Monday, December 12

Zephaniah 3:14, Psalm 100

Loren Walker

Zephaniah 3:14

Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel!

Rejoice, and exult with all your heart O daughter Jerusalem.

Read also Psalm 100. What more marvelous way to express joy than with a joyful noise! The Bible urges us to worship with joyful singing. Our congregation does a good job of this. We have an excellent choir, and we all celebrate with many spirited congregational hymns.

The Christmas music is especially joyful. Consider Joy to the World! or Angels We Have Heard on High with its pealing “Glorias” or O Come All Ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant! There are many more.

We should not only sing these wonderful Christmas carols, we should be sure to teach them to our children. They will hear them at church, but it would good if they would hear them at home also. They are not likely to hear them on the radio. The radio versions of Christmas songs are cute, but usually have nothing to do with Christ – “Here Comes Santa Claus”, “Frosty the Snowman”, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”, etc.  So when you are listing to Christmas music at home or in the car, put on a CD or MP3 of Christmas carols. A good one is Christmas Sing Along with Mitch (Mitch Miller). There are plenty of others. This music will become ingrained in your children’s Christmas tradition.

Christianity is always only one generation away from extinction.

Prayer:  The birth of Your Son has brought great joy to people of His time and to many generations since. We thank You for the hymns which express that joy. We pray that You would help us to remind our children that although Christmas is about gifts and visits with family, it is primarily our opportunity to share in the joy of the gift of Your Son to us. And to express that joy with a joyful noise!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Sunday, December 4

John 3:16, 1 John 4:19

Loren Walker

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.

 I John 4:19

We love because He first loved us.

When our oldest daughter had her first child it was a wonderful event in our lives…our first grandchild Antonio! Shortly after Antonio was born we got a letter from our daughter that told us a lot about love reciprocated. She said,
“One of my first and most pleasant memories of being a young child was the way Mom or Dad handled me after a bath. You would dry me off, wrap me up in a towel, and then cuddle me close to you to keep me warm until I was thoroughly dry. I thought it was the most wonderful, loving thing a parent could do. But now, I cuddle little wet Antonio that same way, and I find out that you were doing that for you own pleasure as well as mine.”

Love is like that. God sent His Son out of His love. He sent Jesus to wrap us in the mantle of His grace to keep us from having to pay the penalty of our sins. It was a loving thing for God to do. And we naturally love God because He showed His love for us in this wonderful way.

Prayer:

Gracious God, we thank You for loving us enough to send Your Son for our salvation. Jesus showed us by His life what You are really like: not demanding and vengeful, but compassionate, loving, and forgiving. May we show our gratitude to You by reciprocating that love.  By having a sincere love of Christ, and a desire to be the persons He would want us to be.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Sunday, November 27

Isaiah 11:1-5

Loren Walker

Isaiah 11: 1-2

A stump shall come out from the root of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

The verses from Isaiah above do not show the entire selection, you should read it from the Bible. Jesse was the father of King David. It had been prophesied that the family of David would rule Israel forever. But 250 years after David’s glorious reign, at the time of Isaiah’s writing, this looked pretty hopeless. Israel was divided into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Both kingdoms were weak and facing conquest and exile. In those circumstances, Isaiah prophesied a new king of Israel, a king of the line of David. This would not be a warrior king, but a king of righteousness and peace. And we know that this promise was still about 750 years from becoming reality. So it took a lot of faith to have hope in that situation.

But the Children of Israel did keep that hope. At the time of the birth of Jesus, the wise men on their way to Bethlehem stopped by to visit  King Herod. Herod asked the chief priests and scribes where the Messiah was to be born. They quoted verses (Micah 5:2) from the prophet Micah,  who lived at the time of Isaiah. They had not forgotten the prophesy, nor given up hope of its fulfillment.

Prayer: Lord, may we follow this example of hope and faith. For these four weeks of Advent we will hope not only for the coming of Jesus but for the fulfillment of His promises in our lives.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.