ADVENT ~ Day 10

December 9, 2008

Scripture Passage:
READ Matthew 2:1-12

Our Advent devotional will be a little different today. As we draw nearer and nearer to Christmas, I've been praying and asking God to guide me to be more mindful of the celebration of our Lord Jesus' first coming. In an answer to my prayer, our sovereign Father led me to an article at CWO (Christian Women Online). This article provides wise counsel on how to refrain from spending like the heathens! :-) Just kidding.

Seriously, Marybeth shares how to keep from losing focus on why we celebrate, rather Who we celebrate and how we can keep our spending to a minimum by honoring God. She also gives us some great practical insight on how we can train our children to have a different mindset on the blessing of giving gifts rather than receiving them.

After I read this wonderful article, I asked my Favorite to read it and suggested we implement these ideas, but maybe next year (since we're already so close to Christmas). Well, my Favorite read it, and liked what he read so much he said we'll be implementing these ideas this year!

So, for today's Advent devotional, I'd like to share with you the splendid gift God shared with me through our sister Marybeth Whalen with her practical "how-tos" on how to keep Christ in our Christmas. After all, isn't that why God gives us gifts? So that we might share them with those we love - just like He did for us, when He gave us Jesus.

Marybeth Whalen is one of CWO's newest team members. She is also a writer and speaker for the Proverbs 31 Ministries and co-wrote a book with her husband entitled: Learning To Live Financially Free: Hard-Earned Wisdom To Save Your Marriage and Your Money.

Oh and please, please note that CWO is in a new format and you can now leave encouraging comments for all the writers. So please share the gift of encouragement with our sister Marybeth as I know God will bless you through her, just like He did for me. :-)

Glorious Father God in Heaven, thank You so much for this time of Advent! It's already been so wonderful to drink deeply into Your word and seek Your purpose for all things, even in our shopping and gift- giving habits.

Thank You for how differently You've gifted each of Your children so that we might together, form the Body of Christ Jesus, Your Son. Thank You for enabling us to appreciate Your gifts and to use them for Your glory!

May we continue in our striving to keep Jesus the motive for our Christmas.

WE CELEBRATE YOU JESUS, WITH EVERY BREATH WE TAKE!
Amen.

Today is the 8^th day of Advent


Why Advent?

by Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts
Copyright © 2008 by Mark D. Roberts

In my last post, I told the story of my Advent beginnings. When I started out as pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church in 1991, for the first time in my life, I began to see Advent as a distinct season of the year and to experience its richness.

In the years following my Advent beginnings, my appreciation of Advent grew slowly and steadily. At some point I became aware of the purple and pink Advent color scheme, something we had not emphasized at Irvine Presbyterian Church. I remember when, sometime in the 1990s, we started using three purple and one pink candle in the church Advent wreath. It was a change for church members, who had been used to all white candles. But soon they appreciated the connotations of the colors. (Photo: The Advent wreath on the chancel of the sanctuary at Irvine Presbyterian Church)

I decided to go “whole hog” with Advent colors one year. I wore mostly purple ties during Advent. I put up an “Advent tree” in my office at church, which could be seen from the busy street in front of the church. I didn’t outlaw the use of Christmas colors in our sanctuary or anything like that, though our sacraments on the communion table and pulpit were purple. I’m sure some folks thought I’d lost a few of my marbles in my zeal for Advent colors, but, for me, it was a chance to emphasize Advent in my personal life as well as in my ministry.

Why did Advent matter so much to me? Among many reasons, two stand out. First, I found that observing Advent enriched my celebration of Christmas. Taking four weeks to focus on the hope of Christ’s coming made me much more joyful when I finally got to celebrate it. The more I got in touch with my need for a Savior, the more I rejoiced at the Savior’s birth.

Second, I found in Advent a solution to the age-old problem of secular Christmas vs. spiritual Christmas. If you’re a Christian, you know what I mean. We recognize that Christmas is, most of all, a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It’s a holiday that focuses on the meaning of the Incarnation. Yet, given the secular traditions of Christmas, we spend most of our time preparing, not for a celebration of the birth of Jesus, but for fulfilling the demands of the season. We have to buy lots of presents for lots of people and make sure they are all wrapped and delivered. We have parties to attend and parties to host. We have relatives who come to visit or, alternatively, we are the relatives who go elsewhere to visit. This requires lots of planning, not to mention the nuts and bolts of holiday travel. We have to send out Christmas cards, making sure our addresses are right and that they get on all the envelopes. If we have younger children, we may very well spend hours trying to assemble gifts that come with sketchy instructions written by someone for whom English is, at best, a third language. And so on, and so on, and so on.

Meanwhile, we hear our Christian leaders telling us that we’re spending too much time and money in secular celebrations, and not focusing enough on the real meaning of Christmas. Religious posters proclaim: “Jesus is the reason for the season.” But, in fact, Jesus faces heavy competition from retailers, relatives, and revelers. So what’s a Christian to do?

In my idealistic twenties, I thought about downsizing my celebrations of Christmas. At one point I tried to convince some friends and family members that we should make Christmas an entirely “spiritual” holiday, one in which we focus only on the birth of Jesus. Not wanting to be the Grinch, however, I didn’t abandon secular festivities or gift giving. “Let’s do that stuff on New Year’s Eve,” I argued. “Not only is this holiday very close to Christmas, but also, if we give gifts on New Years, we’ll be able to shop in the post-Christmas sales, and that will save a lot of money.” Ah, what logic! But nobody was persuaded, least of all my family members. The secular and familial Christmas traditions were too embedded in our lives and, I might add, greatly loved. So I abandoned my effort to de-secularize Christmas.

As I entered my thirties, I tried to emphasize the Christian aspects of Christmas in the days leading up to the holiday. But I seemed to be fighting a losing battle. I needed some way to focus my mind and heart. And I needed some new traditions that would help me. Then I discovered Advent. For some reason, observing Advent during December helped me to draw near to God in a way that I had not been able to do before. I still engaged in the secular celebrations of Christmas, happily so, I might add. But I also added several new practices that tuned my heart to resonate with the deeper meaning of the coming of Christ.

I know that many others have had a similar experiences to mine. Since 2004 I have been blogging about Advent. During the past four years I have received dozens of emails from people who have shared their own excitement for Advent. Some have grown up with Advent traditions. Most have “discovered” Advent later in life, much as I did. All have found that observing Advent enriches their celebration of Christmas and allows them to have a precious, peaceful, God-focused experience during what is often a hectic holiday season.


In my next post I’ll describe some of the Advent practices that I have found to be most helpful.

"Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith."
~ Galatians 3:23-26

(As you can see, I was so excited about announcing the winner of this giveaway, I got a bit carried away and recruited my sons and husband [who took the video]....oh well, it's good for them! If they had any pride before this video, I obviously was a HUGE help in ridding them of it! Aren't I such a thoughtful mom? LOL!)

Please visit our sister Raye Ann, read her entry and offer her your warmest, cheeriest congratulations!

Raye Ann @ Heart of the Home

CONGRATULATIONS sister Raye Ann!

I've been praying about this contest as well as the winner. I've already prayed for God to bless you and use your heart to testify His love to the lost, so that they too, may know the rich treasure that is found in Christ Jesus alone - salvation from the bondage of sin and the penalty of death in the eternal Lake of Fire.

May you be richly blessed as you faithfully administer the word of God entrusted to you! And may the LORD our God give you all spiritual wisdom and understanding to know His will as you read through the materials and diligently use this giveaway to share the Good News of God's greatest giveaway....the life of His Son, the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ the Lord! :-)