Advent

I’m actually a little late beginning this, Advent is the four Sundays prior to Christmas and obviously I have missed the first one. However, my excuse is that I don’t like to go into ‘Christmas mode’ before the start of December. But ‘Christmas mode’ in our society and Advent are two very different things:

The point of Advent is to consider the incarnation of Jesus Christ the Son of God and prepare our hearts for His return at the second coming. I find that Paul’s reflection upon this in Philippians 2:5-11 is especially helpful, God all sufficient making Himself nothing on a mission to die for the sins I commit in making my will of more importance than His. Then glory, Jesus Christ exalted above everything, above created beings so exalted as to blow my mind, above the entire universe that we know, above every human strength, plan and achievement, and I get to join in the worship of Him!

I am not what I once was

In his old age, when he could no longer see to read, John Newton heard someone recite this text, ‘By the grace of God—I am what I am.’ (1 Corinthians 15:10).He remained silent a short time and then, as if speaking to himself, he said: “I am not what I ought to be—ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be—I abhor that which is evil, and I would cleave to that which is good. I am not what I hope to be—soon, soon I shall put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection! Though I am not what I ought to be, what I wish to be, and what I hope to be—yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was—a slave to sin and Satan! I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge, ‘By the grace of God—I am what I am!’ “

The quote above is taken from the Grace Gems website.

See also Romans 7:15-25

Whatever is lovely

Love one another with brotherly affection.
(Romans 12:10)

Our church had a ‘bring and share’ service today – no sermon, instead members of the congregation shared how God has been at work in their lives.

One person spoke of God’s grace in helping overcome character weaknesses, a family of God’s sustaining them through a tough winter. A teen shared the preciousness of a memory verse (2 Timothy 1:5) spoken to her by her grandmother, and a steadfast woman of God told us how encouraging the book of Job is to her during trying times.

Real people fighting the good fight, testifying to God’s faithfulness in all aspects of their daily lives. Afterwards a church meeting with open discussion of some big issues for our congregation – devoid of animosity. Capped off with a lunch together as a church family (and the guys did the dishes!). God was truly in our midst today!

Pure – faith

One of the most precious of all things is a pure faith in Christ (1 Peter 1:7). There are no shortcuts to this and whether my faith is genuine is unknown to anyone but God until it is tested. I greatly desire to have the seal of proof that my faith is pure!

What is the test of faith?

Suffering:

In this you rejoice, though for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is refined by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(1 Peter 1:6-7)

Do I still want proof that my faith is genuine? (Luke 9:23-25). Can I risk not proving my faith as pure?

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
(Luke 9:23-25 ESV)

Whatever is pure

Do you need a bath? Or do you just need your feet washed? (John 13:8-10).

I used to work as a biochemist and in the lab we were always very concerned to use pure chemical solutions for our experiments because even trace amounts of contaminants could ruin an experiment, rendering the results useless. Yet none of our chemicals were ever 100% pure, even the ‘ultrapure’ water was not absolutely pure because it absorbed contaminants from the equipment used to purify it, the atmosphere, and even the glass in which it was stored – at best it was relatively pure.

God alone is absolutely pure, so pure that he cannot even look upon evil (Habakkuk 1:13). Which leaves us with a problem – we have deceitful, sinful hearts and God is so pure that sin cannot exist in His presence. We need to be made clean, and not just relatively clean, absolutely clean. The One who washed Peter is the only way for any of us to be cleansed so that we can stand before God who is holy.