Advent Week One: Jesus the Light

Advent Week 1, Day 1

Light one candle to celebrate Jesus as the Light.

Read: Isaiah 9:1-2

"In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan -- The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." (9:1-2)

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Welcome to the 2008 Advent daily devotional. Advent is basically the season we call "Christmas." More specifically, it is a traditional counting down of the four weeks preceding Christmas Day, a period in which different attributes of Jesus are celebrated by the lighting of candles and reading of Scripture. The attributes and arrangement of candles varies based on tradition. Some people choose to line their candles up in a row using candlesticks while others place their candles in a circular wreath. This latter form is the most common in the Western world.


The advent candles have special symbolism to them. There are four taper candles to represent both the four centuries of waiting between Malachi's last prophecy and the birth of Christ as well as the four Sundays of Advent. A large white candle is placed in the middle to represent the Christ Child and is only lit on Christmas Day. It is white to reflect the holiness of Jesus. Three of the candles are purple to represent the royalty of Christ and a fourth is either pink or red to represent either Christ's humanity or His blood. The three purple candles are to be lit sequentially on the first three Sundays and the pink or red one on the fourth Sunday.

This year we will be celebrating four attributes of Christ, starting with the Light of Christ. Our first Advent passage is Isaiah 9:1-2, a hope-filled prophecy that comes after eight chapters of judgment and warning in Isaiah. Suddenly, after all the terrors of God's wrath are poured out on Israel and its neighbors there would come a light in the darkness. A ray of hope. A silver lining. The people of Galilee will see a great light. From Galilee the messiah would be known. And the reign of darkness will end. O glorious light!

Be God's.

Proverbs of the Wise

OT: Proverbs
NT: Matthew 13

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Proverbs 1:8-9 — The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young — let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance — for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Everything you need to know about the meaning and purpose of Solomon's Proverbs can be found in its opening verses. The book exists as a collection of wise sayings and truthful analogies, mostly from the wisest man to ever live, Solomon, King of Israel. Proverbs is a book rich in its truth and color. It would take us years to fully study its many facets. Alas, I have chosen to spend only one devotional entry on it because there is so much more left in the Old Testament to explore and if we tally here, we may lose the heart to finish the canon!

Wisdom and folly are the two overriding themes in Proverbs. What defines a wise man? What reveals the fool? Solomon's conclusion is the same as Job, Moses, and every other theologian that has ever lived: fear the Lord and keep His commandments. Doing so will lead to a good life. Forsaking the Lord will lead to only ruin and despair. Oh, it sure looks good to do what the world wants but in the end, as Solomon would say in Ecclesiastes, it is "meaningless!" So choose the way of wisdom. And find your life all the better for it.

Be God's.

The Great Hallal: Creation's Call to Praise

One of my heroes, St. Francis, at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden

OT: Psalms 107-150 (Book 5)
NT: Luke 19:28-40

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Psalm 148:1-6 — Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host! Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created. He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed.

Psalm 148 is often called "The Great Hallal" because the Hebrew word for praise, hallal, occurs 12 times in its 14 verses. No other psalm is like it, save for the last one, psalm 150. The psalm itself is a marvel to me every time I read it. In its blessed lines, an unknown author calls upon all of God's creation to praise the Almighty. The poet starts by calling on the heavens and then moves to the things of earth — the animals and fish, the weather and the terrain, and then men of all ages and genders. Nothing that exists is excluded from the call to praise the Lord. It was psalms like this one that gave great inspiration to St. Francis of Assisi, who penned his famous hymn over 700 years ago, "All Creatures of Our God and King."

It boggles the rational mind that anything inanimate could praise the Lord. after all, we can't prove it with science or math. But Scripture is clear on this point: even inanimate objects that we think of as being without person can praise the Lord. How is this possible? It's a mystery, for sure! Remember when Jesus was coming into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? The Pharisees wanted Him to make his followers stop praising Him. But Jesus replied, "I tell you, if these (people) become silent, the stones will cry out!" You see, all of creation exists to glorify God. Even rocks and trees, the beast of the seas, from flower to fawn, until eternity's dawn.

Be God's.

God of Our Days

OT: Psalms 90-106 (Book 4)
NT: James 4:13-16

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Psalm 90:1-4, 9-10 — A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. / Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. / You turn us back to dust, and say, “Turn back, you mortals.” / For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night. For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh. / The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; / even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away."

Do you know how long you will live? If so, how do you know? I saw a TV news story the other day about the longevity of life. The story said that scientists are close to discovering a way for people to live until they reach 125 years old. The secret is in the calories, one doctor said. People who eat fewer calories and less meat live longer.

God's word says that none of us can number our days. We just do not know. Death comes upon us quickly. We cannot plan it unless we take our own life. And that's a whole other issue. No, only God knows exactly how many minutes and seconds we will live. He even knows the number of hairs on our head and the number of stars in the heavens. Can you count the hairs on your head (assuming you have hair there, of course)? So why do we worry about longevity when we should be focused on quality. None of us knows when the Lord will call us home, so make each day count -- live it for Him.

Be God's.

The Nearness of God

OT: Psalms 73-89 (Book 3)
NT: Acts 17:22-28

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Psalm 73:21-28 — When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, / I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. / Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. / You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. / Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. / My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. / Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. / But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.


What is your perception of the nearness of God? Do you believe He is near to you -- right by your very side -- or do you think He is in heaven somewhere, sitting high and above everyone and everything? Does He really care about the mundane things in your life? Or does He only "sweat the big stuff?" How we perceive the nearness of God determines how we act when the trials of life draw near to us. Our concept of God's concern dictates whether or not we turn to Him in prayer and supplication. After all, why would I want to pray to a God I don't believe hears me or cares about me? But if I truly believe He is a God who is near to me and wants to hear me when I'm hurting, distressed, or just plain distraught, then I find it easier to pray.

Truly the nearness of God is our good, as Asaph says in Psalm 73. Paul told the Athenian philosophers on Mars Hill that God is right next to each one of us -- waiting for us to reach out to Him. We don't need some special piety or some secret ceremony to contact God. We just need to speak. And He will hear us.

Be God's.

The Thirst of the Soul

OT: Psalm 42-72 (Book 2)
NT: John 7

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Psalm 42:1; 63:1 — As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. / My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. / When shall I come and behold the face of God? // O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; / my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Have you ever been so thirsty that you would even drink the foulest liquid on earth? I remember one hike recently on a local trail when I misjudged the distance to our exit point and my companion and I got stuck on a trail in 100-degree heat. We hiked for what felt like hours and our limited water supply ran low. Eventually, all that remained as the day heated up was a few tablespoons of warm, stale water. it was misery. But it was all we had left. Our thirst drove us mad! Eventually, we came across an old water fountain that, thankfully, still worked and we both took our sweet time gulping down the liquid as if it were more than just H2O.

The psalmists sometimes paint their desire for God like the thirst of a deer, or of a stranded hiker looking for an oasis in the midst of a desert. They really badly want to go to the Temple to seek God or hear a word from Him. They want to drink in His truth, or maybe bathe in His glorious presence like a bird splashing in a roadside puddle. So it was with us when we first came to now Jesus Christ. Part of living life outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ is the constant thirst for eternal significance and personal satisfaction. People who don't know Him are searching for something spiritual that is missing from their lives. Some people fill it with physical elements, like money or fame, but nothing material can satisfy an eternal longing. Jesus said "I AM the water of life" and that anyone who comes to Him will find the eternal identity for which they were thirsting. They will find forgiveness for their own sin, they will find life in the risen Savior, and they will find identity in the Body of Christ.

Have you come to Jesus and drunk of the eternal water He has to give? Or are you still searching for eternal significance?

Be God's.

Psalm 3: Peaceful Sleep

OT: Psalms 1-41 (Book 1)
NT: Philippians 4:6-7

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Psalm 3: O LORD, how many are my foes! / How many rise up against me! / Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” Selah / But you are a shield around me, O LORD / you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. / To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah / I lie down and sleep / I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. / I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.

There's something very unsettling about the darkness. It surrounds me like a blanket around the time I go home from work, and it blinds my vision to the world around me like blinders on a horse. It makes me drive my car with caution and walk my street with uneasiness. The darkness is just plain scary to me. What is even more unsettling is the fact that the darkness covers many ungodly deeds -- crimes and deceptions among them -- deeds that may threaten to affect you or me. I cannot see what happens outside my little light field. My porch light can only shine so far. And when I go to sleep, I am vulnerable to those deeds of darkness in a new way -- for I cannot prevent them nor stop them once they happen.

So I pray for safety for not only myself but also my loved ones. That the dawn may bring me news that we all made it through the night in safety. And we usually do. Because the Lord sustains us. I wake every morning after a night of sleep knowing that the sovereign Lord was protecting me that night. That He, as it says in Psalm 122, "never sleeps nor slumbers." He is always on guard. So I can sleep peacefully at night because God is my High Protector. And I don't have to fear the darkness and the tens of thousands of potential threats it brings each night because the Lord is watching me. There is a nighttime prayer from the Book of Common Prayer that I love to repeat at night right before I go to sleep. It goes, "Guide me waking and guard me sleeping / that awake I may watch with Christ and at night I may rest in peace."

Be God's.

P.S. -- My wonderful girlfriend took this photo of one of her felines, Oliver, tonight. Fits the topic well, doesn't it?