Coming to the Still Waters

  This is a twofer sermon post with a short devotional from Christmas Eve and the sermon from Sunday, Dec. 26th.  I am walking slowly through Luke 1 & 2 to glean as much from the first Advent account.  The picture above shows an example of what old priest Zechariah might have wrote upon during his nine months of silence. Elizabeth and Zechariah in the face of popular opinion that didn't give up after the first "no" stuck with "His name is John."  "His name is John"  is synonymous for me as "I hear what you are saying but God has said...."  At times popular opinion might look logical; it may have been voted on; and we may look like the unloving position to stand opposite of it but what God has said we need to continue to live by with ever increasing love and grace. The god of popular opinion many times wants to change the story line.  We see that with the major religious days of the church calendar.  We have changed or added to the first ...

  At Weymouth Community Church we are preparing for the lighting of the Christ Candle on Christmas Eve.  The songs have been selected; the individual candles are ready for distribution; and the logistics of conducting another service and one being with very limited lighting are being ironed out.  I think of Christians all over the world gathering to sing about the One who has come and is coming again! Our sermon this week covered baby announcement and reveal #2.  The angel Gabriel first met Zechariah the priest and now he meets Mary the virgin.  It warranted another chart as these are side by side in the Scriptures. Also, we added to the gospel explanation through the definitions of the names of the characters of the Advent of Jesus. “God remembers” - Zechariah “God is faithful” - Elizabeth “God brings grace” - John “God will add” - Joseph “A rebellion” - Mary “God saves” - Jesus The God who remembers (Zechariah) after 400 years of silence is faithful (Eli...

  I have been really concentrating on making each meeting at the church during this Advent season focused on Jesus' birth.  What is the big story?  What led up to this event?  Who are the characters?  What was the purpose of it all?  How does this change our time together as families and church families?  Every time the church gathers over this time I want us to be saturated with a different message than what we have been bombarded with throughout the week.  This is a message that needs to be proclaimed that good news has come to the world that God created and so loved. This week we are introduced to Herod the Great, Zechariah, Elizabeth, John and the angel Gabriel.  The events of the birth of John the Baptist are critical to the birth of Jesus the Messiah because the Scriptures tell us that a messenger would come before Him to proclaim who He is.  John the Baptist did this when he pointed to Jesus and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who ...

  The manger now has hay/straw in it.  Another Sunday of Advent has past leading up to the Christmas Eve service.  Another Advent candle has been lit and some more Scriptures have been read about the coming Messiah.  All our songs speak of Him and we are re-introduced to the characters of Christmas through them (angels, shepherds, Mary, Joseph, etc.).  The anticipation is growing and this Sunday walks us through many passages of what they, the Israelites, knew of this coming Messiah from the Old Testament. As one who lives after the first coming of Christ, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension, we listen to these prophecies and easily associate them with Jesus.  We marvel that they rejected Him.  But we too rejected Jesus at one time.  It wasn't until our eyes were opened by Him to see Him as the Messiah who had come that we embrace Him with our repentance, submission and obedience.  We were just as blind as they and needed...