Sunday-December 1-Advent 2013: Prepare The Way-have HOPE-, hope permits Rays of light to make their way to us showing us a new scenic route from which to travel! December is such a fun, exciting time to reflect each day to make day 25 bigger than Santa’s ‘O Jolly Belly! Start day 1 with Hope!
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“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.”
Isaiah 11:1-2, NRSV
Amen, Sara. Marantha, Lord Jesus!! Come once more to take Your people…those whom You foreknew and to whom You have brought salvation through the shed blood of the Lamb of God….come for us….we have this hope in Christ Jesus, alone. Come, oh come, Emmanuel, we pray in earnest!!!
“…have HOPE-, hope permits Rays of light to make their way to us showing us a new scenic route from which to travel!”
This is an encouraging and revelatory statement of Sara’s. I don’t think this Hope is any ordinary hope like expressions we bat around…Oh I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow…or I hope this or that. This is a HOPE like no other. This HOPE is from God Himself and can’t be disconnected from Him (Romans 15:13). So I think it is encouraging that the God of the Lord Jesus Himself wants to give us His HOPE and that the revelation I see is that if we will take it, He will show us some new things and ways we have never seen before. That is exciting. Thanks Sara for sharing this.
I think of Hope as the meat of our nutritious sandwich for our lunch on a long journey! Hope is held together by the bread of life, Faith and when consumed the only words and thoughts uttered is love and more love! Yes, Faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love!
That is a sandwich worth eating, Sara!
“Start day 1 with Hope!”
I’m a little behind, but how about…………”Expectation, for Day 2″
“Trust, for Day 3” and
“Reassurance, for Day 4” ?
Anyone else have some synonyms for hope, for each day?
Loving our daily dose of hope, expectations, trust, reassurance, wisdom, understanding and self-control with more combos to come.
As I traveled through the night of thought looking for tags for Tammy’s question, I couldn’t find a one. This am as I reread determined not to be left out of the joy I discovered a truism in me! Hum, I had left the question with the wrong impression on my hurried ‘read and run!’
Tammy asked for——And I was looking for a message found in hope by; happy oh peace ear”! Ok, Lillie’s, without rereading Tammy’s challenge what was I doing wrong on my truism, of read and run! A big egg nog coffee for a winner!
Ok TH…how about:
Day 5…wisdom Day 6….understanding Day 7 self-control ??
There are more days…to be fulfilled….
Day 8………confidence, Day 9………..promise, Day 10……….optimism, Day 11……….anticipation, Day 12………………aspiration, Day 13………….cheer
Hey, if I could yodel, I would! The faith building word for each of my days are beginning to sound like songs from “The Sound of a Music.” I need to awaken to day 10, tomorrow, with optimism and that excludes my murmuring about snow taking up space in my day. The beauty of God’s gift of snow to remind me that I need to see snow as a reminder of how my sins look.
In my comment above I told of my truism, of read and run. I had no answer by morning and wondered why? Then I was diligently reading my devotion with prayer. Read my prayer, felt nice, I did my duty only to find God answered my prayer with correction of my read and run mistake! Look what I had prayed! “UNEXPECTED GOD, your advent alarms us. Wake us from drowsy worship, from the sleep that neglects love, and from the sedative of misdirected frenzy. Awaken us now to your coming, and bend our angers into your peace. Amen.- Steven W. Manskar
It’s Friday and our first week of Advent is about to come to an end. I am naming and counting the many Hopes that have exploited my days into glory. I embraced hope in a circular thought and it became a daily beautiful carousel ride.
I opened a Christmas card from a new friend and out jumped snowflakes exploiting and giving me a happy face. A younger friend with ideas, hopes and dreams that seem so different than mine had a day off and shared her day with me opening new thoughts that I just might embrace in my circular thinking! So many new challenges giving me opportunity to growth and being prepare for week two of advent that will appear in hours and I want to be prepared to take the new into my thinking.
Thanks precious Lilies for celebrating Week I of Advent together: As we have studied, loved and practiced Hope let us now transition to Week II. See new post!
Week One: The Candle of Hope (Purple)
“The first week the first blue or purple candle is lit in a symbolic representation of hope. Christmas is the season of Christ’s arrival and fulfillment of the waiting for Messiah. The hope of Christians is in the Second Coming of Christ.”
Today I heard Sara something which made me understand better the importance of reaching out to others who may be facing difficult trials (physically, etc). The conversation reminded me of the devotional I read this am from Sarah Young’s book, Jesus Today about hope and Sara encouraged me to share it. Today’s devotional #44 said “…hope can make the difference between life and death. Prisoners of war who stop hoping are much less likely to survive. The same is true of people who are battling life-threatening illnesses. So it is important to nurture well your precious hope. It is also vital to place your hope ultimately in Me. Circumstances change all the time, but I am the same yesterday, today and forever….”
Looking at the picture at the top of the blog and reflecting about the hope candle makes me realize that it may just take a spark to light the candle of hope in someone else’s life.