What are you doing for Christmas? Advent 5

Today is the last day of Advent.

The last time to consider the four words we have looked at through this time of Advent.

Our last update on the Advent reading plan 

Day 24.        1 John 3:7 & 8

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

He that commiteth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus came into the world to help us to stop sinning and to be our substitutionary sacrifice, taking away God's wrath if we do sin.

We received a lot of cards which wished us a Merry Christmas and some took words from a carol or mentioned the shepherds, wise men, angels, star etc.

Here I have picked out 4 of the cards we received which highlighted the four words of Advent

HOPE

LOVE

JOY

PEACE

May I wish you the true 
Hope, Love, Joy and Peace 
that Jesus brought on the first Christmas 
and still brings to us as we trust in Him.

I took some time last week to sit and listen to an old Christmas Music collection that my son had found on YouTube.

It was a compilation of Christmas songs by Max Bygraves which my kids used to listen to on the way to school with their cousins.  Their uncle played this same album in the car all through December every year and they all used to moan and groan about it but now it has turned into a fond Christmas memory.

On You tube it is in several parts to cover the whole album, the first part is here if you want to have a listen.






That is something that Christmas does in us, it stirs up memories.

Today I was thinking about how the memory of the first Christmas with Jesus coming to live on earth in God's plan of Salvation brought Mary to the anticipation of this Salvation.

Then how the memory of working alongside Jesus and knowing Him gave the disciples the faith to proclaim the Saviour and that He would return one day.

And because we know God's word came true about Jesus coming to be the Saviour of the world then we can trust that His word will come true about the return of Jesus too.

So the first Christmas leads us to the anticipation of the return of Jesus hence the celebration of Advent, where we are awaiting His Coming.

           Advent means arrival or appearance

Are you awaiting His arrival or appearance ?  

Have you trusted in Jesus and believe when He said He would come again?

What are you doing for Christmas? Advent 3

This is the third Sunday of Advent

Today we are focusing on 

The children in Sunday School are into their stories leading up to Christmas.  They were looking at "Reassured by an Angel" telling the story of the angel message to Mary, then the angel message to Joseph and the birth of Jesus.
So when I was doing the children's slot at the start of our service this morning I talked about Joy because the messages by the angel to Mary and Joseph resulted in great joy for them.

We sang two choruses about Joy.
One is an old one but it doesn't matter about whether things are old or new but whether they help to teach our children about the truths in the Bible.

The other is a Christmas one about Joy which is sung to the tune of "Jesus loves me this I know" 

Through my Advent reading plan I am now reading how
We have joy because 

we worship Jesus the King

we know about Jesus

we are led to Jesus

Jesus has the victory over satan.

During Advent we think of various things about Jesus coming to earth as He did at His birth and as He will again in the future.

Are you full of Joy as you think of Christmas?

I've included a very short video about Joy at Advent time for you.

Are you still enjoying the joy of Advent or is it getting lost in the midst 

of all the practical things?

I am thankful for the Hope and Love and Joy that we are reminded of during this Advent time.

Are you making time to remember the Joy of this Christmas time in the midst

 of the busy days?

This past weeks I have been writing our Christmas cards for the UK and the rest of Europe.

This is not too big an amount of cards as a lot of our friends within Europe will be getting eCards from us.

Christmas Card 2013

Christmas Letter 2013

eCard 2013

I also wrote the cards for my little group of university mates because we were getting together this week for a meal and catch-up chat.  It's been a year since we met up like this but before that it was over 7 years since we all met together because Fred & I had been living in Belgium.

Isn't it lovely that we can have friends that even though we don't see them often we can still fall easily into conversation again.  

It was great to catch up last year and will be good this year again.