Acts 17:11
Consider this
Taking the necessary time to recoup and quarantine since having COVID has meant Sundays away from you. This has been hard, especially in light of recent events. What we witnessed at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6th, in the wake of a complex and burdensome year, leaves us all emotionally unsettled. Tragically, the violence and destruction of that day only deepened the seemingly intractable divisions in our nation…
“The time that made Advent meaningful, that made the Incarnation come alive, is we had a family tradition where we viewed slides on an old technology called View-Master, and one of the slide sets was the Christmas story. There was this one picture of the wise men following the star, which covered the wall of the house that we were sitting in, and it was just amazing and mysterious…”
“The season after the Epiphany goes through what is called by Roman Catholics – and it’s catching on – ‘Ordinary Time,’ which means that it’s not devoted to anything in particular. Historically though, it was a season in which one considered the mission of the Church. It culminates in the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus…”
“A few weeks ago, a friend shared for KING & COUNTRY’s new music video ‘Little Drummer Boy’ with me. ‘It’s so beautiful,’ she wrote. ‘You will love it!’ If Little Drummer Boy is your favorite Christmas carol, I apologize for my initial lack of enthusiasm…”
“I didn't grow up in a Christian home and I only came to know Christ in my mid-late teens. The message of Christ and a very counter-cultural aspect of ‘God became man as a child’ didn't really make sense. During Christmas when I was growing up until when I was in my late teens and my college years, I started to understand actually what the Gospel was about and the whole revelation of what Christmas actually centrally is for…”
“One of the things that makes Christianity so unique is that we know God. We have a relationship with our God in a way that just, you don't find anywhere else. He's our God. He came down through Jesus Christ, His son, and lived with us for a small time in history. But it was a connection that is so meaningful…”
What does the Incarnation mean to me? What does it mean that Jesus, the Son of God, became flesh and lived among us? I am not sure I have the language for a sufficient answer. Rather, let me borrow these words from the first verse of “O Holy Night.” O holy night, the stars are brightly shining, It is the night of our dear Savior's birth, Long lay the world, in sin and error pining 'til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
“Having our first baby, we adopted three kids, but I just remember seeing Laura, our oldest one - being there, seeing her as a baby. And so the meaning of Incarnation … just my thought went to Jesus being born. And what did that mean to me? I became a father, and that gave me the chance to see the Father heart of God and bringing a baby into the world.”
“You'll have hymns at Christmas, like ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem',’ in which we hear about how silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts, the blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming. But in this world of sin where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in…”
Our Advent meditations take us on a journey of faith through the stories of four women whose names we do not expect to find in the lineage of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 1. At Christmas we easily see the beauty and significance of Mary’s faith in her obedient submission to the announcement that she would bear the child who would take away the sins of the world. She too is named in Matthew, but contrary to the other women, Mary lived to see the results of her faith…
“One of the best parts about Advent is just the time that you get to spend on reflecting, why we need a savior and what Jesus gives to us and gives us hope. And a fun way and a really meaningful way for me is Silent Night when we get to turn off all the lights and just sit in the silence and hear the beautiful music…”
