Advent is upon us once again; I am not sure where this year went. On one hand, it seemed sluggish, and on the other that it slipped away like a gust of wind. During this Advent season, I am praying for a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit to awaken a dry and weary soul; A dry and weary land. We need the Lord now more than ever to sweep over us and refresh our weariness. What a wonderful time to draw near to Him and to seek Him like at no other time.
I have mulled over what to write in the space during Advent.
The traditional liturgy is to go through the four themes of Advent, along with
the Advent wreath of hope, love, peace, and joy. Depending upon one’s tradition,
the four themes fall in different order. I
wrote about them here the last Advent season. I have also previously
written about the prophecies of Christ in the
Old Testament and how He fulfilled them in the New Testament. I encourage
you to read them and see how beautifully intertwined the two glorious Testaments
are to each other.
I love the Old Testament. Sadly, I have heard several
teachers of God’s Word admonishing people to “detach” themselves from the Old
Testament and that breaks my heart. One would not have the New Testament if not
for the Old Testament; they fit hand-in-glove. I love how Lockyer states this
truth:
“A devout Hebrew
scholar has pointed out that the Old Testament is a book of consonants without
vowels, as Hebrew students know. But Christ came as the Alpha and the Omega,
the initial and final vowel of the New Testament Language, to all the vowel
points to the old revelation; to be the interpreter of difficulties and the
filler of gaps. And so, as Luther exhorts, ‘In the Word thou shouldest hear
nothing else than thy God speaking to thee.’”[1]
I have also recently learned that many of Christ’s followers
do not fully understand the doctrine of the Incarnation—that Christ preexisted
in the Old Testament. He did not begin at Bethlehem, for God has no beginning
and no end. Psalm
90:2 declares, “Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to
everlasting you are God” (NASB). This is but one verse but there are
many that support God’s claim. This is going to be my Advent theme—God Was
In Christ: The Doctrine of the Incarnation.
“Now all these things are from
God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us
the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in
Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their
wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to us the word of
reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though
God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.” {2
Cor. 5:18-19 NASB emphasis added}.
I may be revisiting some of the prophecies in the Old
Testament concerning Christ, but I want to walk you through the Scripture—the
Old and New Testaments—to show you Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead,
and how God, who was in Christ, came to be God in man.
This is not the conventional Advent devotion, but I pray
that you will follow along through His Word and that by gaining a full
understanding of the Incarnation, that you will embrace this season of Advent
with a fresh zeal to draw near to Him and to await His presence.
Last year during Advent, I also read the Gospel of Luke each
day and journaled what Scripture burned in my heart (you
may find them here). I am going to repeat that devotion this year; A
chapter of the gospel of Luke every night leading up to Christmas Eve. Luke’s Gospel
account has twenty-four chapters one for each night of Advent. Will you read
along with me? I will post a reminder each day along with a few insights as to
what touches my heart in each chapter of this beautiful, glorious story of the
Christ child. I pray you will join me in this Advent Journal. Though Advent
begins tonight, start reading Luke on Tuesday evening to end on December 24th
{unless of course you wish to begin tonight}.
Happy Advent to you. I pray the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ fills you to overflow with His hope, love, peace, and joy, that only He can
give.
One Single Name:
Who is this child whom the prophets foretell
And over whose birth heaven and earth exult?
Only in stammering can one speak his name,
Can one try to describe
What is encompassed in his name.
Words pile up and pour out in a rush when they are to say
Who this child is.
Indeed, strange combinations of words, otherwise unknown
to us,
Come into being
When the name of this child
Is to pass human lips:
“Wonderful Counselor,” “Mighty God,”
“Everlasting Father,” “Prince of Peace.”
Every one of these words has endless depths,
And all of them together try
To express only one single name: Jesus. [2]
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