How long have you been waiting for the longing you have been praying about to be fulfilled? A longing you have felt certain God has invited you to pray about, that you feel certain God has indicated will be fulfilled?
Advent: When Christmas Became a Thing
Christmas is indeed a Very Big Deal, even for those who do not celebrate Christ’s birth. But how did it get to be Christendom’s most celebrated holiday?
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Advent: Enjoying the Bliss of Heaven
The pink candle on the third Sunday marks the transition from the more Lenten feel of preparing for Jesus’ Second Coming, to the Joy-filled celebration of Jesus’ first coming.
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Advent: Respite of Joy
Have you ever wondered why the third candle in the advent wreath is pink? Why pink? Why the third Sunday? The short answer is joy! But the long answer is fascinating, and it has something to do with Lent, and something to do with an early Gnostic movement that dismissed Jesus as a real human person.
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Advent: Perfection in Numbers
There is a second explanation as to why Christmas falls on December 25, a spiritual one. Today's post is taken from an article written for the Biblical Archaeology Society.
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Advent: Saturnalia or Mithras?
Advent originally was a time of instruction, prayer, fasting and self-reflection, in preparation to be baptized in the new year.
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The Virgin Mary
In each succeeding story, a picture emerges of a woman of great faith, spiritual wisdom, a scriptural scholar in her own right, one who believed in the power, provision, and promise of Almighty God.
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Second Day of Advent: Bathsheba
I wonder if Matthew, ex-tax collector and publican that he was, identified with these women and men at some level. Through this record God is displaying God’s grace to all people, victims and perpetrators. Even in this genealogy Matthew was already giving us a clue there is something unique and earth-shaking about Jesus.
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First Sunday of Advent: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth
If Matthew had ransacked the entire Hebrew scriptures he would have been hard-pressed to find four more unlikely candidates for the Messiah’s genealogy!
Grace and Peace, Joanne 