Lost in Jacksonville: November 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

First Sunday of Advent

This Sunday was the First of Four Sundays of Advent. The scriptural focus this week was on the second or Final coming of the Messiah. Christmas season, Advent, is not about anticipation of the birth of the baby Jesus, it is the anticipation of the new Jerusalem on Earth. That is when God's Kingdom is on Earth.

People have been waiting for the reign of the Messiah for thousands of years. Only the Father knows the time it will begin. In these times we wait in anticipation, trying to live our lives to always be ready for that coming.

This does not mean that we don't celebrate His first coming or His birth, we do. But it is the beginning, not the end of what we anticipate.

This waiting is not the same as when we were younger and had trouble waiting for Christmas Morning. I am reminded of one of my favorite scriptures, Isaiah 40:31.

but those 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. NRSV

Vehayah

¹³ ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴ then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ¹⁵ And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ ¹⁶ Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷ lest the LORD’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.
¹⁸ “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ²⁰ And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.
(Deuteronomy 11:13-21, New King James Version)

The Shema

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! ⁵ You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
⁶ “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, New King James Version)