I feel like I haven't posted in forever!
I have lots of updating to do since I missed JR's 10 & 11 month posts, pretty quick too because his first birthday is coming soon. CAN'T BELIEVE IT!
Hope you all had a special Thanksgiving with family and friends- we sure did!
We have been trying to intentionally keep the holiday season calm and enjoyable. A friend of mine shared some great words of wisdom at a "Holiday How-to" event at Compass- talking about how we must rest and get rid of the busyness that surrounds us in order to fully encounter Christ and what He has planned for our lives. Not only is that true all year round, I especially feel like as a mom and woman, the Christmas season can be clouded with shopping, planning and parties. Beautiful and enjoyable things... but can overwhelm our spirit and take away precious time with God and our families. It has been hard to pick and choose what Christmas events and parties we want to go to, but it has really helped to decide on a couple family days ahead of time that we already blocked off.
All that to say, I may not be blogging as much or spending hours picking out the perfect gift for every person. I am enjoying this Christmas season and praying I can take the rare quiet moments of my day to get to know my Jesus a little more.
Merry Christmas!
If you're interest in reading some verses I posted in the past as a little Blog Advent click on the link {here}
(Reagan and Vali wanted to be on the blog- they are still around and sweeter than ever!)
December is here! The month when our son will be born... and more importantly, the time we celebrate our Savior's birth! Through all the hustle and bustle (especially for me right now!) it can be so easy to miss the still, quiet voice of the Lord this season. Yesterday, I read a powerful post {Here} on A Holy Experience. May we all be praying for a heart that is weightless in the waiting.
Today we start our family Advent countdown, but I won't be doing the blog advent this year- I barely even made it through every day last December and I'm very sure I would fail if I tried this year :)
{Here} is the link from 2010 if you want to go back through the scriptures. (You will have to scroll to the bottom of the page and work backwards.)
And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
…though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of lifeand be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem...
The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance
and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD.
“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the LORD.
For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight. Long may he live! May gold from Sheba be given him. May people ever pray for him and bless him all day long. May grain abound throughout the land; on the tops of the hills may it sway. May the crops flourish like Lebanon and thrive like the grass of the field. May his name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun. Then all nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed.
Isaiah 52:13-15
See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness— so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name."
Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
Genesis 49:10
The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth."
Jeremiah 31:31
"The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
“Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.
“We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: “‘You are my son;
today I have become your father.’ God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God has said, “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’ So it is also stated elsewhere: “‘You will not let your holy one see decay.’ “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you."
Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said: “Fellow Israelites and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me! The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt; with mighty power he led them out of that country; for about forty years he endured their conduct in the wilderness; and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan, giving their land to his people as their inheritance. All this took about 450 years. “After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ “From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised. Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel. As John was completing his work, he said: ‘Who do you suppose I am? I am not the one you are looking for. But there is one coming after me whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’’
Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’
(I LOVE this verse. Isn't that what the Gospel is all about... finding Freedom in Christ!)
This past year I have learned and come to appreciate the Jewish faith. I have watched the raw emotion of Jewish believers, tears streaming at the base of the Wailing Wall, and witnessed a people sold out to their God, a continuation of the commitment in the Old Testament. It pains my heart that they are persistently waiting on the One who has already come. I asked myself how the Jews who witnessed Jesus declare He was the Son of God, perform miracles, love on the unlovable, and resurrect from the dead... how could they have missed this One they had spent centuries waiting for? I cannot say I would have recognized Him. I'm sure, just like today, my sight would have been clouded with selfish desires, with dreams of a man who would save me from temporary suffering instead of eternally saving my sins.
I am reminded of the quote I have heard by Max Lucado...
"If we needed good government, God would’ve sent a politician. If we needed knowledge, God would’ve sent a educator. If we needed money, God would’ve sent an economist. But we need forgiveness --- so He sent a Savior."
In honor of the Old Testament believers, wholly committed to an unseen God and waiting on a Savior, this advent season I want to be reminded of the many prophecies written in Scripture foretelling of my Savior's birth. I want surround myself in a state of longing for Jesus that I have never been in before. And what a celebration for those of us who call on the Messiah, who was born, loved, preached, shared, died, and raised to life, so we no longer have to wait with anticipation, but now run into His arms with thankfulness.
We typed up a series of verses from the Old and New Testament to read every day until Christmas. I know it's already December 7th, but I wasn't originally planning to post the advent verses on the blog. After reading and meditating on the verses this past week, I thought I should share them with others too! I hope that these promises in God's Word will encourage you this season and bring about a renewed longing for Christ. This is also a wonderful opportunity to share with your children the beliefs of the Jewish faith and the Messiah that we as Christians have accepted as our Savior.
Each day I will try to post the new verse... if I can't update for a few days, I'll post a few on one day and you can come back and read them when you choose. Also, I think we would all be blessed by comments and any further wisdom you would like to share about what the Lord is teaching you this Christmas season- either through these verses or in any other aspect of the season! Feel free to email me or write a comment to share. Merry Christmas!
December 7:
Isaiah 55:1-3
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
