Advent Week 4: Promise

12/22 – 12/28

 

During the weeks of Advent, we have focused on Preparation, Hope, Passion, Peace, Joy, and Presence. This final Sunday and week of the season, which includes Christmas Day, we turn our attention to Promise and Love. During Advent we have been reminded that the God of love fulfills his promises according to his perfect timing and will. The prophet Micah shared this promise from God, “out of you {Bethlehem} will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2 NIV). The prophecy was fulfilled in Bethlehem when Jesus was born on the first Christmas day about 700 years after it was shared through the prophet. In Jesus, God fulfilled many promises spoken through various prophets. In Christ, the God of love fulfilled his promise to Abraham to bless all the people of the earth (Genesis 12:3). Rejoice, because the Lord has fulfilled his promises in the past, fulfills them now, and will fulfill them in the future! Read more…

Advent 2024 – “Come, Let Us Adore Him”

Advent Week 3: Presence

12/15 – 12/21

 

During the previous two weeks of the Advent season, we focused on Preparation, Hope, Passion, and Peace. This third week we add Joy and Presence. During the reign of King Josiah of Judah, Zephaniah prophesied that after God’s judgment upon the kingdom, Yahweh, their true king, would be in their midst again after the destruction of the kingdom (Zephaniah 1:1; 3:15b NRSV). The prophet foretold that a season was coming to “rejoice and exult with all your heart” (Zephaniah 3:14b NRSV). That season arrived with the birth of the Christ child on the first Christmas day. Two thousand years after Jesus’ birth we continue rejoicing and passionately celebrating, especially during the Advent and Christmas seasons. The prophet’s message from the Lord provided hope, comfort, assurance of God’s presence, and revealed that the mourning of the people of Judah would not last forever but would be replaced with joy. Zephaniah shared that God “will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17 NRSV). Read more…

Advent 2024 – “Come, Let Us Adore Him”

Advent Week 2: Passion

12/8 – 12/14

During the first week of the Advent season we focused on Preparation and Hope. During this second week we turn our focus to Passion and Peace. Passion is contagious. It is like a roaring fire that sets whatever comes into contact with it aflame. The gospel accounts reveal that John the Baptist was a passionate messenger of God “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” to prepare the first century Jews for God’s arrival in and through Jesus (Luke 3:3 NIV). Hundreds of years before John was born and his ministry began, a prophet foretold that when the Lord arrives, “he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap” (Malachi 3:2 NIV). The sinful nature within each of us that negatively impacts our relation with God, self, others, and creation, prevents us from living in peace. Thanks be to God, Jesus came to refine and cleanse us so that relationships could be restored and we can be formed into the people God intended and created us to be. This week invite the Holy Spirit to set your heart, mind, and soul aflame for the Lord with a burning passion similar to John the Baptist. Trust the Spirit of the Prince of Peace to guide you into confessing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and living as a peacemaker this Advent and Christmas season as preparation for Jesus’ return and the new year ahead (Isaiah 9:6; Matthew 5:9). Read more…

Advent 2024

“Come, Let Us Adore Him”

Living Faith Devotional

 

Another Advent season has arrived. December 1st is the starting line for our 2024 Advent journey. Although December is the end of the chronological calendar year, Advent is the beginning of the church calendar year. During Advent Christians throughout the world proclaim the coming of Christ as we make preparations to celebrate his birth. We remember that Jesus comes to us continually through the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Spirit. And with hopeful expectations, we anticipate his victorious return. Read more…

11/24 – 11/30

As we conclude our reading of the Old Testament book of Job this week, his friends will continue blaming and accusing him of doing something wrong as the cause for his suffering. We will be introduced to a new character in chapter 32, Elihu. Elihu has waited silently among Job’s friends, listening to them before speaking. The conversation among them has angered Elihu. He believes that Job’s friends are wrong for what they have said to him. Elihu also believes that Job doesn’t understand God’s ways and therefore cannot fully understand our Almighty Creator. According to the younger man, Job’s statements about God have included false accusations made in ignorance. When Elihu finishes speaking to Job on behalf of our Creator, God then answers Job from a whirlwind with a humbling speech (Job 38:1). Job’s response to God is to “repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6 NRSV). Read more…

11/17 – 11/23

As human beings that cannot fathom the fulness of the thoughts and ways of our God and his creation, we sometimes want to falsely blame the bad things that happen on those who are enduring hardship, loss, or devastation (Isaiah 55:8). Like Job’s friends who assumed that bad things were happening to him because of something he had done, the Gospel of John reveals a time when Jesus’ disciples made a similar assumption. “As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned: he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him’” (John 9:1-3 NRSV). The man was then healed by Jesus and was no longer blind but able to see (John 9:6-7). Read more…

11/10 – 11/16

During the month of October, we read Proverbs. King Solomon, Israel’s wisest king, is given credit for the majority of the proverbs within that Old Testament book (1 Kings 3:1-15; Proverbs 1:1). In it Solomon teaches that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7 NRSV). To become wise a person must have a reverential fear of God. We need humility in approaching the Lord as the source of life, knowledge, and wisdom. As a young king, Solomon asked the Lord for “an understanding mind to govern” God’s people, so that he could “discern between good and evil” (1 Kings 3:9 NRSV). The Lord gave him a “wise and discerning mind” because of his humility and faith in God (1 Kings 3:11 NRSV). As part of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches us to “ask and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7 NIV). Humbly asking God in faith is an important part of the process for gaining wisdom and understanding. Read more…

11/3 – 11/9

This week we will continue reading and conclude our study of Ecclesiastes. According to the Bible Project video The Disturbing But Surprising Wisdom of Ecclesiastes, this Old Testament book of wisdom focuses on “the march of time,” the truth that no matter how wise or foolish, rich or poor, old or young a person may be “we are all going to die,” and that “life’s random nature” means that things don’t always turn out as portions of the book of Proverbs claim in regards to cause and effect. This random nature of life is described by a Hebrew word that is often translated in English versions of the Bible as “meaningless” or “vanity.” A better understanding of the Hebrew word used by the author of Ecclesiastes more than thirty times might be to think of it as “smoke,” “mist,” or “fog.” Although life is deeply meaningful, the author of Ecclesiastes wants us to know that fully grasping the complexity of life is like holding onto smoke, mist, or fog. It can be seen, but not fully grasped. Perhaps that is why we are reminded by “the Teacher” to enjoy the simple gifts God provides during our lifetime (Ecclesiastes 1:1; 2:24). God is our Creator, Provider, and Sustainer, so it is helpful to remember that whatever we have been given or will be given, including food to eat, liquids to drink, meaningful relationships, and satisfying work to do, are gifts from the One who is the source of life, faith, hope, love, and joy. Read more…

10/27 – 11/2

This week we will finish reading Proverbs, then begin reading another Old Testament book of wisdom, Ecclesiastes. No matter which book of the Bible we are reading, each day we have opportunities to acknowledge our source of life, salvation, and wisdom. As you finish reading Proverbs and begin reading Ecclesiastes, you are encouraged to choose the Lord’s wisdom, will, and way for your life as you daily acknowledge Christ Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

 

The format of this plan is designed for you to use as much or little as you have time to use each day. Below is a guide for the daily use of this devotional:

Each Day

• Read the Psalm
• Spend a few minutes in silence as you wait in the presence of the Lord
• Listen to and/or Sing a worship song or hymn
• Watch the videos before or on Thursday
• Read The Bible verses for the day
• Pray
• Live according to your faith in Christ Jesus

Read more…