Category: Advent

     Today, December 1st, 2024 is the first day of Advent and we light the candle of Hope. But let me go back to a place in which I was imagining a future that was bright and good and affirming for all people. I hoped that goodness and love would lift us to a new…
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This Sunday, the season of Advent begins. During Advent, the first candle, the Candle of Hope will be lit to shine forth into a dark and hopeless world. Regrettably, many who light this candle do not have hope.

The season of Advent; preparing for the coming of Christ, Messiah-God in flesh,

Today is the day of Epiphany. It is a really old celebration and yet, so many of us have no idea what it is or have heard it’s exact significance to the world. So what is it? The Epiphany commemorates the visit of the wise men or Magi to the Christ Child. Not to be…
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Come Awake! Come Awake… “We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade The presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to Penetrate. The real labor is to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake”. (Letters to Malcom by…
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We are gardeners. You can always tell a true gardener by their hands and our hands are no exception. A gardener’s hands are rough with callus, stained, full of cuts and abrasions and all knobby with arthritis. This is expected for we live to garden. Of late, we have been caring for some neglected olive…
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At Trafalgar Square in the city of London stands a statue of Lord Nelson. Resting atop a tall pillar, it towers too high for passersby to distinguish his features. For this reason, about forty years ago a new statue – an exact replica of the original – was erected at eye level so that everyone…
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Today we light the Advent candle of peace. In honor of the day, God brought an early, morning visitor. While drinking coffee in front of a roaring fire, sleepily staring out our picture window at the misty mountain engulfed in clouds, a dove lit on the rail inside our porch terrace. A dove! He flew…
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Having a heart of Advent means preparing for the Lord’s return. A big part of preparing for the second coming of Christ involves waiting. As His people, we must wait. In faith, we “wait for the Lord, and in His word we hope” (Psalms 130:5). Even when “God hides His face, we wait with hope”…
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Excerpts from my favorite prayer book… “We die; indeed we have to die in order to be resurrected, restored, [transformed], and renewed. We die and we die and we die in this life, not only physically-within seven years every cell in your body is renewed-but emotionally and spiritually as change seizes us by the scruff…
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