Thursday, December 8, 2016

Advent Day 8



"It is written in Isaiah the prophet:
'I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way - '
'a voice of one calling in  the desert,
Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.' "
And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." 
Mark 1:2-4

"A missionary by training and calling, John spent his life on the move, fulfilling the prophetic call of his own life, in order to prophesy about the coming of Jesus. John was born for this very purpose (Luke 1:13-17). Our own lives too bear the mark of calling. God continues to call us first, to repentance, then, to mission. While the culture shouts the material beauty of the Christmas season–lights, ornaments,parties,gifts, our lives might offer a less flashy, but far more exciting narrative–sin, repentance, grace, manger, cross, resurrection! When we tell the true story of Christmas, even to our own hearts,we make room for Jesus to come fully in. We cannot tell the story without remembering our own need for a Savior. There is someone among us who needs to hear a truer version of the story, the version that tells it like it was, like it is still, and how it will be in the end.  This is the story where you want to reveal all of the spoilers. John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins(Mark 1:4), his voice calling out into the wilderness, the barren, Christ-less places of the world, prepared the soil of hurting hearts, a place for Jesus to enter in–to fully come. His words are for us today, even as they were for the people of Judea and Jerusalem. In order to prepare the way, we must make a way for our own hearts to receive Him, by way of repentance." ~Kris Camealy, p38.




The globe in the above picture is a Christmas ornament I bought for my daughter who loves globes. I took the opportunity to take some pictures of it before I shipped it to her. :)

My favorite line from today's reading: As Christ-followers "our lives bear the mark of calling. God continues to call us first, to repentance then to mission." May we each embrace that call during this Advent season and find a way each day to share with others the love of God through the gift of His Son. 

Resources:
Come, Lord Jesus: The Weight of Waiting by Kris Camealy. Available at Amazon.
Come, Lord Jesus Advent Book Club at Creative and Free.
Visit my church's website where we are offering a weekly Advent theme devotion and resources on our blog: Grace Church 

No comments:

Post a Comment