Advent Words 2023 ~ Word 3: Wait

 

Advent Words 2023
Day 3: Wait

“…while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13

“Advent is a season for waiting; we wait for the coming of God. We need him to come. Our world is messed up and we are messed up. We lament our condition and long for God to set things right, to make us better…we wait in hope…God is coming!” Bobby Gross, The Christian Year

The Advent season reminds us to look back and see God’s promises fulfilled in Christ while we wait for those promises to be fully fulfilled. There is still a reign that is yet to come, and a day of salvation that is still in the future, and a promise from Jesus that he will return one day on the clouds.

Paul implies in this letter to Titus that waiting it is a normal part of the Christian life. “In this present age” (Titus 2:12) we are called to wait, and we are called to a specific kind of waiting – we wait in hope. Because Hope is future oriented, it naturally involves waiting. Yet hope is also the very thing that sustains us while we wait. As we saw the other day, God has given us “new birth into a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3). Our hope is active, and our waiting, while focused on the future appearing of the glory of the Lord, is not passive waiting. While we wait, we live for Christ - imitating His sacrificial love and his way of life as His people.

The Greek word used for waiting has a sense of expectant or eager waiting. This word is a verb in Greek that is present tense. In Greek, present tense describes an action that is continuing or habitual and often describes a lifestyle. (As a Bible study nerdy side note, always pause and take note when you find out the verb in a Bible verse is present tense because you are being called to make something a lifestyle, to live out the command continually.)

So, we live with a continual expectation of Christ's return. We are continually waiting; we have a lifestyle of waiting. The only way it is possible to live a life of continually waiting in expectation of Christ's return, is that we live with an eternal perspective.

In Philippians Paul reminds us that "our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ". (Philippians 3:20) We wait because our ultimate hope is beyond this world. If we stay focused only on what this world holds, only on the things we can see, then we will give up in despair. We will lose heart and fail to live as we are called to.

 Again, Paul calls us to live with an eternal perspective in his second letter to the Corinthians:

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Expectant waiting means we do so with our eyes fixed on eternity. We keep our eyes on God without losing sight of the fact that we live here on earth, in this present age. Our waiting is not to be passive, but active. While we wait with our eyes and our hearts set on eternity, we live with our hands active in the lives of those around us. We live in dependence upon God and obedience to Him.  Paul's challenge to us in Titus 2:11-14 is to live in obedience now, while anticipating Christ's promised return.

“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his Word I put my hope.” Psalm 130:5

Share how you respond to today's word in the Words Facebook Group or on Instagram using #adventwords2023.

Advent Words 2023 ~ Word 2: Epiphany

 

Advent Words 2023
Word 2: Epiphany

“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.” Titus 2:11-13

If you saw this word on the calendar for Advent Words and thought I may have mixed up my holidays, don’t worry, I know it’s the Advent season! The word “epiphany” has many uses. When we suddenly have a burst of understanding about something, we call it an epiphany.  And there is also the holiday that some churches celebrate on January 6 to commemorate the wise men, or Magi, visiting the Christ child. Epiphany also appears in today’s passage, but it’s not quite so obvious.

In the New Testament the Greek words epipaneia (noun) and epiphaino (verb) mean manifestation or appearing and refer to the first and second coming of Christ. In Titus 2:11, he has appeared (epiphaino) refers to Jesus’ birth and life. Jesus Christ appeared as the grace of God bringing to all the salvation God promised. The angel proclaimed to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus,

“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11

John declares, “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:16-17

The grace of God has appeared in the person of Jesus Christ. This is the first epiphany!

But Paul goes on in his letter to Titus that we are still waiting for another epiphany; “the blessed hope – the appearing (epiphaneia) of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Jesus will appear again when he comes to judge the living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1) and establishes God’s kingdom in its fullest expression.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “We stand between two epiphanies. Behind us is our trust; before us is our hope. Behind us is the Son of God in humiliation; before us is the great God our Savior in his glory. “

We live in this present age between two epiphanies: trusting in the grace of God's salvation through the life and death of Jesus Christ on our behalf and focusing on the hope of glory that will come to those who believe in and wait for His promised return. Grace to glory!

Share how you respond to today's word in the Words Facebook Group or on Instagram using #adventwords2023.

Advent Words 2023 ~ Word 1: Hope

 

Advent Words 2023
Word 1: Hope

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”  1 Peter 1:3-5

The first theme of the Advent season is hope. In our culture, hope has become a word that is often associated with wishful thinking. “I hope it’s sunny today or I hope I get the job I interviewed for, or I hope our family has a happy Christmas.”

This, however, is not how hope is defined in the Bible, and it is not the type of hope we are called to live out as Christ’s followers.  Biblical hope is a confident expectation or solid assurance of what God has promised. A firm trust that God always keeps his promises. Mounce’s Expository Dictionary says hope is “a firm conviction that because of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, we can have confidence as we face the future”.  

Our passage today in 1 Peter gives us the basis, the present reality, and the future focus of our hope.

Peter says that God has given us new birth through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus described this new birth to Nicodemus in John 3:3-8 as being “born again”, saying that “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” and that “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit”. Through faith in Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead, we are born anew – born spiritually - and we become children of God. (See John 1:12-13)

Our new life is a gift from God. Peter says that God gave us this new birth “in His great mercy”.  Paul further describes this act of mercy in his letter to 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

Our hope is based on what God did for us through the resurrection of his Son – the gift of new birth, and, as Paul adds, renewal by the Holy Spirit. Peter goes on to show us what that hope looks like in this present age, it is a “living hope”. We experience hope now, because our new birth through faith in Christ has brought us into a new life, which is characterized by a living hope. Living hope is hope that is real and active. It is hope in action. F.B. Meyer says, “Living hope is our link between our present and future.” 

What is the future we are to set our hope on? Peter points out that we have been promised an inheritance. An inheritance that Peter says that can never perish,spoil or fade and it is kept in heaven for you until Christ appears again. Paul, in the Titus 3 passage, points out that our inheritance as heirs is the hope of eternal life. So, we can live by hope in this age because we have been promised something much more glorious in the age to come. What Paul calls in Titus 2:13, “The blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ”.

Pastor and teacher Bob Utley calls us to “make a decisive choice to trust completely in Christ’s return." Our faith in God’s promise of eternal life with Him enables us to live by hope now. We must choose to fix our eyes on Jesus and His promises and live by hope. 

Share how you respond to today's word in the Words Facebook Group or on Instagram using #adventwords2023.

Advent Is Coming!

 

The Advent season is here! Advent 2023 begins tomorrow, Sunday, December 3, and we begin our seventh Advent Words challenge. Each year I wonder if I can come up with any new words, or if I can create new Bible study devotions. But God always leads and He always provides. Yet some words remain the same - they just fit with the rhythm and the story of Advent.

If you would like to participate in Advent Words this year, I encourage you to follow this blog to receive the Bible study devotions every other day. There is a subscription form located at the bottom of the column on the right. Then on the days when there is not a devotion, I encourage you to dig deeper into the Scriture passages and to respond creatively in whatever manner you choose. You can share your insights and art in the private Words Challenge Facebook group and join in conversation with others. Or you can share your creative response on Instagram using the #adventwords2023.

Finally, here is a calendar with the words and main Scriture passage. If you click on the photo it will provide you with a PDF to download and print.

Advent Words Challenge 2023

 

The beginning of the Advent season is just a week away. In some respects, this year has flown by; in other ways, it has dragged on. I was disappointed to open my blog and see that I have only made one post this year. But it has been a stressful year, and I have gotten away from my habit of writing. I've missed it. Yet, as I think about Advent, its familiar rhythm stirs up a desire within me to get back to that habit.

2023 brings us to our seventh Advent Words Challenge! I recently read an article about Advent on Christianity Today's website, and a quote stood out.

“Advent reminds us that Chistian hope is shaped by the tension between the “already” and the “not yet” of the reign of God.”   ~Lisa Fullam, CT

The "already/not yet" aspect of the kingdom of God is a theme that has continually popped up in my reading and study over the past few years. "Already/not yet" is a kingdom theme that points to the reality that as Christ followers we live between two kingdoms. Generally when this theme comes up in Scripture, it is used to remind us that how we live in this present age matters. We explored this as we used Titus 2:11-14 as our guide through Advent in 2021. That passage still draws me back to it over and over, whether it’s the Advent season or not. And we will revisit it again a few times this year on our Advent journey. (Who knows, there may be a Titus Words Challenge in the future!)

The other thing that stood out in that quote above is "hope." While hope is one of the traditional weekly themes of the Advent season, I thought it would be good this year to have hope run like a thread throughout our whole journey. It feels like hope is a much-needed commodity in our world right now as we face wars, political divisions laced with hatred, and social unrest over everything from inflation to social injustice to environmental issues. And with it all comes anxiety, worry, and fear. In the midst of all of this, we come to Advent.

Advent is a season of waiting, longing, reflecting, and preparing, all based on the hope we have in Christ. It is a familiar rhythm that invites us to slow down and focus on Christ. And when we do, we come face-to-face again with hope. Another quote from that article I read:

“Hope is a resolute, unwavering hold on something that has happened and will happen.” Jay Kim/CT

This is Advent. Will you join me?

I'm keeping my pages simple this year, with the word on one page and Scripture and some quotes on the other. I am also keeping my Advent pages in the one journal I have used all year.

The every-other-day format we used last year was popular as it helped us slow down with a day in-between to study and make art. So, we will use that format once again.

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 December 3rd and running 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. A calendar of the words and the main Bible passage is below, so you can print it out.
• Respond with whatever creative practice you choose: art journaling, mixed media art, scrapbooking, photography, digital art, poetry, creative writing, calligraphy—whatever you choose! As you take the Scripture and devotions into your heart and mind, let them 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 #adventwords2023.

Click on the photo for a printable PDF