Arise, shine; for thy Light has come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people:
but the LORD shall shine upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
Isaiah 60: 1-3 KJV
We light this candle as a symbol of Christ our HOPE.
May the light sent from God shine in the darkness to show us the way of salvation.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel!
CHRIST OUR HOPE
Oh, how we need hope in our world today.
Lord, there are so many who have lost all hope; they are struggling physically, emotionally, financially, and most important – spiritually. Oh, how desperately they need to hear this message. You are our Hope!
They need to know the Gospel message: how you entered this world as a helpless infant – God wrapped in human flesh – to bring salvation.
Jesus died for us. He who was without sin, died on the Cross for our sin. “It is finished.” Those were His words, “Finshed,” completed, the sin debt was satisfied that day. All that remains for us is to accept or reject God’s gift of salvation. How easy God made this for His people but how difficult we make it. Yes, salvation comes at great cost but it was God who paid the price, not His people.
Oswald Chambers writes:
We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God; we must either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest blessing spiritually is the knowledge that we are destitute; until we get there God is powerless. He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of ourselves, we have to enter into His Kingdom through the door of destitution. As long as we are rich, possessed of anything in the way of pride or independence, God cannot do anything for us. it is only when we get hungry spiritually that we receive the Holy Spirit. The gift of the essential nature of God is made effectual in us by the Holy Spirit, He imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, which puts “the beyond” within, and immediately “the beyond” has come within, it rises up to “the above”, and we are lifted into the domain where Jesus lives. (John 3:5)
God has given you a gift. Have you “opened” His gift or have you rejected His offer? God is patient. He desires for all of His children to come to Him but He will not force anyone. And He will not wait forever.
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also.
John 14:1-3 KJV
And He said unto them,
It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:
and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up;
and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as He went up,
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
which also said,
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.
Acts 1: 7-11 KJV
On this first Sunday of Advent my wreath sits on my dining room table.
The first candle is lit.
The candle burns
– a tiny flame –
but the darkness cannot overcome it.
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