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The Battle Cry of Christmas
The first day of Advent… and a battle cry. Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. (Zeph. 2:3a) This verse comes in the middle of Zephaniah’s terrible prophecies against early kingdoms: Cush, Moab, Ashkelon, Nineveh — and Jerusalem (Zeph. 1-2). The only people who will survive were the holy remnant, the humble people who served the Lord and no other gods. The ones who did what God commanded. Not sweet enough for you this Christmas season? Christmas wasn’t sweet! Christmas was a revolution, a battle cry, the turning tide in the war. It still is. How will you respond this Advent season?
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Pre-Advent
This Saturday isn’t precisely the beginning of Advent — tomorrow, the first Sunday is — but December 1 is close enough as far as I’m concerned. In Protestant churches that don’t pay much attention to the liturgical calendar (which is lot of them), Advent can get lost. Christmas is a big deal of courses but Advent is just the 3 weeks of shopping, cooking and cleaning for the Christmas season. Maybe the lighting of the Advent wreaths on Sunday morning, but that is as good as it gets. And it’s not the church’s fault, not at all. Advent and Lent are primarily about our individual responses to Christ in the world,…
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A Personal Retreat for Christians
This guide is for Christians who would like to take a personal retreat with God. This is specific to Christians and not retreats in general because Christian retreats are different. Other faiths seek to contact something that is not Jesus Christ. Secular retreats are concerned with psychological self-help. The Christian retreat is based first on hearing God’s word in the Bible and through His Holy Spirit, and secondarily with good physical and psychological practices. (Mind you these are good things; they are just not the most important things.) It can be hard to get that kind of time. But you need to ask yourself – What does God want me…