Advent

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Start by reading Revelation 5:1-14.

The Christmas season resoundingly and clearly declares the message from Revelation 5:12:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Each year, we are reminded that a small, innocent child was born and grew up to live a perfect life that culminated in being the slain Lamb on the cross. Through His death, we are granted a reconciled and renewed relationship with God. For this very reason, we declare, “Worthy is the Lamb.” What message are you declaring this season?

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Start by reading Ephesians 2:11-22.

Ephesians 2:13 reminds us, ‘in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought nearby the blood of Christ.’ This passage highlights the restoration of two fundamental relationships as a result of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Firstly, it signifies the reconciliation of our relationship with God through Christ’s death and resurrection. Secondly, Jesus’ actions on the cross have also rekindled our connection with humanity. He stands as the peacemaker, uniting people from all nations, languages, and backgrounds in harmonious unity under the banner of the Gospel.

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Start by reading Isaiah 53:1-12.

Notice the verbs in Isaiah 53:1-12: punished, despised, stricken, afflicted, pierced, crushed, oppressed, cut off. Why would God subject His son, Jesus, to the pain of Isaiah 53?

Because He wants you. He loves you.

Through the sacrifice of Jesus, God provided a way for reconciliation and redemption, offering the gift of eternal life and forgiveness of sins. The pain endured on the cross is continual proof of God’s desire for you. So, while the words of Isaiah 53 are full of pain and suffering, they also remind us of what God will do to secure relationships with us.

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Start by reading Genesis 12:1-3; 21:2.

Genesis 12:1-3 can be likened to the ultimate pregame speech of the Old Testament. You can imagine the immense passion and encouragement that must have surged within Abram (later renamed Abraham in Genesis 17:5) as he received this message from God. However, following this remarkable declaration, Abraham found himself in a prolonged period of waiting for God to fulfill His promise. Twenty-five years later this promise began to take shape with the birth of Abraham’s son, Isaac, in Genesis 21:2.

When we reflect on the story of Abraham and Sarah, we’re reminded that God is always faithful to His promises, although not always within our preferred timeframe. In fact, it wasn’t for another 2,000 years and 40 generations later that the promise of Genesis 12:1-3 was fully realized with the birth of Jesus.

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Start by reading Matthew 2:1-12.

When reading Matthew 2:1-12, one can’t help but notice the stark differences between the Wise Men’s and King Herod’s responses to the Newborn King. The Wise Men demonstrated faithfulness and trust, following a star and heeding a dream, while King Herod responded with fear and eventually resorted to violence (Matthew 2:16).

What’s your typical response? Do you respond with a child-like faithfulness, like wisemen, or are you tempted to respond like Herod? Do you grasp for the promises of this world and attempt to control narratives that are beyond your reach?

Myrrh was a burial gift. Could these wisemen have known? The death and resurrection of the King, the magic deeper still, would be the ultimate gift for a waiting world. So said another wise man, C.S. Lewis:

“Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation.

She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe | C.S. Lewis

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Start by reading Philippians 2:1-11.

Paul says of Jesus that He emptied Himself and took on the form of man. And even as a man who was God, Jesus still humbled Himself so that He would die on a cross to atone for the brokenness of all mankind. But why this way? Why did God not come in glory and power and prove once and for all that He was the true King and worthy of our full and total surrender?

Consider this. Jesus did not come only to pay the debt we owed. He came humbly, as a baby, wrapped in the swaddling clothes of humanity to show us the way. He came and lived just like every other human had – in brokenness, in sickness, in limitation. He came not just to show us the power of God, but to show us the persistent and pursuing love of God – a love that is acquainted with all of our pain and hurt and loneliness. Jesus came so that we would know the love of God, and so that we would see the better way. In this Christmas season, perhaps our step of obedience may be to lay aside pride, rightness, and the idea that we are above others because of what they’ve done. Perhaps in entering into the brokenness alongside the broken people in our lives, we will understand a little better the love of God for us. Perhaps we will learn the power that is born only in humility.

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Start by reading Isaiah 9:1-7.

When the prophet Isaiah revealed the Words of God, God’s people lived under the shadow of the ever-expanding Assyrian empire – the ominous empire that would soon invade the kingdom and take God’s chosen people as slaves. But even as the people of Israel were led off in chains to a foreign land, they would have these words of hope to cling to.

“There will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.”

One day, a Messiah would come. God promised His people that their suffering would have an end. Their despair would become rejoicing because a baby was coming to save the day. A baby who would be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This baby wasn’t just another Moses or David, this baby would be God Himself coming to the rescue. Whatever you are suffering with this Christmas season – hoping a broken relationship will be reconciled, longing for illness to come to an end, or simply longing for your mind to be at peace – God’s amazing promise is that all suffering has an end. One day, His peace and His rule will increase to the full, and all things will be as they ought to be. And though suffering has an end, our joy never will.

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Start by reading Exodus 40:34-38.

This passage in Exodus finds Moses outside the tabernacle, the newly built tent of meeting where God Himself would dwell. Moses has led his people out of captivity in Egypt and he has spoken to God like a friend. He has even seen the back of God as He walked by. More than any human since Adam in the garden, Moses knew God. And yet when the presence of God settled on the Tabernacle, and His Spirit filled the Holy of Holies, even Moses himself could not enter. In fact, in the entire history of the tabernacle and both temples in Jerusalem, no one could enter the Holy of Holies except for the High Priest, once a year, and only after countless animal sacrifices and ritual cleansings. And so, the presence of God remained in the Holy of Holies, separated from humanity by a thick veil that was pulled back but once a year for hundreds and hundreds of years.

That is, until one day when the ultimate sacrifice was made; the Spotless Lamb died on a cross, and all of creation trembled. The sun went dark, the ground shook and cracked, and the veil that had separated God and man tore top to bottom. Once and for all, the price had been paid to atone for all of mankind, and the Spirit of God rushed out. At last, God could dwell with man. And the Spotless Lamb, Jesus of Nazareth, fulfilled the promise of His name – Emmanuel, God with us.

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Start by reading Colossians 1:15-20.

It was a ludicrous claim to the Jews, to dare say God had a Son. And if we’re honest, it’s a confusing idea for we modern-day Christians as well. But Paul calls Jesus “the first born of all creation” as well as “the firstborn from the dead.” To be the firstborn son in that Jewish culture was more than birth order, it meant being the rightful heir of all your Father’s estate – his land, his possessions, as well as his authority. When Paul calls Jesus the firstborn of all creation, he isn’t saying that Jesus was created first out of everything. Not at all. He is saying that Jesus is the rightful heir to everything, and that Jesus is Lord of everything.

But not only that, Jesus is reconciling everything to Himself. Through Jesus’ saving work on the cross and His victory over death and the grave, Jesus is accomplishing what He has been doing from the very beginning – reconciling all things in creation back to Himself.

So, know this: that the God of all Creation, Lord of Life and Death, is working through all things to bring you to the fullness of life you were created for. And all Jesus sets out to do He will see through to the end.