Advent Longings

January 7, 2015 - The Work of Christmas Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 10:00:00 +0000

January 7, 2015 - The Work of Christmas Begins
Jon Twitchell

The tree has been taken down. The decorations are packed away for another year. Unwanted presents have been returned (or saved for next year's re-gifting). Perhaps you turned off the Christmas playlists on your iPod, or you bought next year's Christmas cards on clearance. It may seem that life is slowly returning to normal.

The writers of Advent Longings hope that you have grown deeper in Christ this season. We want to thank you for joining us on our devotional journey. (On a personal note, I'd like to thank our writers, our translators who republished us in Russian, and especially our readers!)

Despite the ending of the season, it is our prayer that life won't actually return to normal, but that the message of Christmas will stay with you in a deeper way throughout the year.

We'd like to leave you with these words by Howard Thurman:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with the flocks,
then the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal those broken in spirit,
to feed the hungry,
to release the oppressed,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among all peoples,
to make a little music with the heart…
And to radiate the Light of Christ,
every day, in every way, in all that we do and in all that we say.
Then the work of Christmas begins.

January 6, 2015 – Outsiders, Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 10:00:00 +0000

January 6, 2015 – Outsiders, Welcome!
Kazimiera I.H. Fraley

Isaiah 52:7-10

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns.” – Isaiah 52:7

In January’s darkness there is a light. In the bitter cold, there is warmth. A star, a messenger, a harbinger of joy; a light, which shines, and guides. We follow, cold and weary. Through the winter darkness, looking, seeking, searching. Is there hope for us? Is there joy for us? Outsiders, looking in. The little match girl through the glass observing the feast, fellowship and fire; longing to reach out her hands to the fire and be warmed. Outsiders, wanting to join in.

We are the Kings, we are the Magi, on the outside looking in, outside the fellowship, outside the relationship. We walk through the night, through the winter, through the cold and the darkness seeking, searching. We are so far from holy relationship with God, so far from being the people God calls us to be, so far from who we truly want to be.

But - Listen! Can you hear it? The Messenger has come! Good News has arrived. There is news of glad tidings and great joy, for US. Salvation has come, a child has been born. He is the Lord. The nations gather round, and all worship. They all come to see the child, men from the far corners of the globe come to pay homage to the Christ child. The declaration made here in Isaiah announces salvation to Israel, but the salvation who has come, is for all peoples. Even here in Isaiah the salvation is on display before all nations, “all the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” The Christ child was born in Bethlehem, of the line of David, a Jew of Jews, the Messiah the Jewish people have been waiting for. But the child is of the Jews but is not for the Jews. The Child is for the nations, for all to see, salvation for all the earth. The Lord the God of Israel is Lord of all the earth and the salvation the Messiah brings is at its very core international. And even the Magi, the wise, are welcomed in. We are welcomed. All those who find themselves on the outside, in the margins, on the wrong side of the glass, are invited to enter.

The Messenger has come to bring glad tidings of good news for us all. We are all welcome to come worship the baby king. Magicians, and shepherds, Angels and pagans, we are all invited to hear the good news, to experience the good news, to come to know The Good News. The restored relationship the baby Jesus promises is for all peoples everywhere, great and small, rich and poor, naughty and nice.

Once far off, but now invited,

We approach Thy sacred throne;
In Thy covenant united,
Reconciled, redeemed, made one.
Now revealed to Eastern sages,
See the Star of Mercy shine;
Mystery hid in former ages,
Mystery great of love divine.

- Hail Thou Source of Every Blessing, Basil Woodd

January 5, 2015 - Into New Territory

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 10:00:00 +0000

January 5, 2015 - Into New Territory
David Troxler

Joshua 1:1-9

It is a new year on the calendar. It is all new territory, uncharted, unknown. Those can be some of the most daunting challenges in life, to go into uncharted waters in our lives.

What can be even more troubling, is that person on whom you relied is no longer there to go with you. Sometimes, people move away, or they pass on into eternity.

For Joshua, he no longer had Moses to go with him. No longer was Moses there to disciple him and challenge him in his faith. Joshua’s uncharted territory was more than just going into Canaan, the place of promise for all Israel. He was going there without his mentor.

One of the most special things about the book of Joshua however is this, right at the beginning of the book, we read that God promises to be with Joshua, just as he had been with Moses. The new journey begins with an unqualified assurance of the presence of our holy God.

The presence of God goes with all who follow the Lord’s commands. In fact, the success of our journey is measured not by the distance we travel, nor by the arrival at the destination, but by the presence of God on the journey.

Joshua’s leadership began with these words, “Moses is dead.” Not even Moses entered the Promised Land. Still, God was with him on the journey. That is the guarantee of the success in life.

What new territory is before you in Anno Domini 2015? Just remember, the phrase “Anno Domini” means “the year of our Lord.” He is already here with us in this new year!

John Wesley would say, “Best of all, God is with us.”

One last thing the Lord told Joshua was to “be strong and courageous.” Being strong and courageous is not something we all naturally possess. The difference is now, and was true for Joshua as well is this, God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. In him we are strong. Take courage as you enter your new territory.

And Jesus came and said to them,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

- Matt. 28:18-20

January 4, 2015 - What Time is It?

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 10:00:00 +0000

January 4, 2015 - What Time is It?
Melissa Kelley

Ecclesiastes 3:3-17

God makes all things beautiful in their time.

But it doesn’t feel beautiful at the time.

You know that burning feeling in the back of your throat? When you are too angry to think straight? Or when grief is searing you from the inside? Nothing about that is beautiful. Not the feelings of desperation, not the depression, not the dreary expression you wear. Whole chapters of life are not beautiful.

But the redemption is.

In the days of Advent we watched too many weeping family members and seen that grief mobilized into activism and we have seen that activism twisted into violence and more weeping and it seems to be cycling out of control. As my heart is torn between honoring those who serve justice and honoring those who seek justice, I find myself wondering, “What time is it?”

Is it a time to kill or to heal?
Is it time to tear down or to build?

Is it time to throw stones or to gather them?
Is it time to embrace or to refrain?

It’s this beautiful fragility of life that is honored in these days of Christmas.

The fear of an unwed mother.
The hurt of a partner who feels betrayed.
The wisdom of an aunt.
The reconciliation between lovers.
The hopefulness of a homeless couple.
The generosity of a homeowner.
The focus of a laboring woman.
The anxiety of an expectant father.
The amazement of men in a delivery room.
The miracle of life.
The shadow of death across the whole story.
The sacred love of God.

The wisest person in the world knew these things; that this moment in the story won’t last forever. The camera does not freeze frame on the beautiful but it keeps rolling into the ugly and that there is a kind of poignant beauty even in the truly ugly.

And while my thoughts are captive to those stories of grief that mark the headlines, I am also reminded of the many challenges that make every human life complex.

Maybe you need reassurance that there isn’t a script for how you are supposed to be feeling.

Perhaps you felt like Christmas was supposed to be a time peace, but that is not how it felt to you, for you these days were destructive. Perhaps you walked through the valley of the shadow of death, and yet somehow, feel overwhelmed by gratitude, finding laughter in a time of mourning.

However you find yourself these days, may God remind you that you are in the middle of a beautiful story. May you hold this fragile life tenderly, remembering hope in the bad moments and treasuring the good. May God be close to you in the worst and the wonderful. Amen

January 3, 2015 - And I Did Not Know It!

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 10:00:00 +0000

January 3, 2015 - And I Did Not Know It!
Joe Foltz

Genesis 28:10-22

Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said,

‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’
- Genesis 28:16

I would guess that you've experienced seasons in life where God's presence seemed nearer to you than usual. One of those seasons for me was my senior year at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. The chaplain at the time, Gary Sivewright, was preaching a sermon series on his favorite song, “I Love You, Lord.” Gary spent weeks talking about the love that God has for us, and in those services, I was overwhelmed by the assurance and sense that despite all of my flaws, faults, and failures, despite my sin, God loved me just as I am.

Now, in those moments, do you think God's presence with me actually changed? Some Christian traditions have a doctrine they call the doctrine of Manifest Presence, that even though God is omnipresent, there are times and places where he chooses not to make himself known, but there are other times and places where God chooses to make himself known. As a Nazarene, I don't believe that. I believe that God is everywhere and always choosing to make himself known. I believe that it isn't God's presence that changes, it's our awareness of his presence that changes.

In Genesis 28, Jacob stops in a certain place to sleep, and as he sleeps with a rock as his pillow, which I'm sure was exceptionally comfortable, he has a dream of a stairway from earth to heaven and angels are ascending and descending on it and in the dream the Lord speaks to Jacob that what the Lord has promised to Abraham and Isaac will come to pass through the life of Jacob. When Jacob wakes up from the dream, he says, “Surely the Lord was in this place, and I was unaware of it.” You see, it's not that God's presence changes; it's our awareness of his presence that changes.

We have to have radar for the ways God is present with us and at work in our daily life. At times, God's work can seem almost imperceptible. So, how do we work on our radar? Ask for it.

Lord, help me to see Your presence today. Help me see where You are at work.

January 2, 2015 - The Joy of the Lord

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 10:00:00 +0000

January 2, 2015 - The Joy of the Lord
Ryan Scott

Psalm 33

I am mostly a person of even temperament. I just don’t get excited often, but there are a few things that bring me immense, almost uncontrollable joy. I love being outside in nature; hiking along the ridge of a high mountain, cool crisp air and not a soul in sight or sound, it just feels like I am all I was meant to be. I love a well turned phrase; whether a book or a movie, when words fit together so perfectly well it conveys something beautiful, something profound and deeply true.

Perhaps the most ordinary thing, though, is a slice of warm, fresh-made bread – the kind that is so perfectly balanced between sweet and savory, soft and hearty, the kind where adding butter would just ruin the pure delight. It’s because of this it makes perfect sense Christ calls himself the Bread of Life.

Bread may not be your thing, but I’m sure you have similar experiences that bring to mind a world made right. This, to me, is the definition of joy. As we continue our celebration of Christmas, it is imperative we spend time, lengthy time, basking in the joy of the Lord.

This Psalm is simply happy, but more than that, it is satisfied and expectant and joyful. There is a real awe for the might and power of the Lord, but also in God’s justice and compassion. It perfectly captures the spirit of the season, where, despite what is happening around us, somehow, in some way, all is right with the world – because God is with us. Emmanuel. Hallelujah.

Merry Christmas.

But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

January 1, 2015 - Rooted In Christ

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Thu, 01 Jan 2015 10:00:00 +0000

January 1, 2015 - Rooted In Christ
Jeremy D. Scott

Colossians 2:6-12

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord,
continue to live your lives in him,
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith...

So it’s a new calendar year. (I thought I’d tell you just in case you didn’t catch all the “Best of 2014” video montages on the news or in your Facebook feed.) While the Church began a new year with the first Sunday of Advent several weeks ago, our civic calendar begins afresh today. When we stop to think about it, we know that today is a day like any other: there will be a total of 24 hours, food will need to be consumed, and you will hopefully head to bed at some point this evening. It turns out that what makes days special or unique is the way that we look at them and what we make of them.

Often New Year’s Day is seen as an opportunity for a fresh start. If only we saw every day as a new and fresh start! In this season of Christmas (today’s the eighth day), we continue to remember the new start for all of creation that came with the incarnation of Christ. While a new baby is quite a sudden change for a family, the newness upon creation that Christ’s birth began is still yet coming to fruition. The angels sang in the sky and all that, but what changed immediately across the earth? When we think about it, we believe that the change is still happening. It happens through you and through me and through what we do together as the Church, moved by the Spirit of God to the ends of hope, love, joy, and peace.

New Year’s Resolutions are now infamous for their failure. Perhaps part of the problem is that they seek such drastic and immediate change. Sometimes it works, but more often than not, those commitments to exercising, eating better, or being more disciplined tend to fade very, very quickly. Why is it that our best-intentioned efforts often fail?

Colossians speaks of being “rooted” in Christ. Roots are incredible things. Some root systems are as much as four times the diameter of the actual plant. So what one sees above ground is the result of much, much more that’s happening beneath the surface. Our lives, grounded in Christ, might be seen as the same.

Many people begin their lives in Christ in crisis moments: an altar experience or a prayer prayed at the end of a revival service. Others were born into the Church and grew into the faith of Christ. Either way, faith is now for us a thing in progress. We are now sending our roots deeper, seeping them into the soil looking for the nutrients of grace and love. While it may seem like hard work, perhaps we can see it more as falling into grace.

New Year’s resolutions may take hard work. Faith takes hard intentionality, but “work” isn’t quite the right word. Perhaps this year we can work less toward trying harder and more toward letting go and falling into grace.

God of all Creation: As society around us turns the page on one year and looks to another, thank you for this day that you have made with the sun rising like any other. I give myself to you this day and offer my life again as a vessel traveling in and through your grace. Amen.

December 31, 2014 - New Creation

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 31, 2014 - New Creation
Stephanie Malcolm

2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though
we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see,
everything has become new!
-2 Corinthians 5:16-17

Tonight, we are looking back at what has happened the past year and looking forward to what is going to happen the next year. This past year has been full of division and fighting. When you look around the world, we divide ourselves into various groups. We divide into political factions, races, countries, gender, and economic classes. Fighting and unrest are a constant between these various groups.

If we’re not careful, this division can infiltrate our churches, tempting us to draw lines where we allow these groups to influence and run how the church functions. We exclude and include people into the Church body based on whether or not people line up with our particular leanings.

The passage today calls us to repentance. Christ has made a new creation and we are ambassadors of it. The only division that exists in this new world are those who have been made aware of the new creation and those who have yet to see. We are called to be ambassadors of this message and to remember the grace that God showed us in our salvation. Those who I once fought with are now my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called to work together to bring the reconciliation of Christ to the world.

As we celebrate the coming of this new year, will you be another source of division or an ambassador of reconciliation to the world?

As we work together with him,
we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,
‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!
- 2 Corinthians 6:1-2

December 30, 2014 - A Brazen Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 30, 2014 - A Brazen Announcement
Shea Zellweger

Luke 1:67-80

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up a mighty savior for us

in the house of his servant David.

– Luke 1:68-69

In October, I participated in my first ever marathon. I had trained for four months, and I had a simple goal; cross the finish line. I had no target time, or pace, or rank. I did not care if I was last or even if the course was still open when I completed it. All that mattered to me was being able to say I had traveled 26.2 miles by foot in one shot. And yet despite my ample preparation and the very low bar I had set for myself, I was not particularly confident I would succeed. So I was a bit taken aback a month prior to the race when a fellow runner told me he would be qualifying for the Boston Marathon during our run.

I wondered how he could possible know such a thing? He had a month of training – and the race itself – in which he might injure himself. He had no idea what the race day conditions would be like. He could take ill, or fail to properly carb load in that final week. The prediction seemed so brazen, yet I couldn’t help but to believe him.

There is something brazen about Zechariah’s song as well. John is but an infant, and Jesus has not yet been born. Any number of things could have happened after the birth of his son to prevent this “mighty savior” from being “raised up,” but Zechariah speaks with confidence, saying not that God will redeem, or even that God is redeeming, but that right now, before either John or Jesus has proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God (or said anything for that matter), God has already redeemed the people of God.

O Lord, you are my God;

I will exalt you, I will praise your name;

for you have done wonderful things,

plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

- Isaiah 25:1

December 29, 2014 – Seasonal Soundtrack

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 29, 2014 – Seasonal Soundtrack
Kazimiera I.H. Fraley

Isaiah 12:1-6

Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;

let this be known in all the earth.

- Isaiah 12:5

We rush through this season, trying to locate that specific toy for our daughter, or the right gift that is thoughtful and meaningful for that person on our list who is always the most difficult to shop for. It is easy to get caught up in the chaos that represents this season. As we rush from place to place, drive hither and tither, our world is filled with music.

The music of this season is as ubiquitous as the stress and chaos in which it is wrapped. The music surrounds you and soon becomes the sound track to your life. Taylor Swift is singing “Santa Baby,” while you are picking out a tie for your husband. “Last Christmas,” with George Michael, of all people, plays while you wait in line at the post office. Meanwhile the cast of Glee sings “Jingle Bell Rock” while you pick out a Christmas ham. And no matter where we are or what we are doing, everyone gives a collective groan whenever, “Baby, it’s Cold Outside,” begins to play, no matter who is singing it.

We come to this season a little differently than our culture. At the center of our celebration is not Santa, true love, the spirit of giving, or even family. The center of our season is God doing something amazing, unheard of, and genuinely profound. The focus is our anticipation and remembrance of this unique event. The grand finale is our celebration of the incarnation, the birth of Christ, the coming of the God-child whose entrance onto the world’s stage changed everything for all time. Jesus is our focal point, not all the other things that sometime fill our world at this time of the year.

As our world is filled with the typical Christmas sound track our culture presents to us, let us take a step back and attempt to replace that sound track with something different, something which is more associated with the center of our season, with the focus of our lives. The sound track of which I am speaking of is a sound track of praise, one which sings of the glorious work of the Lord, one that makes known the great work of God which is done in our world through the birth of Christ, one which allows us to highlight the wonders of our God.

Here for You

Let our praise be Your welcome
Let our songs be a sign
We are here for You, we are here for You

Let Your breath come from heaven
Fill our hearts with Your life
We are here for You, we are here for You
…
We welcome You with praise

December 28, 2014 – The Gift of Obedience

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 28, 2014 – The Gift of Obedience
Art Roxby III

Matthew 1:18-25

I am a father. I have been a father for over 24 years. I take great joy in being a father. It has been a blessing from God to watch my children morph from dependent, little, well-dressed slugs into toddlers, then children, to the terrors of adolescence, and now become well-adjusted young men and women who love God and are seeking to do his will with their lives. I can think of a no more rewarding job than to parent children.

That is not to say that over the 24 years I have been a parent that my children and I did not have some moments along the way. Usually, the moments that we had centered on them not carrying out some chore or wish that my wife and I had for them. Most of the time, their disobedience was merely being distracted from their purpose. However, from time to time, there were a few instances of outright disobedience. It was in those times, when I had to stand up and be a dad, where I came to appreciate how much our father in heaven appreciates our obedience.

Obedience is one of the central themes of the Christmas story. Mary, when approached by the angel, exclaimed “May it be to me as you have said.” Here, at the end of the birth narrative, Joseph obediently obeys the voice of God to take Mary as his wife and participated in God’s great plan of redemption.

Obedience cost Joseph a great deal. Often we don’t consider his participation much. However, Joseph is an active participant in the story of God’s redemption. His agreement to take Mary as his wife likely cost him his reputation in his hometown. To be the father of an illegitimate son and to marry a woman who conceived a child out of wedlock would have harmed his business and his standing in the community. Yet, Joseph quietly and resolutely did as the Lord commanded. I believe with all my heart that Joseph’s obedience was a gift of worship and gratitude returned to God.

In this season of gift giving, I invite you to consider offering to God the greatest gift we can give to him, your simple and resolute obedience to whatever he asks of you each day of the year ahead.

If I obey Jesus Christ,
the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others,
because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.

– Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
(November 2)

December 27, 2014 - Two Pregnancies

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 27, 2014 - Two Pregnancies
Melissa Kelley

Luke 1:39-56

She was a mature woman from an educated family with social standing. She inherited expectations for her life and she had worked hard to achieve them. Together with her husband, she had created the life she wanted. His career had earned him the respect of his community and she basked in her role in that success. She hosted interesting dinner parties for sophisticated people where the food was elegant and the conversation was intellectual. Their home was comfortable, even if it had felt empty all these years.

By contrast, her teenaged cousin from the countryside didn’t belong anywhere near the priest’s dining room, not even waiting on tables. She was a nice girl, but she wasn’t cut out to mingle with the elite.

When you find out that a girl like this is expecting a child before her marriage, sometimes there is surprise, even shock. But when she shows up penniless and barefoot on the doorstep of a childless rich relative, there is no surprise and no shock about what her family expects to happen. The plot was simple, but how well it was understood by the young girl at the middle of the story is impossible to know.

Did Mary understand that she might be delivered from her shame if Elizabeth could read the signs? Did she understand the radical blessing that Elizabeth offers her? Because Elizabeth surprises everyone, not only with the state of her own swollen belly, but also with her response to the young mother before her, the most shocking blessing that any mother can offer. She, a woman of privilege, tells a pregnant teenager “Your child is just as special as mine.”

In a thousand ways we live with the inequalities of birth each day, perhaps it even seems natural to us. On one side of the equation or another, we seem to accept that the worth of a child is based on their zip code. Across the world, children suffer disproportionally from the unequal distribution of goods and resources, and it takes a perspective like Elizabeth’s to narrow the gap.

The gospel of Luke teaches us radical equality in the very first chapter. The accidents of our birth are not where our value lies, but we are deeply treasured by God. Those with the eyes of faith are asked to see the true depth of human worth. It is the blessing of this world-wise older relative which allows Mary to change her song. No longer the passive acceptance of her circumstances, but a full embracing of her story, labeling this fragile, terrifying new beginning a “blessing.” These babies are blessed. Both. Not just the one born to privilege. Today’s story honors every parent who started their parenting journey under less than ideal circumstances and every child who needs to know that they are a blessing.

You have people like Mary around you today; women, men and children who need to be reminded of the blessing that they are, that they are beloved of God. You may need to look past their circumstances, and see the promise of all that they can be. You have the same power that Elizabeth held to set the song in a new key. May it be with us as she has said:

May you feel your worth to God in your bones.
May you believe that the legacy you leave can be blessed.
May you trust that someone on this earth takes delight in you.
May you know that you bring joy to someone’s deepest being.
May you be blessed as you hold on to the faith that your God will fulfill every promise made to you.

December 26, 2014 - A Prayer for the Newborn King

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 26, 2014 - A Prayer for the Newborn King
David Troxler

Psalm 72

The inscription above this psalm tells me it was authored by Solomon and the final verse of Psalm 72 states that this was the end of the prayers of David, son of Jesse. This psalm ends what is known as Book 2 of the psalms, the majority of book 2 ascribed to David. I include that information to suggest that while Solomon may have his name listed as its author; it was in David’s heart to pray such a prayer for his son upon ascending the throne of Israel as King.

However, as the scriptures seem to bear out repeatedly, this passage, while set in the period nearly one-thousand years before Christ applies directly to Christ as well. Could David, in his heart have envisioned the One, who centuries later, would assume the role of God’s Anointed Messiah, as King over all? Let’s just imagine for a moment, that was indeed the case!

This prayer certainly describes the plan of God for Christ. Moreover, consider what a tribute that the final words of David, were to pray for the reign of Christ!

How do you pray for the reign of Christ?

Will you collaborate with Christ to see the establishment of His Kingdom?

We, through the infilling of the Holy Spirit are called to do that. Not only called, but our Christmas gift from the Newborn King is being empowered by the Spirit to work for justice on His behalf.

Therefore, in your prayer for the reign of Christ, you are actually offering a prayer in which you participate as one of the subjects of the Kingdom.

Why not stop and pray right now?

Dear Jesus, as we renew the celebration of your birth in Bethlehem, may your Spirit be renewed in us. Be formed in me personally, that my heart would be a proper throne on which you are to reign. Conform me to your purposes of justice and cause that same justice to be established forever. Thank you for the times in which you have delivered us from the needs of life. Call upon us to share with those in need that the fame of your name, your power and your love might be proclaimed in all the world. Establish your Kingdom not only as long as the sun and moon endure, but also for the duration of all eternity. Amen.

December 25, 2014 - When Love Was Born

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 25, 2014 - When Love Was Born
David Troxler

1 John 4:7-16

This may not be the Christmas day passage we usually think about when we share the story of Christ’s birth. We think of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the angels. We imagine the manger scene.

Today, I want you to re-imagine that scene at the manger. You see them, Mary and Joseph, surrounded by gawking shepherds, who rushed to Bethlehem to see the wondrous thing of which the angels had spoken. Yes, imagine all that. Now, I want you to imagine you are there and peering into that manger trough, the place where animals would ordinarily find grain or straw to eat. The Bible tells us that laying in the trough is a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes. I can picture the shepherds all taking turns peering into the manger, just trying to glimpse the beauty of God.

For, you see, in the manger, love was born. “For God so loved the world, that he gave us his one and only Son” (John 3:16). The love of God was born in human flesh that day. It is not that God had not loved humankind before that day and hour. No, far from that. God had always loved us, and had always wanted us to share in that love.

What happened that day in the manger was love became embodied. It was a love we could all sense and feel personally. Love came down to earth and like some virus that might spread, love could now spread from person to person.

The miracle we would eventually come to realize is that when we “catch” that love, we too would be born anew. Our lives would then become the message of God as we share the love Christ has shared with us. Each life touched becomes a new place of birth for God’s love to dwell.

Love was born at Christmas, and is reborn each time another person stops to marvel at the manger and believe the message. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:11-12, KJV)

“...[I]f we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:12b

May Christ’s love be perfected in you as God’s gift to you this Christmas Day!

December 24, 2014 - Eager Expectation

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 24, 2014 - Eager Expectation
Jon Twitchell

Revelation 22:12-21

He who testifies to these things says,
“Yes, I am coming soon.”Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
- Revelation 22:20

Around the world children will lie awake tonight. Whether they are listening for reindeer hooves on the roof or the braying of a donkey named Dominick, they are eagerly anticipating the dawn. They probably don’t have visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads, but they might imagine a new video game, or a bicycle, or the latest iGizmo.

Even adults have sleepless nights on Christmas Eve. Wanting everything to go perfectly for their children, they may sit up late accomplishing some last minute tasks. Conditioned by a childhood of sleepless Christmas Eves, some adults simply can’t sleep because they too are looking forward to opening presents under the Christmas tree.

We could bemoan the ways in which gifts and commercialism overshadow the real meaning of Christmas, and the ways in which the gifts have taken the focus from God’s greatest Gift. However, let’s take just a moment to consider how this eager anticipation experienced by children (and adults) paints a picture of the way in which we ought to long for the coming of Jesus in clouds of glory!

We are anticipating so much more than gifts under the tree - we are anticipating the eternal dawn of the Kingdom of God. We may not be able to count down the days, but we know that “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11) As certain as our children will have a present tomorrow, we can be certain that Christ will come again!

When was the last time you laid awake longing for Kingdom Come? Can you think back to the last time your heart pounded with the words “The trump shall resound”? When did you last look at the brokenness in the world around you and cry out for Christ to return? Are you longing for Christ’s second advent with eager anticipation?

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend.
Even so--it is well with my soul.
- Horatio G. Spafford

December 23, 2014 - God’s New Home

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 23, 2014 - God’s New Home
Joe Foltz

Revelation 20:11-21:18

See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.
- Revelation 21:3-4

My dad loved to decorate for Christmas, both the interior and exterior. In the house I grew up in, we routinely put up more than a dozen Christmas trees. Every room big enough got a full-size tree, even the garage, and every other room had at least a one-footer sitting on the countertop. My freshman year of high school, we moved into a new house on December 21, and Dad had 5 trees put up and decorated by Christmas Day.

There’s just something about decorating a home for Christmas that makes it seem homier. I suspect it is because it helps us remember that this is a special time of year--a time of year where we focus on our faith and on our family. We hear songs on the radio that proclaim “There’s no place like home for the holidays” and “I’ll be home for Christmas. You can count on me.”

The passage for today gives a vision of a new home for both God and his peoples. John writes, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:1-2). There is a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem--all a new home where God will live with those he calls his children.

It’s a home that we don’t have to decorate. It will come to us fully prepared for us to move in, but in order to be invited to live there, we must remain faithful to the God who prepares it.

It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. - Revelation 21:6-7

December 22, 2014 – Ancient Promise

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 22, 2014 – Ancient Promise
Jim Abrams

Isaiah 11:1-10

It’s 10:00AM, Monday morning, just three days before Christmas, and the church is full of the best dressed people in town. But it’s not what you think. You see, the casket is opened, draped in flowers, and set between two large evergreen wreaths. Is there anything worse than a funeral in December? The end of life indelibly tied to the birth of Christ tends to cast a looming shadow upon the Christmas celebration.

Near the end of the service a young boy of eight or nine ascends the platform in his new, black suit and patent leather shoes. He opens the book and begins to read confidently into the microphone while his eyes follow the index finger along the words of the ancient promise:

A shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots...

At the conclusion of his reading I find the Light of the World is shining a little bit brighter and my hope in the completion of God’s redemptive plans has become a little braver. My faith is strengthened by a nine year old boy who stepped into the place of death and boldly asserted the ancient promise I had known but seemed to have forgotten. The phrase echoes in my mind, “…and a little child shall lead them.”

The hope expressed by the prophet is anchored in this ancient promise: that in the middle of chaos, darkness, conflict, frustration, violence, abuse, and pain; when all seems lost, gone, dead, and hopeless: a branch will sprout from the dead and rotting stump of Jesse and the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him.

Advent hope has secured itself to the restoration of all things good and right; just and holy. So that when the Majestic Prince of Peace does come, he will establish everything the angel promised: "on earth peace among those whom he favors!" (Luke 2:17).

The hope expressed by the prophet is in a God who will step into the creation and set the world right. Advent hope is secured to the sudden arrival of the Prince of Peace who comes to heal the sick, provide for the poor, comfort the devastated, free the captives, feed the hungry, recover the lost, judge the wicked, restore the broken, set the grieving to celebrate, shine light into the darkness and bring life to the dead places. What dead places in your life are you hoping God will step into today?

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny

From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. -Romans 15:13

December 21, 2014 – The Choice is Yours

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 21, 2014 – The Choice is Yours
Ryan Scott

John 3:16-21

As human beings, we don’t often like being told what to do. There’s some part of us that just screams for self-determination. Often that notion is beaten out of us – sometimes literally, other times through education and social pressure. We’re taught to follow the rules and to know right from wrong.

Christianity, for many, is just an extension of this process. Even when we know better, our faith can become a series of dos and don’ts. Some things are good, some things are bad. If we do the good, we’re praised; if we do the bad we’re condemned.

Here, though, John explains that Jesus came into the world out of God’s great love for us and without any condemnation. Yet the language of good and evil, light and dark used in this passage sounds a lot like condemnation. How do we reconcile these things?

We need to see the whole message in context. This passage comes on the tail end of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus, and the urging to be born again. The explanation of light and dark at the end of our passage is just another attempt at the same metaphor.

The world is dark, because that’s how the world is. For thousands of years the world was the only vision of reality anyone knew. Only with the coming of Jesus are we presented with an alternative. No longer are the people of God called to live differently in the midst of a world with war, famine, pain, violence, hunger. Now we are called to put hope in a world where none of these exist – God’s now and future kingdom. God’s Son calls us out of darkness, not because the darkness is wrong, but because the light is so much better.

There is no condemnation unless we choose it. John is merely presenting two options: the world as it is or the world as it’s meant to be. Like a womb, our world is comfortable and familiar. There is no reason for a baby to be born; it has everything it needs already. But without birth, this baby will never experience the world – love, life, beauty, and all the good God intends for God’s children. To step out of darkness and choose something new is incredibly scary, but it is the only way to experience real life.

This is not about right or wrong, but about the kind of eternity in which we want to live. The choice is before us (and one we make every day): remain in darkness, or be born again into God’s glorious light.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, God’s own people,
in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts
of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
- 1 Peter 2:9

December 20, 2014 - The Temple, The Presence of God

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 20, 2014 - The Temple, The Presence of God
Jeremy D. Scott

Psalm 138

I bow down towards your holy temple...

Last summer I was able to visit the Temple Mount while in Jerusalem, Israel. I had greatly looked forward to going to the Holy City to see and walk the sites closest to our biblical story. While I am glad that I went and wholeheartedly recommend that people visit Israel if they reasonably can, the experience was different than I might have imagined it would be. The Temple Mount itself - while impressive - did not move me toward God. The experience was memorable, but if I was hoping to meet God in more powerful ways there, I was disappointed. Rather, the message that I felt like I received - one that I received at many of the places in the Holy Land - reiterated to me that much of our experience as humans is humanly-created. In short, I felt God say to me:

I am not bound by these places.
I am not contained in your buildings.
I am everywhere.

By coming to earth, Christ changed a lot of things, didn’t he? The Temple that was in Jerusalem was perceived by Israel to be prescribed by God through Moses as a central place for the presence of God. But now it is little more to Christians than a historical memory and a symbol setting the stage for certain important understandings of what God did for us through Christ’s sacrifice (the “atonement”). The Temple is part of our family photo album, but it is not necessary for faith and we certainly don’t believe that it contains any more of the presence of God than the people who bear his name do.

The New Testament writers often use the image of the Temple to remind us just where God does abide today. There is indeed a temple, but it is no architectural building. God’s presence abides in his people, the Church, the Body of Christ. The presence of God is ushered in not by stone arches ornamented with gold or by fire on a pedestal-altar. Nor is God hidden behind a curtain. The presence of God abides with you and me together, as his Church.

This is the essence of Christ coming, no? I invite you to read that psalm again and replace any notions of “temple” as a building with “temple” as Christ. It’s a few days early, but maybe you can even picture that act of bowing down as to the little Christ-child himself, the very presence of God:

I bow down towards your holy temple
   and give thanks to your name
for your steadfast love and your faithfulness;
   for you have exalted your name and your word
   above everything.

December 19, 2014 - Peace on Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 19, 2014 - Peace on Earth
Stephanie Malcolm

Matthew 11:2-15

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,

"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

John the Baptist had been preaching the coming of Christ for years. Now that the Messiah had come, John was in jail. You can imagine him thinking, “This was not how this was supposed to go. Jesus is supposed to restore Israel with me by his side.” The Messiah had come, but not how John had expected. John was in prison and suffering. His hope dashed. Didn’t Jesus care? Jesus’ response to this is, “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

Like John, many of us enter the season of Advent confused and depressed. The joy of the holidays is lost on us. How can we celebrate when we are suffering? We are sick and broken, grieving and hurt. Doesn’t Jesus care? The messiah is coming and Christmas is soon. What difference does that make to our suffering?

Often, we as a culture skip right to the joy of Christmas and forget the pain of Advent. We ignore those in our midst who are suffering and refuse to give them the space to grieve. Christmas celebrations remind us of happier times. Of loved ones who are gone. Of health we once had. We forget that the coming of Christ at Christmas signals the eventual death of Christ on our behalf on Good Friday. We focus instead on the fun and the presents.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day after the death of his wife, the start of the American Civil War, and the news that his son had been crippled in combat. He struggled for many years to find the meaning in Christmas and celebrating, till years later the words to this poem came to his mind. He was reminded that despite his suffering God was still with him.

Advent not only points to the first coming of Christ at Christmas, but reminds us of the second coming. It reminds us that Christ defeated death on the cross and that he will come again to make all things right. Christ’s coming injects hope in death and brings purpose to suffering. Advent prepares us to celebrate. We bring our loss to the cross and are reminded, just like Jesus reminded John, that all is being made right and will be made right.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

-I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

December 18, 2014 - Drumming Out A Rhythm

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 11:00:00 +0000

December 18, 2014 - Drumming Out A Rhythm
Shea Zellweger

Psalm 50

Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and pay your vows to the most high.
– Psalm 50:13-14

This late in the Advent Season, Christmas celebrations are in full swing. Many churches, including the ones in which I grew up, like to do a sort of combined Christmas-service-and-talent-show, in which various people from the church share a song, a bit of Scripture, a story, or – tradition allowing – an interpretive dance. There are a few performances which are practically inevitable at such gatherings. Someone will deliver their most operatic O Holy Night. A family will offer up We Three Kings, complete with verses. Another person, probably the one who teaches your children’s Sunday School, will do a semi-dramatic reading of Luke’s nativity passages. And of course there will be a boy between the ages of 7 and 15 who straps on a snare and hammers out a rendition of The Little Drummer Boy.

As a general rule, I’m not fond of Christmas music, and by December 18 most songs are so overplayed even the ones I like have begun to annoy me. But there’s something about The Little Drummer Boy which sets it apart for me. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t get played as often or maybe it just gives me nostalgia for the days when I was the boy who sang it in church (accompanied by a friend who could actually play a drum). But whatever the reason, when I hear it I can’t help but sing (and drum) along. And as I sing along with it year after year I receive a reminder about what it means to truly worship. The boy, whose only worldly possession is his drum, holds such high regard for the newborn Christ he simply has to offer him something even if all he can do is drum out a rhythm for the child. It is not a live animal sacrifice. Nor is it the post-agrarian equivalent; a financial sacrifice. It is, rather, a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise, and it is enough.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
– Romans 12:1

December 17, 2014 - The Confusion of the False

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 17, 2014 - The Confusion of the False
Art Roxby III

2 Peter 2:1-10a

Today, while I sat in my study, thinking about this devotional, the telephone rang. Our office volunteer told me that it was my bank calling for me. When I answered the phone, I got one of those recorded messages asking me to confirm if I was, in fact, Arthur Roxby. After I confirmed that I was, it told me that they were trying to collect a debt and I needed to enter the first five digits of my social security number for confirmation. While I do have a relationship with the bank, my mortgage was up to date, and my car payment was due this week. I knew I was behind in no obligation. Yet, this call was a bit unsettling and confusing. The call was from MY bank. The caller ID on the phone said it was my bank. Yet, banks do not operate like this call. By all appearances, it was my bank calling, yet the fishy way that this call operated told me that his was a scam.

Peter, in his second, letter is reminding the faithful of the future for which we are preparing. His blessed second advent will not come smoothly into being. That coming will be preceded by all manners of difficulties and trials. Among those trials will be all manners of teachers who proclaim a false faith, an easy faith that attempts to lead followers from the pathway of faithful, obedient endurance. Peter is assuring the faithful that they are right in not following these errant and ultimately faithless teachings.

The question that we should ask ourselves is, “how will we know the true from the false?” Jesus reminds us that the sheep know the voice of the shepherd (John 10.14). In our season of preparation for his coming again, so that we might be prepared for those uncertain days, we must be listening always to his voice. Recognition comes through repetition. By repeatedly seeking his voice in scripture, in worship, in his word, and in counsel, we will come to recognize the voice of his truth as clearly as we recognize the voice of our own family members. But continually walking in the light that the voice of God grants us, we come to understand, to know, and to recognize truth in a sea of the false.

This is the point that Peter is making when he says:

If he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless
(for that righteous man, living among them day after day,
was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard),
then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial,
and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

- 2 Peter 2.7-9

December 16, 2014 – Out of the Darkness

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 16, 2014 – Out of the Darkness
Kazimiera I.H. Fraley

Isaiah 9:1-7

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
- Isaiah 9:2

Have you ever been lost in the dark?

When I was small I went to a camp where the bathhouse was down a short path through the woods from the cabin house in which we slept. I can remember walking up that path at 8 years old, in the middle of the night frightened. I was on a path, it was not very far, but it was terrifying. Alone, in the dark, at night. Simply stepping from the darkness of the night into the light of the bathhouse gave my tiny heart much reason to rejoice.

In this passage we are told that those who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. The light I saw was merely the light of the bathhouse but it brought so much joy. What if all your journeys were taken in darkness? What if it was not just a short jaunt through the darkness into the light? What if it was where you lived? What if your whole life was lived along the deepest, darkest path? What if the way I felt as an 8 year old in the dark at night was how we all felt, all of the time?

Think what the light would mean. Think how much joy would fill our lives. We have lived in the dark, in the fear and suddenly there is light. Jesus’ coming is like a light in a world of eternal darkness. Those for whom there was nothing but judgment and destruction, grace and redemption have come. Burdens are lifted, the oppressed are set free. The light, the coming of Christ promises is truly something worthy of joy and rejoicing. As we journey through this season of waiting, let us look forward to the light Christ will bring.

Longing for light, we wait in darkness.
Longing for truth, we turn to you.
Make us your own, your holy people,
light for the world to see.

Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts.
Shine through the darkness.
Christ, be our light!
Shine in your church gathered today.
-Bernadette Farrell

December 15, 2014 - Do It Again, O Lord, Do It Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 15, 2014 - Do It Again, O Lord, Do It Again!
David Troxler

Psalm 44

The psalmist author of today’s passage has been told the wonderful stories of God’s intervention for Israel:

We have heard with our ears, O God,
our ancestors have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
you with your own hand drove out the nations,
in the days of old:
but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
but them you set free;

How we want the same thing to happen today! We long for the intervention of the Lord to stamp out evil and to redeem the broken. We earnestly want the enslaved peoples set free. Some are held in bondage physically, caught in sex trafficking. Others are in the bondage of drugs. Still others are in the bondage of disease or grief. The Lord has delivered people from each of these forms of bondage, and we cry out “Do it again, O Lord, do it all over again!”

The psalm does not end with that cry however. Instead, the psalmist recognizes a problem. This longing has been unanswered and God seems absent. It is as if to say, “We have heard all about your triumphs, but where are you now God?” In the midst of this longing, there is a sense of despair, for the psalmist writes, “Because of you we are being killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” There is a sense of abandonment by God.

The Apostle Paul takes up this same verse in his letter to the Romans (8:36) and then in triumph says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The prayer of longing written in the psalms has been answered and the love of God in Christ is the source of our victory. It is the evidence that God is indeed “doing it again” and demonstrating the greatness that the ancestors of Israel recorded for us all. We are the heirs of this blessing! We are the ones being set free through him who loved us.

May your Advent longings be satisfied today through Christ’s love filling your heart!

December 14, 2014 - The Gift that Keeps on Giving

noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Jon) — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 10:00:00 +0000

December 14, 2014 - The Gift that Keeps on Giving
Jon Twitchell

Hebrews 12:18-29

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful,
and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
- Hebrews 12:28-29

Often, the best Christmas gifts are the ones that keep on giving - a magazine subscription, a monthly batch of cookies, a repeated household chore. Instead of being received once, these gifts are received continuously throughout the following year. For a gift like this, we would not say, "I received the gift." Nor would we say, "I'm going to receive the gift." Instead, we would say, "I am receiving the gift."

This is called the "present progressive" tense, and you don't have to be a grammarian to understand that this refers to something that is presently happening and continuing into the future. It's the verb tense that the writer of Hebrews uses in verse 28, when he writes: “we are receiving."

The writer is clear: it’s not that we received the Kingdom sometime in the past. Nor is it that we are simply marking time until some point in the future when we will receive the Kingdom. Nor even is it a one-time instantaneous moment in the present when we receive the Kingdom.

We are receiving the Kingdom. Today. In these moments. But also in the moments to come.

This offers a couple of significant correctives for the Christian life: 1) we are not simply to sit around and mark time waiting for the Kingdom to come; 2) nor should we assume that we’ve received all there is, and there is nothing more to come. Instead, we experience the Kingdom of God in ever-increasing measures. We live into our calling as subjects in the Kingdom.

To put it in other words, we don’t wait for the Kingdom of God the same way that we wait for December 25th to arrive. It is not a moment of time in the distant future. Neither is it a moment in the past. Instead, it is a way of life that carries us forward into the ultimate culmination of God’s divine narrative. It is the ultimate gift that keeps on giving.

The kingdom of God is justice and joy,
For Jesus restores what sin would destroy.
God’s power and glory in Jesus we know,
And here and hereafter the kingdom shall grow.
- Bryn Austin Rees