Follow the below link to the website for the Advent Devotional from Luther Seminary. You can either download the booklet in a pdf form, or sign up for a daily email.
This is a wonderful resource!
What we have known
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:16-21 ESV)
Peter tells us what he has known. He tells us what he learned from his experience.
This is nothing more than we are asked to do.
We are suppose to tell our story, which is God’s story.
From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we are all part of the same story. We need to tell others what we know. Not for fact but on faith.
Share your story!
On your side!
‘O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:23-27a, NRSV)
I wish that all of my words were written down and I was there with Jesus after my skin had been destroyed, and then I could in my flesh see God!
Job tells us of the resurrection of the body. That we will as we are stand before God because of what Jesus has done for us!
We will be able to stand before God because Jesus is on our side and He has done great things for us!
Praise be to God that He lives, and because He lives we too shall live!
Thank God today that He is on your side!
authority
One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders and said to him, ‘Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?’ He answered them, ‘I will also ask you a question, and you tell me: Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ They discussed it with one another, saying, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say, “Why did you not believe him?” But if we say, “Of human origin”, all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet.’ So they answered that they did not know where it came from. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’ (Luke 20:1-8, NRSV)
Where did authority come from?
Where does authority come from?
Who do you see as an authority figure over you?
Doesn’t that change throughout your life?
I mean when I was younger I saw my parents as authority figures. However if my parents were still alive I would not see them as authority figures as I did when I was 10, or even 18. Now they are still authority figures, but not the same…
So where did Jesus get His power, is probably more close to what the Pharisees want to know. They see someone doing something that they can’t, and want to know why?
They are then asked a question in return. Where does the baptism of John come from. They are in a quandary. If they say Heaven, then why did they not believe and be baptized, but if they say human origin, then they are dissing all of the people who believe it is from Heaven and are following after John. They are worried they would lose their authority either way.
So where does your authority come from? And what authority do you see over your life?
apple of His eye
Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit. From you let my vindication come; let your eyes see the right. If you try my heart, if you visit me by night, if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me; my mouth does not transgress. As for what others do, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped. I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me, hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. Guard me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings, from the wicked who despoil me, my deadly enemies who surround me. (Psalm 17, NRSV)
I wonder when David wrote this? Because the first verse says from lips free of deceit… David is not without deceit…
But have you ever seen your reflection in the eye of a loved one?
When you get so close that you see yourself in their eyes?
That is how close God is to you. David prayed that God would guard him as the apple of His eye, that God would be so close to him that David would always be the reflection in the eye of God.
And that is where He is. So close to you that if you dare to look Him in the eye you would see your reflection. Yet I dare to say that you would not see your reflection, but you would see Jesus.
So always remember even if you are like David and you try but sometimes fall short of where God wants you to be, you will always be the apple of His eye.
take care…
When brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. But if the man has no desire to marry his brother’s widow, then his brother’s widow shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, ‘I have no desire to marry her’, then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and declare, ‘This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ Throughout Israel his family shall be known as ‘the house of him whose sandal was pulled off.’ (Deuteronomy 25:5-10, NRSV)
How many husbands could one woman have?
Many brothers could die without leaving woman a son to take care of her, so she could be married to many men…
This scripture is confusing to us today, because most of us would never think of marrying our brothers’ wives. I mean I have some really great sister-in-laws but not really up on the marrying part of that. I would be up for what the text is telling us though…
This law was put into place so that they women would be care for. The women would be taken care of. Because in the day this was written, women could not earn money from a decent job, or enough to take care of themselves. They were considered property and needed the protection of a provider. And that is what this passage is telling us, Take Care!
Take care of those who need our assistance.
Take care of the down trodden.
Take care of the less fortunate.
That is why I would not want to marry my sister-in-laws but I would do what those who read this were told to do, help make sure their needs were met…
So take care!
10 Strategies to Spend Less Time in Meetings and More Time in Ministry – TonyMorganLive.com
Wonderful stuff we all need to look at and think about and use so that we are focused on the ministry and not the meeting!
10 Strategies to Spend Less Time in Meetings and More Time in Ministry – TonyMorganLive.com.
Justice…
For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate. Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:In all the squares there shall be wailing; and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning, and those skilled in lamentation, to wailing; in all the vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through the midst of you, says the Lord. Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:12-24, NRSV)
I know your transgressions and your sins! I know all of the things you have done, shoving the needy aside, taking bribes to get what you wanted…
God knows what we have done. Yet He still loves us. He does not give us the justice we deserve… He gives us based on His love. He gives to us based upon the cross, and His love flows like a stream and rolls down like water from a water fall.
He allows His mercy and compassion to flow over us and make us into the people He needs us to be.
We need to be this way in the world. We need to seek justice, and not our revengeful or vengeance justice, but the justice that God seeks for us to have!
Proper place…
Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. (Jude 1:5-8 ESV)
Jesus died to save people… Yet those who did not know there proper place, He kept in chains…
The way Jesus called the disciples and all of us is the same. He told them to follow Him. Yet He also used the same words to say to Peter when he told him He could not go to Jerusalem to die. There Jesus said to Peter, “get behind me, Satan.”
The words Jesus used to call the disciples in the Gospels, was the same words in Greek for “get behind me.”
Jesus is telling us to take our proper place. If we can not see the back of Jesus’ head, we are not in the proper place. We need to follow, and be behind Jesus. Not to seek our own way, or our own desires, but follow wherever He leads.
Can you hear?
The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!” The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah (Psalm 50:1-6 ESV)
God is calling and summoning all of the world from the rising of the sun to its setting…
God does not keep silent, He is calling us to Him. He is a devouring fire and will judge the world.
He is calling us to Him. Can you hear Him?
Are you ready to listen and follow where He is leading?
aSacredRebel 