Praise
the Lord for this Wednesday. This is the first Wednesday of the Advent season.
We will meet for our Wednesday evening gathering at 6 PM for food, fellowship,
and study, followed by choir practice at 7:30 PM.
Praise
the Lord for the season of Advent that ushers in Christmas. I love this
season. Alice and I become like children dreaming, longing, expecting. Praise
the Lord for all people who belong to Jesus around the corner and around the
globe who are preparing for the celebration and worship, who are preparing to
give and receive, and who are preparing to exalt the Name of Jesus. I get
excited about the sounds and the signs of this wonderful season that belongs to
Jesus. Jesus is real. His birth is real. His promises are real. His gifts
are real. Praise the Lord that we can live our lives in celebration of that
gift. We can live our lives rejoicing in His promises. Praise the Lord for so
many who live under oppressive circumstances yet proclaim Jesus. I was talking
to Sunita who is in Jerusalem this week. She was giving the testimonies of
those who love Jesus in the Middle East and confess Jesus. Many are coming to
Jesus as the Lord Himself reveals Himself to the people in dreams and
visions.
I love
the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I am blessed by His devotion to Jesus. There
is mystery and wonder about Jesus. We can not fully grasp the magnitude of His
person and His power. One thing I know is that Jesus is real. He is alive and
well. He is the king of nations and the king of angels. I get excited about
Jesus . Praise the Lord we get to prepare to celebrate His birth one more
time. Years ago, in the days before the Christmas of 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
sat in prison in Nazi Germany. He was there because, unlike many other Lutheran
pastors, he refused to place a picture of Hitler on the altar of his church.
During that time, he wrote a letter to his fiancée, in which he compared his
waiting in prison to the waiting of Advent. He wrote, "A prison cell, in which
one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent
on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a
bad picture of Advent."
To gain
his freedom, all Bonheoffer could do was wait, because the prison door had to be
unlocked and opened from the outside. Someone else had to do it. In the same
way, the first Christmas didn't come because a bunch of people did something
good; it wasn't the successful result of human skill or cleverness. Rather, it
came as a miracle, as a gift to those whose arms we're stretched out in
longing—to those who eagerly waited. It will be no different the next time He
comes.
Jesus
once told a parable about the importance of waiting. He said we should
be like
men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he
comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good
for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you
the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table
and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master
finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night
(Luke
12:36-38).
The
point of this story is that we should be waiting and watching for Jesus to come,
even if He comes at what seems to be a very late hour. That's not all, because
Jesus took it one step further, saying that good things will come to those who
are waiting. Imagine this: the Master himself will dress like a servant and
have you sit down at your table and serve you! WOW!
In
Christ,
Brown
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