. A righteous
man was one who follows the law in every respect. He follows spiritual law and law of the
land. In the story we can read that
Joseph was faithful to God. Joseph
loved doing what was right. Like my
marriage, Joseph and Mary’s were also an arranged marriage. Like mine the engagement did
happen. In
Joseph was thinking about divorcing Mary and
abandoning her. But I think being a
righteous man he did not want to put Mary in a position of ridicule and
embarrassment. Joseph loved what
was right and loved what was just.
Probably Joseph could have brought Mary into justice for adultery and
the punishment could have been death.
Now the story took a turn and God intervened. God appeared to Joseph in the dream and
explained everything what happened to Mary. How many of us believe in angels? The angel told Joseph that the child
Mary was carrying is not his.
Joseph knew that. Not only
that, the angel told that the child was God’s child and that child will
save people from sins. What a
dream. What an astronomic
vision. What an incredible and
unbelievable message for Joseph.
Joseph might be thinking someone who has the power to save this world
would be growing in his home under his care! I don’t think anyone can believe
in our society today. Yet Joseph
loved God. I am sure that Joseph
never fully understood the significance of the child Mary was carrying. But he wouldn’t find anything
better than accepting this child than serving God. He would have thought that marrying Mary
was the right thing to do than ending their relationship. Perhaps Joseph felt that he could offer
the same heritage of faith, the love of God to Jesus. There was no doubt in the mind of
Joseph. When he awakes he weds Mary
and brings her home. When the child
was born he named him Jesus as instructed to do so. Because of Mary and Joseph’s
faithfulness and the decisions they made, we have the gift of God’s son,
our savior, for our sins.
I know you want to know the conclusion of my personal
story, right? My father-in-law went
to
As we think about the Christmas story, as we wait for
our savior to be born among us again I wonder what decision we are taking. First, are we ready to accept
God’s child in our life?
Sometimes we have to make very difficult decisions. What controversial decisions we may have
to make? What is the major issue we
are facing? It may be about a
relational issue, a moral issue, a financial decision, may be related to our
children, may be some languages we speak, may be a commitment we have to make
to follow God, or may be we are ignoring a call from God to serve Him.
Whatever it is, just like Mary and Joseph, the
decision we take today may impact more lives than just our own. Whatever decision we make, let that be
based on our Faith. Your decision
to accept Jesus as your savior for the sins will be a turning point in your
life. By doing so you will be
blessed and God will use you as an instrument to impact others around you.
Prayer:
Dear God: Please help us to take the right decision in our lives to serve you
which would impact more people around us.
Amen.
David Nesamony
December
24
Christmas Eve
Isaiah 9:1-6
I went on the internet after reading the
Scripture to see why these verses where chosen for Christmas eve as they talked
about the calamities, what we now call disasters, that had affected the known
world at that time. Chapter 9, if
mentioned at all, consisted of just one line while the rest of the many
chapters were discussed in great detail.
After the first five verses discussed all the trials God had put the people
through because they were turning away from him, Isaiah drops in verse six
which many of you will recognize from the Messiah. Verse 6: “For unto us a child is
born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and
his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting
Father, and The Prince of Peace. “
Verse 6 was to show us that even though
we had turned away from God he hadn’t given up on mankind but had sent us
a small baby to help lead the way back to him. As we celebrate the birth of God’s
son, we need to find our way back to God as our world today is experiencing
world wide disasters: hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, fires,
flooding, wars, famine, drought and other disasters. As we celebrate Christ’s birth, we
need to remember that God hasn’t given up on us and wants us to turn back
to him.
Grace Hart
December 25 - Christmas Day
The Tender Mercy of Our God
Luke 1:67-79
67-79 Then Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and
prophesied, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he came and set his people
free. He set the power of salvation
in the center of our lives, and in the very house of David his servant, just as
he promised long ago through the preaching of his holy prophets: deliverance
from our enemies and every hateful hand; mercy to our fathers, as he remembers
to do what he said he'd do. What he
swore to our father Abraham—a clean rescue from the enemy camp. So we can worship him without a care in
the world, made holy before him as long as we live. And you, my child, "Prophet of the
Highest," will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways. Present the offer of salvation to his
people, the forgiveness of their sins.
Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God's
Prophesies are overwhelming sometimes. I am glad that John
was little and didn’t understand what was happening to him, nor
understand what he was being prophesied to do. I have been prophesied
over twice in my life time. Both prophesies were overwhelming, but not
scary. Both times I just shook my head and said, “uh uh! That is so not gonna happen!” Ok,
so the first prophesy came to pass. I was told many years ago that I was
going to be a teacher. At the time I was in school to be an actor on
stage. I laughed at the man who prophesied over me. I had to call
him five years later and apologize. The latest one is even more
overwhelming, and it’s not something I am going to share right now.
I feel like there is this great responsibly put on me. It is scary
and exciting at the same time, but if I think about it to much I get freaked
out.
John got the awesome responsibility to pave the way for
Jesus’ coming. Can you imagine someone coming up to you today and
saying, “Hey, God just chose you to go out to all the nations and tell
people about the second coming of Christ.”
Yeah, kinda freaky right? John just grew
up with this already established, so it was no big deal when he finally set
forth to do what was foretold.
You know what? We are supposed to go out and preach to all
the nations about the second coming of Christ. We know that the first
prophesy came true. Jesus was born, and he was crucified for us.
It’s time to remind the world that God is real, that He loves us,
and He will come back for us someday. The cool thing is this. We
have each other for support. We don’t have to do it alone
Prayer:
God, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to share
you love and mercies to all the nations. Help us to not get overwhelmed
with the responsibility, and to remember that we can look to you and each other
for support. Amen
Berta Rickman