Advent Words 2022 ~ Coming Soon!

Here in Ohio where I live, we have had an incredible Autumn. It has been warm, right up to two weeks ago when we had temperatures in the 70's which quickly turned to temps in the 20's and 30's last week. In addition to mild temps, we have also had incredibly brilliant colors. Every tree seemed to be radiant in color this year, and at times the landscape would glow. Now, as the weather returns closer to what is normal for November we come upon the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., which is quickly followed by the start of the Advent season.

I found this year as I was beginning to think about the Advent Words challenge, that after six years there isn’t really anything new to dig into. The same words, the same Scripture passages, and the same music guide us each year through the Advent season, just as it has been done for centuries. I found that as I approached the Advent season over the past two years that there was great comfort in the familiarity of a story and truths that do not change as we faced so much change with a pandemic, politics, and our current divided culture. The Advent story is a story that brings us hope in the midst of anything we may face, no matter what the current season holds for us.

This year I decided we would investigate the characters that guide us through the story of Advent and Christmas. Every story has characters, some minor, some major. Their individual stories are woven into the greater story, filling it out and giving us a bigger picture. Their stories have popped up in previous Advent Words challenges, but this year we’ll look a little closer at them and the role they play in the Advent story. Of course, every story has a main character, and the Advent story is no different. Our main character is God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and every character in the story ultimately points us to Him.

I hope you will join us on this Advent journey. These Words Challenges are meant to enable us to slow down during this season that is intended for waiting, longing, preparing, and reflecting. Instead, in our modern age, the season has become more associated with hurrying and shopping and consumerism. Advent Words calls us to approach the season more like a pilgrim than a consumer; to embrace the journey as a pilgrimage. Brian Morykon of Renovare.org describes a pilgrimage like this:

“Pilgrimage...It’s a journey undertaken with a humble heart and with an openness to be transformed. The pilgrim isn’t trying to get somewhere as fast as possible. She wants to become something along the way. She’s willing to linger, to reflect, to slow down.”

So, let’s slow down in the weeks ahead and read some Scripture, get creative, and go on a pilgrimage through the Advent story. Hopefully as we slow down their stories will ignite in us a deeper hope and peace and joy and love that is ours in Christ. We are all on a journey of becoming as we grow more and more in Christlikeness. May God meet us in the midst of this Advent pilgrimage wherever we each need to be met by His Holy Presence.

In September I did a challenge through the book of Galatians. I tried an every-other-day format, giving us a day to create in between the words. I polled those who participated at the end of the challenge and found overwhelmingly that they preferred the every-other-day format as they felt they had more time to read and reflect and respond creatively. So, we will try that format for this year’s Advent Words challenge. Below is the calendar with the words and Scripture passages as well as an Instagram badge with the words list.

Click on photo for a printable version of the calendar

Here is how the Words challenge works:

· I will post Bible study devotions, along with how I responded creatively, on this blog every other day beginning on November 27 through December 25. You can follow this blog by email or there will be daily links to the posts in the Words Challenge Facebook group

· Respond with whatever creative practice you choose: art journaling, mixed media art, scrapbook, photography, digital art, poetry, creative writing, calligraphy - any way you choose! As you take in the Scripture and devotions into your heart and mind, let it sink even deeper as you practice creatively with your hands.

·  Join the Words Challenge Facebook group where you can share your art and ideas and join the conversation through the Advent season and beyond.  I host a number of Words Challenges throughout the year. 

·  Share on Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #adventwords2022.

 

 February Art Journaling

This year for The 100 Day Project I am making #100daysofminicollage. Here are days 1-15:

These mini collage pieces are being made in the corners or along the page edge in my daily art journal or in my Spiritual Formation journal. This way they adorn my pages for other projects.

Other projects I am working on or participating in are: Making pages for the Rhythm of My Daily Life (my weekly or monthly pages of life stuff), my weekly Formed By the Word project each Friday on my blog, documenting my word of the year (formed), and I joined Hope Wallace in her Patreon group where we get prompts for each month connected to personal growth and creativity.

I post the pages I make for Formed By the Word each Friday, but here is one of the pages where I used my mini collage from the 100 Day Project along the page edge and then one in the corner for Ash Wednesday.

I hope you had a creative February!

Formed By the Word: Week 3 ~ Perspective: Godly Perception

 

Week 3 ~ Perspective: Godly Perception

Today is part three in a series of Words challenge posts looking at Chapters 3-5 of 2 Corinthians. These chapters contain a lot of "perspective" words. Words such as seen/unseen, light, reveal, veiled/unveiled, display, show, reflect, sight, see, look, eteranl/temporary, blinded, regard, view, eyes. Paul's theology in his letters is that the right perspective is God's perspective. In these chapters in 2 Corinthians he shows that godly perspective impacts how we live, how we see others, how we view trials and suffering and the circumstances of life, and how we view eternity. So we will break these down and dig into them:

• Week One ~ Perspective: Behold Christ.
• Week Two ~ Perspective: Eyes Wide Open
• Week Three ~ Perspective: Godly Perception
• Week Four ~ Perspective: Eternal Eyesight

Godly Perception

When we have God’s perspective, we see others as He does, both unbelievers and believers alike. Our perception of others is seen through the lens of the gospel. In 5:16-17 Paul says,

“So from now on we regard [view, see, consider] no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded [saw, viewed, considered] Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

I used verse 17 (new creation) in earlier posts regarding our position in Christ, and it is true, those who are in Christ are new creations. But the context shows us another way to view this verse. Let me break it down. It starts with “so from now on”. From when? We must look back at the previous verses. From the point when we were compelled by the love of Christ, recognizing that He died for all and we thus began a new life, we had our eyes opened that our lives now are to be lived for Christ (5:14-15). Before then we lived for ourselves by the world’s standards or point of view. That is, we lived with ourselves at the center of the universe. Our needs, our rights, our wants, etc. were more important than others, and even more important than God’s. This is what Paul means when he says that we once regarded Christ in this way (5:16) – we made no room for Him in our lives because we did not see Him in the right light – in God’s light.

But now that we are living as unveiled people in Christ, we live to please God (5:9) and are called to live by the standards, or point of view, that God calls us to, for we see His glory clearly now. Not only that, but Paul says, “we regard no one from a worldly point of view”, not anyone. This means we don’t even see unbelievers from a worldly point of view. We cannot hold them to God’s standards for living because they live with their minds dull, their hearts veiled, and their eyes unable to see spiritual things. We see them as they really are, as those in need of reconciliation with God, who need the opportunity to have their eyes opened to the freedom that comes form the Lord (3:17) by being freed from the burden of sin.

But for those who are in Christ we need to see them as who they really are as well. They are a new creation in Christ. Everything that the Bible says is true of the identity of God’s children is already true of them – even if they don’t yet believe it or live up to it. They are a new creation! The old has gone, but still will need to be dealt with as we grow and mature and are transformed into the image of Christ in ever-increasing glory (3:18). So, we live as living epistles of Christ in order to help those who live veiled lives be reconciled to God, and to encourage those who are in Christ to fully live as transformed new creations in Christ’s image.

I would love to have you to join me in being formed by the Word this year. After reading the above post, do some study on your own. Dig deeper into the verses and passages mentioned and then respond creatively. Share your thoughts and creative responses in the comment section below or on social media with #formedby theword and #wordsartandfaithgroup, and in our private Facebook group for words challenges the Words Art and Faith group.

Formed By the Word: Week 2 ~ Perspective: Eyes Wide Open

Week 2 ~ Perspective: Eyes Wide Open

Today is part two in a series of Words challenge posts looking at Chapters 3-5 of 2 Corinthians. These chapters contain a lot of "perspective" words. Words such as seen/unseen, light, reveal, veiled/unveiled, display, show, reflect, sight, see, look, eteranl/temporary, blinded, regard, view, eyes. Paul's theology in his letters is that the right perspective is God's perspective. In these chapters in 2 Corinthians he shows that godly perspective impacts how we live, how we see others, how we view trials and suffering and the circumstances of life, and how we view eternity. So we will break these down and dig into them:

• Week One ~ Perspective: Behold Christ.
• Week Two ~ Perspective: Eyes Wide Open
• Week Three ~ Perspective: Godly Perception
• Week Four ~ Perspective: Eternal Eyesight

Eyes Wide Open

When we behold Christ and see Him in the right light we come to see things - the world, circumstances, people, etc. - from God's perspective. In a sense we have new eyes, eyes that are wide open to His will and His ways. This is a part of our spiritual transformation. As we grow in Christlikeness our spiritual eyesight will grow as well. 

Now that we see Christ clearly – as the glory of God – we must then see ourselves more clearly as those who are in Christ. In Christ we are new creations (5:17), He took our sin that we “might become the righteousness of God’ (5:21). Thus, we are called to live by God’s standards, growing and maturing, being transformed into the image of Christ (3:18).

How then does Paul call us to live in these chapters in 2 Corinthians? By being living epistles of Christ.

“You yourselves are our letter [Greek = epistle], written on our hearts, known and read [proven by experience, seen, displayed] by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry [Paul made his life known to them and shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with them, turning their hearts to Jesus], written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone [like the old covenant] but on tablets of human hearts [The new covenant - God poured the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ into their hearts (4:6)].” 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 

The prophet Ezekiel shared God's promise that He would bring a New Covenant with His people:

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." Ezekiel 36:26-27

If you read last week's post these verses from Ezekiel fit right in. The heart of stone that God removes is the heart and mind that is veiled (2 Cor 3:13,14,15,4:3,4) and unable to see with spiritual eyes. But when we "turn to Christ, the veil is removed" (2 Cor. 3:16) and God's Spirit is in us through Christ. We have a new heart AND new eyes, which enable the renewing of our minds.

And, thus, Paul says we are living epistles. The gospel words are heard best when they are seen first in gospel lives – living epistles, displaying the character of Christ. We are called to live, to minister, to preach and speak, and to serve in ways that show God’s glory and reveal Christ. We are called to be Christ’s ambassadors (5:20) who are given the ministry of reconciliation (5:18), commissioned with the message of reconciliation – “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them” (5:19). He has called us to implore others to be reconciled to God – those who do not know Him, as well as those who know him but are not living for Him. For the love of God in Christ, who died for us, compels us to live for Christ and not for ourselves. 

"For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Our life in Christ comes with privileges and with responsibilities. We live, minister, speak, and serve so that others are drawn to “the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ” (4:4) and that His “grace may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God” (4:15). We live for His glory!

So, with spiritual eyes we see ourselves more clearly - we are living epistles, ministers of reconciliation, Christ's ambassadors - all of us who are in Christ are called to these roles. They are to become a part of who we are in Christ, our identity. May we see clearly who we are in Christ!

I would love to have you to join me in being formed by the Word this year. After reading the above post, do some study on your own. Dig deeper into the verses and passages mentioned and then respond creatively. Share your thoughts and creative responses in the comment section below or on social media with #formedby theword and #wordsartandfaithgroup, and in our private Facebook group for words challenges the Words Art and Faith group.

 

Advent Word 2021: Coming Soon!

 Advent Words 2021: Coming Soon!

We are just a few weeks away from the Advent season. This is my sixth year hosting the Advent Words Challenge and I have been thinking a lot about how to proceed this year. I had a number of new ideas, but then a few weeks ago I was studying for my weekly Bible study, and a passage was cross-referenced that I am very familiar with. Only this time when I read it I noticed that both of the Advents of Christ were referenced. Somehow I had never noticed this before even though I have studied the passage many times. That passage was Titus 2:11-14.

"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."

It's not a traditional Advent or Christmas passage, but I really like that we see Christ's first Advent, "the grace of God has appeared" and His second Advent, "the glorious appearing of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ". This is what the Advent Season is all about! Too often in our present day, we tend to focus mainly on the first Advent, the birth of Christ. But the Advent season is a call for us to both look back and look forward. We look back and connect with the longing for the Messiah the Israelites had, rejoicing in the Incarnation, and looking forward we connect with our own longing for the Messiah's return - the second Advent. And in between the two Advents - grace to glory - we must connect with God's call on how His people are to live out the life of Christ in this present age.

For the Advent Words Challenge we will spend the first half of the Advent season digging into Titus 2:11-14 and explore the Advent words we find within it. Words such as appear, grace, salvation, hope, wait, glory, Savior. etc. Then for the last half of the challenge we will look at some of the more traditional Advent and Christmas words and passages.

I enjoy having a separate journal for each year's challenge, so I made a new journal to create in for this year. I ended up miscalculating the number of pages I needed and now have double the amount! So, I may end up putting study notes in the back.

I decided to play some more with the painted paper torn collage style I have been doing recently, and have begun making background pages.

I hope you will join me this year. The Advent Words Challenges are meant to be done in community. I so enjoy seeing how people interpret the words and Scripture passages into various creative expresssions - art journaling, collage, photography, poetry, digital art, etc. And I enjoy the conversation and study insights in the Words Challenge Facebook group.

In the next few weeks I will post a calendar with the words and Scripture passages. Here's how it will work and how you can join along:

• I will post daily Bible study devotions, along with how I responded creatively, on this blog each day beginning on November 28 through December 24. You can follow this blog by email or there will be daily links to the posts in the Words Challenge Facebook group
• Respond with whatever creative practice you choose: art journaling, mixed media art, scrapbook, photography, digital art, poetry, creative writing, calligraphy - any way you choose! As you take in the Scripture and devotions into your heart and mind, let it sink even deeper as you practice creatively with your hands.
• Join the Words Challenge Facebook group where you can share your art and ideas and join the conversation through the Advent season and beyond.  I host a number of Words Challenges throughout the year. 
• Share on Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #adventwords2021.
• In the weeks before the Advent season begins reflect and prepare: choose the creative form you will use for your daily practice. Make or buy a journal that fits your creative form.

Advent Words Day 26 ~ Word

 

Day 26: Word

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." John 1:1-4

"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us." John 1:14a

The Word became flesh ~ the Incarnation. This is the great mystery and wonder and truth of Christmas. God took on human form and lived among us, and thus became fully like us. He understands us. The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that the incarnation  means that Jesus is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15), because He was tempted in every way He is able to  "help those who are being tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). Jesus was fully human. 

Yet He was also fully divine, fully God. We see in the beginning of John's Gospel that "In the beginning was the Word" - Jesus. The Word existed before time. He was with God. He was distinct from God, yet He was fully God. 

In His humanity He does not give up His divinity. Paul tells us in Philippians that Jesus willingly laid it aside and submitted humbly to becoming a man. In this He submitted to the Father's will. 

"In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

    and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father."

Philippians 2:5-11

 

The Word became flesh and lived among us ~ He was fully human and fully God. He was the fulfillment of the promise of Immanuel ~ God with us! This is the wonder of Christmas!

Today is Christmas Eve and the last day of Advent. Our waiting for the Christ to arrive has come! Yet Advent reminds us to hold onto that same hope-filled longing as we wait for His promised return. Thank you for joining me on this journey through Advent. I am so grateful for all who participate with me each year. The creative responses to the words and the Scriptures that have been shared on Instagram and in the Words Facebook group are true expressions of God's creative work in us and through us. This weekend I will share some of my plans for the year ahead. In the meantime,

Have a Merry Christmas! Rejoice, the Savior is born!

 

 

Share you responses on Instagram using #adventwords2020 or in the Words Art & Faith Challenge group on Facebook. 

Advent Words Day 25 ~ Immanuel

 

Day 25: Immanuel

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” Isaiah 7:14

 

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”- which means “God with us”.” Matthew 1:22-23

 

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” “  Revelation 21:3

 

Through deeper Bible study I have come to enjoy grammar. Yes, you read that right, I enjoy grammar! Let me tell you that this was not true for most of my life. I will not claim to have grasped a full in-depth knowledge of it, but if we are to truly understand the meaning of Scripture we need to connect with the significance of the grammar used.

Take note of a simple preposition used in each of today’s verses: With.  Advent is a season that reminds us that what we really long for down deep is God’s presence with us. We wait and we long and we look for it. 

 

Prepositions are all about the relationship between two words in a sentence. The same is true of the Bible. Author Jan Loyd, “With-ness of Our God”, says, “God uses many prepositions to reveal different dimensions (aspects) of our relationship with Him and the benefits of that relationship.”

So note this preposition ‘with’ in the verses above:

The Virgin will be with child and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

And they will call him Immanuel – which means God with us. (Matthew 1:23)

Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)

Just as there is an intimate relationship between a mother and the child in her womb, God provides the way for us to have an intimate relationship with Him. Through Immanuel – Jesus, the Christ – God’s presence abides in His people, and He is with us. 

The NIV Study Bible notes that the “with, with, with” combination used in Revelation 21:3 is the “most eloquent culmination of the Immanuel theme”.  God’s covenant relationship – I will be their God and they will be my people – is a thread of promise through the whole Bible, which culminates in the first and second coming of Jesus – Immanuel.

Let me leave you with a few verses that describe our covenant relationship with Immanuel:

Through faith in Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made for us on the cross, we have the promise of God's presence with us forever.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ...In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:13, 21-22

 

Through Jesus Christ God not only dwells with us, but He dwells in us through His Spirit.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.  John 14:16-17

 

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:20

 

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Romans 8:9-11

 

God's people, collectively as the church and individually, are now the dwelling place of God, His tabernacle!

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 1 Corinthians 3:16

 

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? 1 Corinthians 6:19

 

We are yet promised an even greater presence with God in the New Jerusalem. John paints a picture of that heavenly dwelling with God.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” “ Revelation 21:3

 

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. Revelation 21:22-23

 

Glory to God in the highest ~ Immanuel has come! God is with us!

Share your responses on Instagram using #adventwords2020 or in the Words Art & Faith Challenge group on Facebook. 

Advent Words Day 24 ~ Savior

 

Day 24: Savior

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

One of the fundamental claims of the Christian faith is Jesus is Savior. Our verse in Matthew tells us that Joseph and Mary were told by an angel of the Lord to name their son Jesus. It also gives us the reason why they were to give him this name:

“…because he will save his people from their sins.”

There is so much wrapped up in the name Jesus. Although a common name in that day, the naming of this child meant so much. The name Jesus in Greek is the translation of the Hebrew name Yeshua, which means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation”.  The child was given the name that would describe who He would become: the One who would save people from their sins. And so the angels declare at his birth:

“Today your Savior is born in the city of David. He is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11(NET)

Your Savior is born. This is good news for all! We all have sinned; therefore we all need a Savior. Through Jesus God has provided the way for our salvation.

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17

Jesus is Lord, the Christ, our Savior. We exalt His name!

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11

  

Share your responses on Instagram using #adventwords2020 or in the Words Art & Faith Challenge group on Facebook. 

Advent Words Day 23 ~ Messiah

 

Day 23: Messiah

"But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

John 20:31

 

The closing of the Apostle John’s letter has one purpose: belief. More specifically John wants to make sure his readers are very clear on what they believe and what their believing results in. By reading his words of the accounts of Jesus’s life and ministry throughout his book, It is John’s belief that we should come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. The results of believing in His name, which represents all that He is, brings life – full and eternal – to those who believe.

 

What exactly does it mean that Jesus is the Messiah? The Greek word used in this verse is actually ‘christos”, which is Christ. The word Christ in Greek means “the anointed one”. The word messiah comes from the Hebrew word for anointed one ‘mashiach’. So Messiah and Christ are both synonymous for the anointed One. In our culture we often think of Christ as the second part of Jesus’s name – Jesus Christ. But it is actually a title, Jesus the Christ – Jesus the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah.

 

That then, leads us to ask why Jesus is called the Messiah? Throughout the Hebrew Bible, and more specifically by the Prophets, God promised to send a king, one who would be anointed by Him to deliver His people. Over time the Hebrew people began to anticipate that this Messiah would be a king who would bring military and political domination that would free them from bondage and rule by foreign nations.

 

In the Hebrew Bible it was kings and high priests and, occasionally, prophets who were referred to as the ‘anointed ones’. We see in the New Testament that each of these offices is associated with Jesus:

“I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” 1 Timothy 6:13-15

“But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation.” Hebrews 9:11

“After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” “ John 6:14

 

In Luke 4, Jesus stood in the temple and read from the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah reading the words found in Isaiah 61:2-3:

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

    because the Lord has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

    to proclaim freedom for the captives

    and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

    and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn." 

Luke 4:21 tells us that Jesus concluded reading these words, saying, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”. 

 

The Lord anointed Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah.  Jesus as the Messiah fulfilled Israel’s anticipation as the deliver – The Savior King. Jesus would spend his ministry giving his disciples the true understanding of the Messiah’s rule, to deliver us from our sins.

 

Jesus the Christ is the promised King, High Priest and Prophet.  The Messiah, the Savior has come!

Share you responses on Instagram using #adventwords2020 or in the Words Art & Faith Challenge group on Facebook. 

Advent Words Day 22 ~ Love

 

Day 22: Love

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."  ~1 John 4:9-10

Love is not simply a characteristic of God or somethings He does. Love is who God is. In fact, the verse right before the above passage in 1 John says, "God is love". (1 John 4:8) It is His very nature and being, just as holiness is. God is holy and God is love. All that He is and all that He does is holy and loving. His most holy and loving act was in the Incarnation. He sent His Son into the world for us as the ultimate act of love. We did nothing to earn or gain this loving act. In fact, the Bible tells us that there is nothing we can do, no act worthy of gaining God's love. Why? Because of sin. Sin entered this world through the act of man in the beginning and separated us from God's favor. But God had a plan to restore His favor on us. Paul says it this way in the book of Romans:

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:6-8

And again Paul describes it in the book of Titus:

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."

Titus 3:4-7

We were powerless to earn His love. We did nothing. We were separated from God because of sin; yet this did not stop a loving God from repairing the breach that stood between us. "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." ~ 1 John 4:10

This is love ~ the Incarnation. God sent his one and only Son into the world.

Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, Love Divine,

Love was born at Christmas,

Star and Angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,

Love Incarnate, Love Divine,

Worship we our Jesus,

But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,

Love be yours and love be mine,

Love to God and all men,

Love for plea and gift and sign.

~Poem by Christina Rossetti, 1885

 

Advent is a celebration of waiting and preparing for the love God sent into the world in the birth of His Son, our Savior.

 

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