“Advent, Obedience and Our Future Hope”

A town lays sleeping under a midnight sky, when suddenly, the silence is shattered bythe shout of an Egyptian father awakening to find his beloved firstborn son lying dead on his mat.  The Israelite family next door sleepily begins their day as usual.  They had prepared…the blood of the Passover lamb had been painted on the doorpost and the anticipated death angel had passed over them. They awoke with joy, beginning a new day untouched by the curse of death.

Centuries later, the silence of another midnight sky is shattered, not by the brokenhearted cries of death, but the joyful shouts of angels announcing the long anticipated birth of the Savior; God incarnate, coming to bring peace on earth!

ADVENT!

For most, this word brings thoughts of brightly colored calendars with small candy filled windows, counting down the days to Christmas morning, where we will awaken to beautiful trees overflowing with packages underneath waiting to be unwrapped.  Is this truly advent, or should it have a daily impact on our lives as believers?  Because Jesus came, and because He is coming again, advent, a time of preparation, anticipation, joy and incarnation, shouldn’t only be a countdown to one day a year; it should actually change our lives each day!

Travel forward in time to another darkened sky…blackness in mid-day, and the shout of the Savior of the world declaring from the cross that the payment for our sin had been made…it was finished!  No more need for sacrifice!  The long anticipated Savior had come to earth for this purpose…to die for mankind, offering peace, joy, and hope to all who would believe.  This is why Jesus took on flesh and came to earth…to offer us life through His death.  Because of this we have access to God, the Father, through Jesus! Hebrews 4:16 tells us to “come boldly to the throne of grace”.  Because of Jesus, we can enter the throne room of our Father, day or night, and “find mercy and grace to help!”  When we don’t have the words to pray, the “Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Rom 8:26) and intercedes for us “according to the will of God.”  When we struggle again and again with the same sin and are overwhelmed with guilt, we remind ourselves that “it is finished”; victory over sin is ours because of His death!  When we struggle to bow our knee in obedience to Him, we remember that He sympathizes with our weakness, because He was tempted like we are, and He offers grace to help us obey.   

Advent is not only the celebration of His anticipated birth so many years ago, it is the hope…the confident expectation…of His coming again!  No matter how hard this life is; no matter what trials you have walked through, or are walking through, we can rejoice in the knowledge that this is not the end!  The world and all it offers us is fleeting….empty, but our inheritance is being kept for us in Heaven (1Peter 1:4), and God promises to bring us safely home! 

“Though you have not seen him, you love him.  Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9)  This is ADVENT!...a daily preparation of our hearts through the living and active Word, a settled peace in the anticipation that He will come again, and a joy in knowing His steadfast love never has and never will fail!