Merry Christmas season to you and yours.
Today's Upper Room devotional is truly a message for the Christmas season, and for each day of of lives.
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Sunday, December 06, 2009
Wait Simply
Suggested Bible Reading
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
-Romans 13:11-14 (NRSV)
Today's Scripture
It is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.
-Romans 13:11 (NRSV)
AS a pastor, every Advent I tell folks, "Over the ages, Christians have found it a beneficial discipline to simply wait; to wait simply; and while they're waiting, to take an inventory of their lives." And then people tell me, "Don't be such a party-pooper." Honestly, I don't enjoy the role of John the Baptist who calls people to repentance. I prefer being Mike the Methodist who attends a slew of Sunday school Christmas parties.
Yet we are called to prepare for Christ's coming as we wait. We prepare for Jesus' coming by acknowledging our need for him. Realizing that we need Jesus isn't very merry. It requires us to be honest about what's missing in our lives and about what's wrong with us. Advent calls us to recognize that the void in our soul cannot be filled by gadgets, entertainment, food, alcohol, drugs, sports, busyness, travel, work, religion, or church. We know that because we've tried. These do not satisfy because the void in us is a God-shaped hole that only the Holy One can fill.
Advent prepares us to see that Jesus, the baby in the manger, is the Holy One of God. If we do not wake up, our sleepy eyes will not recognize God in the baby who looks more like us than like God.
Mike Ripski (Tennessee, USA)
Prayer
Dear God, we have a habit of getting lost. As you wait for us to come home, teach us to wait for you to show us the way. Amen.
Thought for the Day
In Christ, God has given us the gift we most need.
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Praise and Worship
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Philippians 2:9-11
Philippians 2:9-11
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