Advent Week Three; Joy In The Not Yet
In this darkest season of little daylight, Christmas bursts in with the light of generosity, hope and joy. Whether you’re a person of faith or not, this season challenges us to side with light on the darkest days of the year…If Christmas cheer is hard to muster, I encourage you to look for hope and light. Because it matters. The more of this human race that has joy in the middle of this disaster of the 21st century, the better for us all. We could slog through our Christian life without joy. But choosing not to press in and allow the Spirit to produce that fruit in us a victory for our enemy because it is to deny that Jesus already won the victory even though he has not yet removed his opposition and taken full possession of the land. He has won, is winning and will win the victory though. And he holds out the fruit of joy for us while we, his loyal servants, carry the news of his victory through these occupied lands.
Advent Week 2; Peace & Place
Although advent devotionals often assign week two the theme of peace, this idea stems from the traditional theme of Bethlehem or lighting the “Bethlehem candle” where peace on earth was declared. So in addition to discussing peace this week, I’d like to talk about place. We know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, the City of David, to poorish parents. Last week we discussed the culture he was born into and how the Roman-occupied Jews would have anticipated the coming of their King. But I want to peel back another layer for a moment. We’ll come back to the concept of visible place; let’s chat about the unseen realm.
Advent Week 1
When Nic was a youth pastor, sometimes he would relish these terrible, awkward silences. Usually, he would ask a question, personal or interpretive, that no one felt inclined to answer. So he’d say, “That’s fine. I can wait.” And he would. It killed me. The silence was honestly painful to my brain. Apparently, the youth kids felt the same because eventually someone would be tortured by the silence into answering. That was a tiny moment. Can you imagine God saying, “Are you going to change your ways?” “Be aware that a time is coming…” And then he just—
Women’s Work
“God’s design for gender was and is perfect. Men and women are equally valuable, differently made beings for a purpose. But I believe this is another situation in which we think to “small-ly” of God. I have no argument with “Christ is the head of man and man is the head of woman” and I have no issue with the word submission. This is not about whether or not women should lead in certain areas or speak in church. This is about the battle field. Forget the semantics, politics and appearances. Those matter little when you’re in the thick of warfare...
When women pick up the armor God gave to every believer and own their identity as daughter and servant of the King,darkness shakes,beasts are slain,and lives are saved from the enemy.It is not by our own power or wisdom or any device of woman; it is by the strength of His might.
Every woman is different and I don’t want to make generalizations but each woman has passion, cares, strengths and eyes that see differently than the man next to her. There are people that need our touch. There are hearts that need our eyes to see. There are voices that need our ears to hear.”
Are there Hobbits in Christianity?
Despite having so many projects, deadlines to make and our main school lessons to finish for the year, I can’t help but continue to work on my novel. Even if I’m not putting more words on the page, the characters and their stories are growing in my silly brain. Right now, I’m staring the action scenes in the face so I’ve been reading other novels to give that time to develop. Right now I’m over halfway through Tolkien’s Return of the King.
It’s been a while since I’ve read the Lord of the Rings. And as it should be I’ve learned so much since then, but particularly about spiritual warfare. Tolkien loathed direct allegory, but did love to use symbolism creatively in his works. I can’t even tell you how much beauty and truth I’m finding in it and some of it strikes me so hard and so deep. Why am I telling you this? Because I have a couple of thoughts ignited by my recent reading that I wanted to chat with you guys about, even ask you about. But I wanted to assure you that I’m not going to talk about LOTR forever! I’ll do a couple of posts this week and try (my very best) to be done for the time being. But don’t be afraid to shoot me an e-mail (or reach out on social media) and continue the conversation!