December 2023 – Page 2

Advent Three – Confessional Prayer

Mark 13:33-37 ³³Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴ It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. ³⁵ Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— ³⁶ lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. ³⁷ And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

Now let Him begin the process of searching your heart. Are there ways you have not honored Christ this week? Where were your thoughts and desires not centered in Him? How have you failed in obedience to Christ?

Take a minute and meditate on the Mark 13 passage. Jesus says – be on guard, keep awake. Are there distractions in your life that inhibit the watchfulness we are to have? Is hurry your master? Have you grown complacent? Is there fear or anxiety in even thinking about the Day of the Lord?

Then, simply confess specifically what the Holy Spirit is showing you. Don’t rush through this process. Simply rest in God’s presence as He does this.

Now choose to let this go and receive the truth of this passage: “I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. Let him lead me to the banquet hall and let his banner over me be love”. If you have confessed a stronghold of fear or complacency receive Christ’s forgiveness for you. Remember – “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

And finally commit this confession to the Lord. As you rest in His grace and mercy ask Him how to walk this out. Ask for the supernatural power of His Spirit to give you what you need to move forward.

How is He calling you to watchfulness? How is He asking you to look for His second coming?

I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. Psalm 130:6

Advent Three – Lectio Divina – Watch!

Isaiah 52:6-10 ⁶ Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.” ⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” ⁸ The voice of your watchmen–they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. ⁹ Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. ¹⁰ The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Step One – Read the passage slowly, attentively. Allow yourself to be taken in by the words – pay attention to any word or phrase that strikes you in the passage. (If you haven’t studied this passage, you may find this first reading will stir observation questions in you – such as who, what when, where, and how).

Step Two – Read it again. Meditate and reflect on the passage. What is it in your life that needs to hear that word or phrase? Sit in silence for a time, attending to the thoughts, images and impressions that begin to come to you. Turn that into prayer.

Step Three – What is God saying to you? What do you begin to feel called to?

Step Four – How does God want you to live this passage out? What are you resolved to do?

Advent Three – “At the Very Gates”

The Parable of the Ten Virgins Matthew 25:1-13

The title above comes from a passage in Mark, chapter 13 where Mark describes the return of Christ. He says, after describing the destruction of the temple and the tribulation and danger that his disciples will see and experience – “So, also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates” (Mark 13:29).

The language throughout the New Testament is graphic, even disturbing. I find myself uncomfortable – just hoping (without much intent) that I will be ready. Peter says that the day of the Lord will come like a thief, “and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (1 Peter 3:10). And then he asks a question in almost a nonchalant way – “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, ¹² waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?” (11, 12).

What sort of people? Our answer here will determine what sort of watchers we’ll be. I’ll be honest, I have never made the connection between my godliness and the Lord’s return. I appreciate Peter’s admonition here and I think it says more about Christ’s return than our trying to watch for the signs. Peter carries this theme through both of his letters. He’s calling the church to be holy, as God is holy; he is calling the church to be ready – even in the midst of suffering and trials. Christ is at the gates, ready to return, to take His bride to Himself – and He wants our faith to be tested in authenticity, “that even though it is tested by fire – it may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). When I think about the Second Coming my desire for an end to my own suffering and pain often eclipses my desire that all might “be found in him” (Phi 3:9)

I want to be that watchman on the tower – watching and waiting for the Redemption of the world to come in all His power and glory. I want to be numbered among the 5 virgins who were ready when the Bridegroom returned (Mat 25:1-13). I want to heed the warning of Peter in 1 Peter in 1 Peter 5:8-10 – Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering.

To pray for His coming again means we want justice not just alleviation of our own private suffering. It means we want an end to exploitation, injustice and evil. Good watching should create in us a fervor that no one should perish.

It should strengthen our hearts to meditate on what a world looks like when it’s free from sin, destruction, and injustice.

This practice of watching in Advent is formational. Fleming Rutledge asks a simple question: “what’s in those lamps?” (Once and Future King, p. 97) What makes 5 virgins ready and 5 who were not? Is it not our practices of worship, Bible study and prayer? (ibid. p. 99).

Our watching might not be merely about observing the times, but about being ready and alert, as Peter indicates. In the passage above, Peter says that the world to come is a world of righteousness, and our lives need to exhibit godliness and holiness – traits we can never attain on our own. In this same letter, in chapter one Peter tells us: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness!” (I Peter 1:3). I would say then that watching has less to do with frantically searching for the signs as much as it has to do with our abiding in Christ, our immersion in His life. May we all be like the watchmen in Isaiah 52:8:

Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they should for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.
Isaiah 52:8

In the parable of the five virgins who were ready, Matthew says – when the bridegroom came – they went in with him to the marriage feast! (Mat 25:10). And such is the kingdom of God!

The Lord’s Prayer in Advent: Wait

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed by thy name.
Thy kingdom come; thy will be done.
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who have sinned against us.
And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
And the glory, forever. Amen.

Our Father, who has given us the right to call You ‘Abba, dear Father”, we honor Your name- We hallow it, there is no other name like Yours. In this season of waiting for Your kingdom to come in glory we worship You. We long for Your kingdom to come in all its fullness, that Your will would be done, now and always. Your presence is our food and our portion, and “so we will wait for you” (Lam 3:24). Lord, would You give us hearts to forgive those who have sinned against us – that there might be nothing that stands in our way of receiving all the grace and life You have given us. We grow weary Lord, but we pray that through Your Spirit, You would deliver us from all temptation and evil. Because of Your kingdom, and power, and glory we can rest in confidence that “we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). Amen.

Advent Two – Lectio Quote – Wait

“One of the main reasons God doesn’t always answer us immediately is that waiting is God’s crucible of transformation. Waiting is how God gets at the idols of our heart. Waiting addresses the things we think we need besides God to be content: money, comfort, expedience, success or control. It creates space to learn more about who God is, to receive his purposes into our lives, to move past our resistance and say our deepest yes to him.” Ruth Haley Barton

You can go through the same steps that we use for Lectio Divina for Scripture, or simply take some time and read this quote slowly and ask the Spirit to give you power to let waiting be that crucible of transformation.

Advent Two – Confessional Prayer

…We cannot talk about sin for very long without being drawn into doxology. Were it not for the mercy of God surrounding us, we would have no perspective from which to view sin, for we would be entirely subject to it. That is the reason for affirming that whatever sin is unmasked and confessed, God’s redemptive power is already present and acting.
Fleming Rutledge

Enter into a time of confession as you think about this Advent theme- Waiting. Is this a challenge for you? Not just in this time of waiting for the Lord to return, but in your daily walk? Are there ways you have sinned against others in your impatience or frustrations?

Start by centering your heart in God’s presence… Give thanks to Him that you do not need to hide anything from him. Affirm that He is faithful and good, and his mercy and grace are “new every morning.” The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23).

Waiting can stir up our needs for control, our impatience, our frustrations. Ruth Haley Barton calls waiting the crucible of transformation. “Waiting is how God gets at the idols of our heart”.

Then, simply confess specifically what the Holy Spirit is showing you. Don’t rush through this process. Simply rest in God’s presence as He does this.

And finally commit this confession to the Lord. As you rest in his grace and mercy ask Him how to walk this out. Ask for the supernatural power of His Spirit to give you what you need to move forward. Thank Him that you “have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer [you] who live, but Christ lives in [you]” (Gal. 2:20).

… my soul waits for the Lord, more than watchman for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Psalm 130:6-8

Advent Two – Lectio Divina

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31

Step Three – What is God saying to you? What do you begin to feel called to?

Step Four – How does God want you to live this passage out? What are you resolved to do?

Advent Two – “I Will Wait upon the Lord”

I love to wait. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I choose the slowest lane while driving and the longest line when shopping. I never mind when my doctor is an hour late or my food never arrives. What about you? Don’t you just love to wait? Well, if you know me well at all you know that the first sentence of this devotional is unequivocally untrue. Waiting is my kryptonite. All of the virtuous character I might possibly lay claim to is out the window whenever I have to wait. Yet, all of life seems to center around waiting.

Waiting is at the heart of Advent. Think about all the people we see in the birth narrative of Jesus. Zechariah (Luke 1) had to wait the entire time his wife was pregnant just to be able to talk again. And Elizabeth (Luke 1) – not only did she have to wait the nine months she was carrying John (later known as John the Baptist), but she was also way past her birth bearing days when she found out she was pregnant.

Simeon and Anna, both of whom were always found in the temple, (Luke 2) waited for years for the consolation of Israel, and his redemption. Think as well about the four hundred years of silence the Jews had to wait for a prophet after the era of The Prophets came to an end.

Ruth Haley Barton calls waiting the crucible of transformation. There are two virtues necessary for this kind of transformation. We need patience, and we need long-suffering, both of these are so important. Patience, I think, is the way we learn to wait by staying the course. I think the title of Eugene Peterson’s book “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” describes patience well. If patience is a fruit, we know we can only get there by abiding with Christ in the Spirit. By nature, none of us are able to do patience well. We need the help of the Holy Spirit, don’t we? That’s the heart of Paul’s theme in Galatians 5.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 – The Amplified Version

You get the sense here that there is a somewhat complex idea of patience. The NKJV uses the word long-suffering instead of patience. Thomas Aquinas believed that patience and long-suffering have different ends in mind and probably Paul had both in mind when describing this fruit. The Latin word Aquinas used for long-suffering is longanimity. Both deal with “enduring difficulties for the sake of a good.” But patience focuses on the difficulties, whereas the virtue of longanimity focuses on the good to be received in the final hour.

Patience helps us stay the course, it helps us maintain serenity of spirit, and longanimity directs us toward the good we are waiting for, helping us remain steadfast in pursuit of the good. Luke’s account of those men and women he describes in Luke 1 and 2 has this double meaning of patience. Think about both Anna and Simeon. I love how Luke describes Simeon. ⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. (Luk 2:25 ESV) Their wait was incredibly long, and they only had the reassurance of what they knew of God to sustain them.

The waiting of the Christian church, therefore, is the waiting and longing and hoping expressed in the haunting cry at the very end of the Bible: ‘Maranatha: Come Lord Jesus’ (Rev. 22:20)
Fleming Rutledge

Waiting is an Advent virtue. All three “comings” are in play here. Put yourselves in Simeon or Anna’s place. They both waited for their Messiah King to come – and while in their waiting they did not see the fulfillment of their hopes, they were content with having seen the Christ Child. Their faith was strong, and they were satisfied in receiving Him. Simeon says, “Now, according to your word, Sovereign Lord, permit your servant to depart in peace. (Luk 2:29 NET) “I’m ready to come home, Lord because my hopes and dreams have come to fruition.”

The second coming is of course the day on which Christ Jesus returns to fulfill the promise of the fullness of the Kingdom of God.

“The waiting of the Christian church, therefore, is the waiting and longing and hoping expressed in the haunting cry at the very end of the Bible: ‘Maranatha: Come Lord Jesus’(Rev 22:20). Not until the final intervention of God in the last day will the true and lasting peaceable kingdom come. That is the not-yet of Advent. That is why we wait. ‘Thou must save, and thou alone.’ Fleming Rutledge

The third coming is the most revolutionary coming of all. It is of course the coming of Christ into the hearts of all who put their faith in Him. I wonder how many of us are even aware that we have been waiting for this our whole lives. Augustine has said, “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.” That restlessness wears many different coats – anger, addiction, trauma, pain, illness… all the consequences of living in this heartbroken world. I want to return to Simeon and Anna as icons of the kind of patience and long-suffering we need to have as we wait for our Savior – whether for the first time, or in our hearts or on the final day of judgment.

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.” Are you sensing the pull of God in this Advent season? Is God stirring in your heart? Do you long for a different kind of life? Are you yearning for the full manifestation of redemption in this world?

Take time this week to read the stories of Simeon and Anna in the second chapter of Luke. They too yearned for the fulfillment of God’s promises: Simeon served in the temple his whole life and we are told he waited for the Consolation of Israel: the coming (Advent) of the Messiah. Anna, too, waited; widowed early in life, no family to speak of – and it is said of her that she served in the temple until she was very old and to anyone who would stop and listen to her, she spoke of the Redemption of Israel, the end of a world of sin in the coming of a Savior. Consolation… Redemption – the first a comfort, for the sorrows and sins of the past; the latter – a purchase of freedom for the future – a personal freedom from sin and sadness, and an offer of freedom to the whole world.

As Christians, our waiting is both similar and different than Simeon’s and Anna’s. We hold within our hearts not only the hope of a future coming of the King, but the very presence of that King – the Holy Spirit does not rest on us – but lives within us. And we too have seen the Lord’s salvation. We may not hold God in our arms, but He holds us in His.

Longanimity is a great word isn’t it! Check out this article by Teresa Smart:

From <https://mcgrathblog.nd.edu/longanimity-the-virtue-of-waiting-for-god

Watch this YouTube video by Elevation Worship – It’s long, but oh so good. Wait On You | Elevation Worship & Maverick City – YouTube

Shane & Shane – Psalm 130 . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8pCbtLeXzc

Advent One – The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who have sinned against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
And the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Our Father, what an incredible thing to be able to say, our Father. We hallow your name because of all names it is the holy name. As we enter this season of Advent, we pray that Your kingdom will come soon and Your full and complete will be done, here on earth, in our lives, as it is in heaven. Give us the bread of life that can only come through Your Son Jesus Christ, and may we receive it as sustenance to help us prepare for His return. Forgive our sins of complacency, dullness, self-centeredness; and grant us grace as we forgive others. In this season of preparation, keep us strong when we are tempted and deliver us from the evil that would turn our hearts away from Your return. May we heed the warnings of John the Baptist to repent and believe. In the strong assurance of hope that we have in You, we proclaim that yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Advent One – Lectio Quote

Under the spiritual practices tab I wrote about Lectio Divina, which is a way of reading Scripture that goes beyond knowing about the Scripture to receiving it “into our bones” through reading and reflection. One way to approach this is to read it, reflect on it, respond to it, and resolve to listen to God through it. Charlotte Mason puts it like this – we bite, we chew, we savor, and we digest. We can do this in reading Scripture and we can also do it with other forms of reading (or listening or even viewing – Lectio Visio is a real thing!). Obviously, these other practices don’t hold the authority of Scripture but they do yield great wisdom when we slow down and take in what someone else has created!

We bite, we chew, we savor, and we digest.
Charlotte Mason

I have discovered this new way of reading through keeping a commonplace book. I have done this for years, mostly through typing passages from books I’ve read, etc. into my OneNote app. (Which I love!) But I discovered commonplacing quite by accident at the beginning of this year and the person who filmed the YouTube video I watched challenged us to write these out by hand (I have terrible handwriting). I found that as I slowed down to write or copy a passage out, it stayed with me longer, and was legible as well! My commonplace books have really helped form my understanding of Christian formation and the Church calendar. So each week, I have selected a passage from what I’ve been reading that fits our theme for the week and now want to encourage you to take it and “bite, chew, savor and digest!” I may include at some point some of my other meanderings into commonplacing so that you reap the benefit I’ve received as well! This week’s quote comes from John Shea and is more lengthy than I will probably do in the future. But I love what he says about repentance!

“The more deeply one enters into the experience of the sacred the more one is aware of one’s own personal evil and the destructive forces in society. The fact that one is alive to what is possible for humankind sharpens one’s sense that we are fallen people. The awareness of sin is the inevitable consequence of having met grace… This grace-judgment dynamic reveals that the center of Christian life is repentance. This does not mean that the distinguishing mark of the Christian is breast-beating. Feeling sorry, acknowledging guilt, and prolonging regret may be components of the human condition, but they are not what Jesus means by repentance. Repentance is the response to grace that overcomes the past and opens out to a new future…

Repentance distinguishes Christian life as one of struggle and conversion, and pervades it, not with remorse, but with hope. The message of Jesus is not “Repent,” but “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near.”
John Shea, A Star is Rising: Advent Meditations