What Can I Give?

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?

In the Bleak Mid Winter   Susan Boyle

Love In the Cross

Because the baby that came into this world with His first bed a manger, so that He could grow up to die on a cross for our sins, to be raised from the dead three days later....

BECAUSE of THAT 

He gives us...(Light each candle)

Hope in the cross
📖 Show me your ways, Lord,
    teach me your paths.
5

Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,

 and my hope is in you all day long.
6 Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old. Psalm 25:4-6

Peace in the Cross
📖  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 in the Cross
📖  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11

Love in the Cross
📖  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17

Christ...(light the Christ Candle)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  Roman's 5:1-8

Because of THAT cross; a baby came into this world .....that is LOVE

Because of THAT cross; He bled and died, taking the punishment for our sin so that we would not have to suffer that Cross.... that gives us PEACE

Because of THAT cross; He died, but rose again three days later... that brings us JOY

He will return, and will not have to suffer THAT cross again..in that we have HOPE

So at Christmas time the Cross is just as relevant as the manger!
🙏 I pray this Christmas we celebrate all Christ's  Hope, Peace, Joy and Love given to us. Amen!
Have a Hopeful, Peaceful, Joyful, Loving Christmas❤✝️

There is JOY in the CROSS

Joy In the Cross

There is Hope in the Cross (light 1st purple candle)
There is Peace in the Cross (light 2nd purple candle)

The image of the cross of crucifixion seems contradictory to the idea of Joy...
But, if we think about it ...BECAUSE of the cross we are able to have joy.
(Light the pink candle)

Joy that first came with the birth...
📖  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:8-12

There is joy promised if we remain in His love and keep His commands
📖   “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 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.  John 15:9-13
He even alluded to the length in which He would go in His love for us.

Jesus Himself felt joy, being filled with the spirit
 📖 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. Luke 10:21

Before He was led to the cross to die He prayed...wanting Joy ... His Joy.. for His disciples and ultimately for all of us who follow Him.
📖 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.  John 17:13

Jesus knew He was going to die on that cross...but also knew He wouldn't stay that way....He would rise again and we would be filled with joy...
📖 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. John 16:22

Because HE is JOY...
No one..not even death can take Him away from those of us who believe!
HE is what makes true Joy possible, full and complete!
AMEN!!

🙏My prayer for you; no matter your circumstances this season you find true Joy, you find Him, in all you do.
❤

Peace In the Cross

 Though this is a repeat of last year I pray🙏 you see something new and it touches your heart.❤

Peace In the Cross

As I said last week ..doing something a bit different this year with advent.  All the elements of Advent are tied to the cross.

1st Sunday was Hope (light the first purple candle)

2nd Sunday of Advent..PEACE ( light the 2nd purple candle)

There is PEACE in the cross.

📖 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.
 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. John 14:27-28

Jesus was/IS able to pass on the peace He Himself was going to gain because of the cross.  Because He knew His Father's will would be accomplished with His death and resurrection.

 📖“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied.  “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:31-33

Our PEACE  comes through Christ.

📖 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. Acts 10:36

Christ, who knew no sin became our sin and died for us on the cross.
📖 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

Through our faith in His death on the cross and in His resurrection into life, we are justified and find peace.

📖 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1

And don't we all want that?....PEACE that is beyond our comprehension!

📖 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

🙏Lord, whatever we do, whatever we say, whatever we seek, may it be of You and may Your peace fill us.
Amen!❤

1st Sunday of Advent

This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent....the four weeks prior to Christmas Eve in which we prepare our hearts for the coming of Christmas...the anticipation of the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child. 

Last year I did something a bit different and would like to repeat it again this year.  

My advent blog was based on a thought I had:

"There is HOPE in the Cross, PEACE in the Cross, JOY in the Cross,  LOVE in the Cross.
The celebration of Advent builds up to the culminating event of the birth of the Christ child....
Life in a manger and the culmination of that Life was death, death on a cross. 
The Birth is tied to the Cross...so all the elements of Advent can also be tied to the Cross." (CoffeeTime with a Dear Friend December 2, 2019)

I did share it with our congregation this Sunday. Since we are doing "drive in" services lighting candles didn't  seem very practical, so instead we are hanging a banner each Sunday that represents that weeks advent theme. I encourage you to do either, or both, as you recognize each week's theme. Making the banners could be a family project! 

Here is week 1

THERE IS HOPE IN THE CROSS
 (if you are doing your own advent candle ceremony)  Light the first candle which is HOPE 

✝The prophecy of HOPE that a savior would come and suffer (on the cross) for our transgressions.
📖 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.  Isaiah 7:14

 📖  “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,  from ancient times.” Micah 5:2

📖   By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.

He was assigned a grave with the wicke
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Isaiah 53:8-9

✝HOPE that the child born in such a lowly manner, would come to take on the sins of the world through His sacrifice on the cross.
📖  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,  and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Luke 2:6-7

📖 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,  and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:30-33
📖  Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2

✝HOPE in our own Salvation through His death on the cross.

📖  For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11

✝Our HOPE IS His coming again, because the cross...death... could not keep Him.

📖  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. Titus 2:11-14

✝Through His death on the Cross we have a LIVING HOPE!  Because He was ressurected from that death!

📖  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.  In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:3-9

Can I get an AMEN?!

Our HOPE this season can be seen in the Cross.
 🙏My Prayer for you as you prepare for the coming of Christmas is that you may feel that HOPE, and may it keep the meaning of Christmas close to your heart.❤