'ADVENTAGES' OF LIFE

I presented the last of the 4 ADVENT lessons today so I'd like to share it with you. I was blessed as I shared the LOVE of GOD with these dear ones.. I am especially thrilled by the lyrics to the included song which is new to my husband and I.. 

This week's candle is the candle of LOVE… What more can we say than, "For God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten Son.." What a wonder... Our MAJESTIC, MAGNIFICENT, MIGHTY LORD ABOVE, would come to us in a little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger amidst livestock, hay, and all else present in a stable.

We are aware of how 'We love because He first loved us.'  Where would we be without his COMPASSION, MERCY, and GRACE?

This year, I've become aware of this wonderful Christmas song :

                        Let This Christmas Be

Let this Christmas be Christ in me
The love of God sent down
For the world to see
Let the grace You’ve shown be evident in me
Let this Christmas be, Christ in me

Creator of the heavens, Majesty unknown
Behold the incarnation in Jesus alone
Fully God and fully man
Lord help me to understand
The knowledge of your grace
Now given to me..

I am so totally blessed, and moved deeply this year, by having taken a closer look at the 4 candles of Advent (HOPE, PREPARATION, JOY and LOVE) as we approach this coming Tuesday's celebration by giving to  others because HE first gave to us! May his LOVE within each of us be the reason  for the season as we desire to give to others! Remember.. What we give doesn't need to be wrapped beautifully, having been purchased at a price because HE has already paid the ultimate price on our behalf!! His LOVE was/is SO great that HE was laid in that manger, then, hung on that cross… ALL because of HIS deep desire for us to know and access HIM personally as our LORD.                                                                            MAY WE ALL GROW MORE DEEPLY IN LOVE WITH HIM MOMENT BY MOMENT..

Call Him MESSIAH

     As this season of Advent progresses, I am blessed by paying closer attention to what it can mean. ANTICIPATION and ARRIVAL  are two definitions attached to Advent. The 4 candles  are said to represent PREPARATION, HOPE, JOY, and LOVE. One thing I've learned recently is how  ROMANS 15:12-13 contains a prophecy from ISAIAH conveying how MESSIAH would make HOPE available to ALL mankind.. no longer only the Israelites..Gentiles are included in verse 12! That's most of us reading/writing this! Not only that, but the point the Apostle Paul makes in verse 13 (which happens to be the one I get the address of this BLOG from!), is PEACE, HOPE, and JOY, are for all who TRUST in HIM.  In the wake of the tragedy in the elementary school recently, many of us may be feeling a lack of these needed realities in life.. I have found when I look into the face of my  LORD JESUS CHRIST, I don't need answers as to 'Why?," but can draw on his endless supplies of comfort.. yielding peace, hope, and joy in spite of 'circumstances.'  Maybe these lyrics to a song John and I LOVE to sing in harmony best summarize just how the birth of one VERY SPECIAL BABY over 2,000 years ago can make such a difference even today!

"What shall we call this man, whose voice has calmed the sea.. this man who laughs with children, and walks with fishermen? What shall we call this man whose love  has pierced our hearts, whose words of life have reached into the depths of who we are?                                                CALL HIM MESSIAH, CALL HIM, CALL HIM YOUR KING..              CALL HIM THE MIGHTY AND MAJESTIC LORD OF EVERYTHING..                                                                          THE HEIR OF DAVID, THE PROMISED ONE..                                            CALL HIM MESSIAH, THE LONG-AWAITED ONE!" 

I pray a blessed CHRISTmas season and following days for all of you!

Cheasured and Trerished!

I've forgotten just exactly when and why I tried to speak the words in this title, but it was sure one of those memorable moments when your mouth and mind just don't seem to cooperate with each other!! Of course, I laughed it off as 'one of those moments..'  But, it has me thinking about how often we possibly have 'one of those moments' when our WALK and our TALK just don't 'jive' with one another.  Paul, the apostle, speaks of this in ROMANS 7:15-20.
¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
As read and re-read this, I noticed how it's a contrast to GALATIANS 2:20 which relates how it is CHRIST who lives in me since I have been crucified with Him. Somehow, I think we all need to 'think before we speak,' so to say.. This way, we'll avoid confusing what we intend to convey to others, as well as, to our LORD!  For, we are truly TREASURED, and, CHERISHED!