For the past 4 weeks we have discussed the elements of advent;
Hope, Peace, Joy and Love and how they are evident in the cross of Christ.
Now my question is ....
Are they evident in YOU?
I think some times we are quick to notice whether or not they are evident in others...before we worry about what might be evident in ourselves.
While preparing gifts for Christmas I watched the old classic The Bishop's Wife (Cary Grant, David Niven, Loretta Young) black and white of course!
The angel Dudley (played by Grant) "rewrites", by dictating to the old manual typewriter, Reverand Henry's Christmas Eve sermon.
Henry is unaware until he begins to read the words from the pulpit. It's message was about an empty stocking. The stocking hung for whose birthday we celebrate.
We spend so much time preparing and "stuffing stockings with just the right things", even things that are meaningful, we tend to miss the One that is most important.
A line in a song, In the Bleak Mid Winter, comes to me...which actually comes from a poem by Christina Rossetti.
"What can I give Him poor as I am.."
Because no matter what our bank account says, no matter how much our homes are over flowing, no matter what surrounds us, we are all poor, wretched sinners.
📖 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Revelation 3:17
📖 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:24-25
So if that is the case what can we possibly put in His stocking?
HOPE -
our Hope in who He is
📖 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1:11-13
📖 May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you. Psalm 33:22
Give His hope to those around us!
PEACE
📖Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14
📖 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27
JOY
📖 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11
📖 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Romans 12:11-13
LOVE
His kind of love
📖 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. Matthew 22:
📖 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:12-14
Fill the stocking with fruit
📖 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Galatians 5:22-26
And be generous....forgiving
Everyone's "fruit" may look differently than our own. Others expressions of joy, generosity, or even love may be different than ours.
but if we look at others with a humble heart...believing that they are trying as well. Treat them as if they are, because, I believe, for the most part they are, we will be able to recognize better the "fruit" in others.
📖 Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:1-5
📖 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3-4
If we are more concerned how our gifts look going into His stocking then we have a tendency to recognize and see the same in those around us.
What are you going to put in His stocking....
what can we give Him?
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