Ack! I was hoping to have this up first thing this morning, but alas. Today is the first day of Advent! Advent means "coming," as in Christmas is coming. As in Jesus is coming. It's such a special, wonderful season. So without further ado, here is the devotion for today! The rest will be early morning posts for the morning people. I don't know who you are, or if you are myth, but I'll post them early just in case.
love, Kate
While I was in college, I took 2 ½ years to read through the Bible. I suppose I could have used one of those “read the Bible in a year” plans, but I don’t like people telling me what to do. I wanted to read it in order, as much or little as I pleased each day, and chose for myself which verses to meditate on.
It took me over a year and a half just to get through the Old Testament.
That’s more than A YEAR AND A HALF of reading about bondage and slavery and rules and sacrifices. About good kings and bad kings, and a whole lot of walking through various deserts. I remember feeling utterly depressed as I read through the books of prophecy. It was all woe, woe, woe to everyone. People always seemed to be poor or hungry or both. What got me through were the promises. In every book there was a promise: God is going to send a savior to bring us back to Himself. God can redeem – and He will.
For a year and a half I read every day about people longing for a savior, praying for a Messiah to rescue them.
I waited for one year; the Israelites waited for hundreds of years, just clinging to promises: “He will be from the line of David.” “He will come from Bethlehem.” “He will be born to a virgin, and his name will be Immanuel, which means ‘God with us.’”
And as long as I live I will never forget the day that, as a sophomore in college, I opened my Bible to the fist book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 1 and read,
“A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham..:”
I wept. I felt my heart cry out within me, “This is the one we have waited for!”
Hope. There is hope!
Galatians 4:4 says, “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son…” God’s people clung to His promises for 42 generations, according to Matthew 1. And God, in His perfect timing, delivered.
For the first time in my life I read every single name in a list of genealogy. I cried and prayed, “God thank you for Judah, and Perez, and Tamar, and Hezron, and, and, and…”
And thank you for Jesus. The hope of nations.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjjlzBtI1AY&feature=related[/youtube]
O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O, come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer Our spirits by Thine advent here; Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O, come, Desire of nations, bind In one the hearts of all mankind; Bid Thou our sad divisions cease, And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfO2iF0-zWM[/youtube]
A refuge for the poor A shelter from the storm This is our God
He will wipe away your tears And return your wasted years This is our God Oh, Oh, This is our God.
A father to the orphan A healer to the broken This is our God
He brings peace to our madness And comfort in our sadness This is our God Oh, Oh. This is our God
This is the one we have waited for! This is the one we have waited for! This is the one we have waited for! Oh, Oh. This is our God
A fountain for the thirsty A lover for the lonely This is our God
He brings glory to the humble And crowns for the faithful This is our God Oh, Oh. This is our God
This is the one we have waited for! This is the one we have waited for! This is the one we have waited for! Oh, Oh. This is our God.