Advent-ish

 The light has come. For 400 years there was silence among God's people. 400. That is a long time. Our own country has not even existed for 400 years yet. I heard someone talking the other day, asking, what would if have been like to have been in the middle of the silence, year 235 or for that matter 382...in the waiting. Would you still believe? Would you still have hope, be faithful? Be watching and waiting for the promised Messiah?  These were hard questions to sift through, but the irony is, we in a way, can relate yet again. Because we are waiting on the later portion of the promise. That Christ will return. We already know that He came, we live in the truth of that as believers of Christ Jesus. We say with that profession, that I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Promised One, and that His birth, death and resurrection all happened and He did this to save His people from their sins. But Do I live in the hope and confidence that He is returning, just like He said ...

 "And you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Salvation. The primary purpose and promise of Christmas. Its easy to detach the 2, especially in our American culture. We see Christmas as a time to indulge and celebrate, to give and receive, for frantic shopping trips and family gatherings. Often this merry season can actually bring out the reasons we need salvation more than the joy of the truth of the gospel. We can fall into the trappings of over doing...well just about everything. Spending, eating, drinking, worrying...etc. You name it, we probably walk through it this time of year. Which is ironic. Because, we can so easily lose sight of what our joy at Christmas is birthed out of. We can  lose sight of the source of the light that shot across the darkness many years ago. We can lose the essence of the wonder and power of God, becoming flesh and swelling among us. And He came, that we might love. He came to save His people from their sin...

  Matthew 1:1-17,18-25  (Song found here ) For the next 3 days we will be looking at the importance of just whose lineage we are talking about. Jesus Christ as we read in verse 1. But what is in a name?  The notes in my study Bible read as follows (referencing v.23) "In the OT, God's promise to be with His people was the answer to their fears ( Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 43:1,2 ). His glory dwells with Israel's midst in the tabernacle. Jesus, the ultimate and complete fulfillment of the 'Immanuel,' promise, will commission His apostles and encourage His church with the promise, ' I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20)." Generation and generations had laid in wait for this. They had set their hope on a Savior, and Matthew begins His gospel with the assertion through the genealogy of Christ ( and again, we see it in Luke), that this babe in the manger was Jesus Christ, Son of the Most High, and Immanuel, God with us.  Jesus. The promised one.  ...

 Good morning! I am so excited to kick off this Advent study with you dear friends once again! Today I am going to use the post to lay out the order in which we will do things, so you know what to expect and how to study. I will be posting a link in the Facebook Group "Hope in the Everlasting," each morning plus sending out an email. You can do one, the other or both. We are trying blogger again this year as we have tried now several formats, and options; this one from the feedback I have received seems the easiest. This year we will be studying the genealogy of Jesus! We could study this the forever and never get all of the treasures out of it, so it will feel brief. Please go deeper! I will always link additional resources on Fridays so that you can take the study further yet. I suggest memorizing this beautiful passage of scripture.  There will always be at least one Christmas hymn each day.  And then a small summary of the study for the day. Fridays will be in person ...