Sunday Evening 4th Sunday of Advent: PEACE

 Today is the 4th Sunday of Advent...

Today in our church service we lit the candle of PEACE. Here is what was said in responsive readings as the candles were lit:

Micah 5:2-5 

2.  “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,

Yet out of you shall come forth to Me

The One to be Ruler in Israel,

Whose goings forth are from of old,

From everlasting.”

3 Therefore He shall give them up,

Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth;

Then the remnant of His brethren

Shall return to the children of Israel.

4 And He shall stand and feed His flock

In the strength of the Lord,

In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God;

And they shall abide,

For now He shall be great

To the ends of the earth;

5 And this One shall be peace."

Responsive Readings:

"In Christ, the Lord came forth out of the Lord's place to tread upon the earth.  Emmanuel, God with us, the Christ Child, came in tender, young, and dependent flesh.  This humility, this nearness of divinity to humanity is our peace on earth.  So often we understand peace in terms of what is absent.  Peace is the absence of war, of violence, of oppression, of murder, of violation, of exploitation.  But peace is not simply a reality devoid of all of these injustices.  Peace is not passive.  It is creative, it is embodied, it is lived into, and it exists between us.  In the Christ Child by sharing in our embodied life together.  Peace is an extension of one's life together. Peace is an extension of one's life that creates room for the other.  The Christ Child is our peace, our shared need, our shared vulnerability, and our shared lives.  Let us extend and receive peace in one another as we remember the delight in God's presence with us, our peace on earth.

Leader:   We await the one whose origin is of old, from ancient days.

All:         Come, Christ Child, our peace on earth.

Leader:   We await the babe, God incarnate, God with us.

All:         Come Christ Child, God's peace extended for all.

Leader:   We await the one who will share in our birth, in our life, and in our death.

All:         Come, Christ Child, we are in need of You.

Leader:   Come, Lord Jesus.

All:         Come to brighten the darkest corners of the world."

After the lighting of the Advent Candles we had our Christmas Cantata, "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus":

I hope you will enjoy listening to this Cantata.  Every song was very special, but the last one brought the people in the congregation to their feet, with clapping and rejoicing!  This is a pre-recorded version, not the live service from this morning, but still it was a great message in song.  Our choir had a great time practicing and performing this music for the Glory of the Lord.

Some of you may have already seen this. I emailed this Christmas card to a number of people, mostly family, because I was just not able to sit down and write out a Christmas card for everyone this year. So this is the card that I am sending to each of you now, with love.

I also wanted to share a picture of this beautiful Christmas cactus, because there's a story here.

A couple of weeks ago while in our local grocery store, I picked up a beautiful Christmas Cactus plant that they had for sale.  The price was right and I was thrilled to find it there and couldn't wait to bring it home to enjoy.  When we got up to the checkout counter, the clerk remarked how lovely it was and she was hoping she could get one before they all disappeared.  I said, "well you'd better go get one now and put it aside for yourself".  She replied that she'd have to wait until she got paid and then they'd probably be gone by then.  She then went on to tell us that money was a bit tight since her husband had just died rather suddenly a couple of weeks before, and she was trying to save up enough money to take care of his funeral expenses.  We've had this clerk many times before, and although I didn't know her personally, I didn't need to know her well to feel great sorrow about the sudden loss of her husband.  I had already paid for the cactus plant and it was in my buggy ready to go, but I told my husband to take it back out of the buggy and give it to her. He was already thinking about doing the same thing. So we gave it to her and told her it was hers, and that we'd be praying for her. She almost broke down crying right there and thanked us so kindly and apologized for even saying anything, which of course we told her not to feel that way at all. God wanted her to have that cactus plant and He wanted us to know about her husband.  

Now, I am not telling you this story to receive any praise for myself, so don't think that, please. But this is what I wanted to tell you.  When I came home I went out on our back porch and looked at the old Christmas cactus plant that I've had since last year. It was looking pretty dry and weak and not too healthy.  I am not a great gardener. I depend on God to take care of my plants pretty much, if they are going to survive. Well, to make a long story short, I watered it and left it out on the back porch since the nights are cooler and it ought to be okay.  At that time, it did not have any sign of any buds on it at all. I mean, it looked pretty close to dying...

But here it is today. 

I do believe God resurrected this cactus plant so I could tell you this story.

No tiny little thing we do for others goes unnoticed by God. And you can't out-give God either.

When you give out of the abundance of your heart, even when you may have to give sacrificially yourself, God blesses you in one way or another.

This was a good lesson for me.

Maybe it was for you too.

Christmas is about giving.

 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him 

should not perish but have everlasting life."

John 3:16

"For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of His government and peace

There will be no end,

Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,

To order it and establish it with judgment and justice

From that time forward, even forever.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."

Isaiah 9:6-7

Merry Christmas Everyone!