So it’s Advent. A time of waiting. We know that Christ came, He came in a quiet, gentle way. He came under humble circumstances. We have heard the story, every year we have heard it, but I want you to think about this. He was born of a virgin. He grew up in a family of siblings. It seems pretty ordinary, but why? Why would God send His son to experience being born, learning to walk and talk? Growing in understanding from the teachers in the temple, did He need to develop reasoning? When we think about Jesus, He does understand because He has had similar experiences to us. We’ve got a problem, He understands in a very personal way. How comforting it is to know that He understands our challenges, the struggles, strife and also the complete joy that being a human can experience. Wow, how great is our God, that He sent His Son in a way that is so personal, so hard to comprehend but utterly amazing in ways we are still trying to understand. So while we wait, think about this, it is more than a birthday.
Malachi 3:1-4 1)”Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts. 2)”But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3)”He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine the like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness. 4)”Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. Foretelling of what is to come after the messenger has been here once. All this purifying is needed to come before God the Father and Jesus is in charge.
Luke 1:68-79 68)”Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, 69)And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant– 70)As He spoke by the mouth of His holy perphets from of old– 71)Salvation FROM OUR ENEMIES, And FROM THE HAND OF ALL WHO HATE US; 72)To show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember His hold covenant, 73)The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, 74)To grand us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, 75)In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days, 76)”And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS WAYS; 77)To give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, 78)Because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, 79)TO SHINE UPON THOSE WHO SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, To guide our feet into the way of peace. As God has promised all throughout the Old Testament, the root, from the house of David, the righteous One. It has been the plan from the beginning of and before there was anything.
Philippians 1:3-11 3)I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4)always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, 5)in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. 6)For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. 7)For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. 8)For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affections of Christ Jesus. 9)And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10)so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11)having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. What is Paul driving at here? Is he saying that God, who created us, intended us to know His Son, to know the gospel and be filled by the grace given in that fact? Yes, and he is saying that we must continue to grow in these things that when the day comes, the return of Christ, that we then will be found sincere and blameless. Think about it, Paul, who suffered greatly because of his belief, wants us to be spared of what is to come, by knowing Jesus.
Luke 3:1-6 1)Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, 2)in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. 3)And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; 4)as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT. 5)”EVERY RAVINE WILL BE FILLED, AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL WILL BE BROUGHT LOW; THE CROOKED WILL BECOME STRAIGHT, AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH; 6)”AND ALL FLESH WILL SEE THE SALVATION OF GOD.’” So remember John, he was already compelled to be baptizing people out there in the desert. People spoke if him as possibly being a bit off. Then God spoke to him and said words that would have been familiar to him out of the Book of Isaiah. Here was a new path for him, a calling made for him. He understood and was glad in his work, making a straight and clear path for Jesus. Amen.
The days are moving quickly through this advent season. I hope that you are growing closer to God through your thoughts and actions. Time is precious and Jesus is coming.
Through Christ, Seek God,
D.J. Schoneweis