December 5 - Eric Lange

Psalm 27:13-14

13 I remain confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

14 Wait for the Lord;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord.

How big is your hope? How strong is your confidence in that hope? Advent hope is not simply being optimistic. Being optimistic is a way of looking at the current situation and thinking things are going to get better. Advent hope is a breakthrough - a rupture of the way things are as the God who created heaven and earth uses that same creative energy to begin writing a new story in our world. Expecting the “goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” only comes through the God who moves in our world making all things new. Simply put, it’s not something we accomplish.

I’m feeling the stress + business of the Christmas season this week. On top of all the holiday festivities, there is a lot of other stuff I have to get done. Christmas cards and letters to send, financial books to close, year-end activities to put to rest. I’m feeling really behind, and really responsible for all the things to have to get done.

The same things can happen in our house. We have a lot to do right now. New kids in the house who need to learn our culture and rhythms of community. We have schedules to write, bus routes to teach, habits of accountability that we have to instill. Then, there’s the work we have to do when things go off the rails with kids, and how we work to repair and reconcile.

When we’re feeling the weight of the stress and workloads we’re carrying, it’s easy to cherrypick the words of Verse 14. We say, “Be strong, and take heart,” and then go try to get everything done. We say, “Take heart and accomplish everything on your to-do list.” But, that’s not the kind of hope we’re looking for during Advent. We’re looking for the hope of deeper transformation that’s truly a work of God, not ourselves.

This Hope requires waiting, not action. As verse 14 reminds us, we need to “be strong and take heart” not to go be active - we need to be strong and take heart so that we can wait. Wait prayerfully for the soul work that only God can do in our kids’ lives. We wait for those lightbulb moments where, like the Prodigal Son, our kids may “come to themselves” and realize the way of life has led them far from the Father, and how much better it would be to be in His house (Luke 15:17 ESV). God is at work in ways that we can’t always discover, and we can be Hopeful - not just optimistic.

When we wait for God to move, we can trust in God’s faithfulness. When we are confident in that, we can hold our activities with a little less heaviness, and more trust.

December 3 - Davis James

John 1:19-23

¹⁹ Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders^[a] in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. ²⁰ He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

²¹ They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

²² Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

²³ John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”^[b]

In John 1:19-23 John the Baptist is confronted by Jewish leaders asking if he is the messiah. John replies no, but also quotes Isaiah. Saying “Make Straight the way of the Lord” and telling the people he is the voice that Isaiah is talking about. This is a about a 700 year gap between when that was written and Johns birth. I love this fulfillment of the prophecy. Not only does John simply prepare the way for Jesus by ministry, we was right ahead of Jesus in everything. His birth being announced, sharing the gospel/doing baptisms and even dying. John’s sole mission was to bring an end to the waiting and prepare a way for Jesus. He was the ground work before Jesus paved roads. And even though John is the end of the waiting, we see John question the very man for which he is preparing the way. In Luke 7, John sends two disciples of his to ask Jesus THE VERY SAME QUESTION that the Jewish leaders asked! CRAZY right? Even though John the Baptist knew, he still doubted in his waiting. So this season lets be grateful that we don’t have to wait 700 years. We get to celebrate the coming of Jesus right now. And we get to hope and wait for his return. What is some thing(s) that you are waiting for in the lord and how has he given you hope?

December 1 - Erin Watkins

Luke 1:8-17

⁸ Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, ⁹ he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

¹¹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³ But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. ¹⁴ He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

November 29 - Aaron Jalovec

Luke 2:8-9

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.