Rejoice - Reverence - Response

Psalm 95

Reading Psalm 95, verses 1-5 are words and thoughts which often come into my heart and mind when I look at nature.  Driving through the Tetons, watching the ocean, clouds in a blue sky, the waving of grain touching a Panhandle sky with nothing else in sight.  These all fill me with joy and awe while I experience blessings of nature God created just for our enjoyment.  What a great and glorious God we have!

Reading verses 6-7 remind me to be thankful and show reverence to the God who has given us so very much of Himself.  I remember a moment in time when my in-laws, Wilma and Joe Herndon, mentioned to me they had seen a beautiful, bright, rainbow in the sky and were overwhelmed with reverence of our creation and Creator.  They found a place to stop on the side of the road and together sang the Doxology.  They felt God needed to be adored and they responded.

Concluding with verses 8-11 we read something a bit different.  We are reminded not to harden our hearts.  In other words, listen and obey.  For me personally, I can rejoice in His majesty and I can be reverent in the limited knowledge my mind and heart can hold of God and I can listen.  HOWEVER, obey often makes me want to put the brakes on.  I have to first mull it over, to consider if it’s a good thing for me, if it is doable.  I believe for me, this is what “not to harden our hearts” that God is speaking to us about.  My human nature says, “wait…do I want to do this, is it something I can do and why.”  Am I the only one who does this?  Then these thoughts occur to me in this season of Advent…what if Mary said, “Are you kidding me? No, I can’t do this. Find someone else.”  Or, if Joseph had said, “Let me mull over this for awhile, God.”

Our Lord is a great God, God above all gods and the greatness of His creation is not just to make us feel good.  Isn’t it in living in a right relationship with that creation, through obeying our Creator, that we find the fullest life and the most joy?  I must not harden or ignore what God asks of me.  I must obey and walk with Him.  This is life in fullness.  My humanness still wants to say…”But.”  Please be patient.  God is not through with me yet!

Prayer:  God, We need balance.  It is easy to take from You the beauty of Your creation, to receive the love You have shown through the gift of Your son and accept Your forgiveness.  It is a comfort to know You walk with us but it’s often hard to respect Your word enough to obey the things You ask of us.  Balance our thinking, God.  Help us not only rejoice, revere, and respond but also to respect Your words.

Sharon Herndon

INTRO

Advent Season Devotional

2012

First Christian Church

Duncan, OK

Dear Friends,

“Christmas time’s a comin’” goes a great country music song.  It speaks to “Holly’s in the window.  Home is where the wind blows.  I can’t walk for runnin’ ‘cause Christmas time’s a comin’!”  Someone is glad, “’cause I know I’m goin’ home.”  By the time this happy song is finished the singer and listener are ready for the big day.  As disciples’ of Christ we understand it takes thoughtful, prayerful, preparation for Christmas to come with all the joy God has in mind for us.  It takes such devotions to take our hearts back home to Bethlehem.  It is during the season of Advent we take time to make ourselves ready to welcome Christ, the giver of love, joy, hope and peace into our lives anew.

With that in mind, church friends of ours have prepared the daily devotionals in this booklet.  This is a work of love by folks who don’t do such things very often.  They have put time and effort into it and I know the rest of us are grateful.

Please put this booklet and your Bible close at hand in a place where you can give them the time necessary for them to speak to you.  When you say your prayers each time, you might remember the contributor of that day’s devotion.  I will.

Please make a note in your calendar that we have special things planned for Advent.  Lots of effort is going into making it meaningful for everyone.

·         The Harmony Class will host the Fellowship Brunch on December 2.

·         Our youth will get together for Midnight Gladness on December 7^th to make Christmas brighter for other children of our community.

·         On December 19, we’ll celebrate our Christmas Extravaganza with a Christmas Dinner, singing and caroling, a performance by our children and a Guaranteed Visit by Santa Claus! 

·         On Christmas Eve we will have two services, at 5:00 PM and 11:00 PM. 

·         Each Sunday of Advent, we will light the Advent Wreath and sing songs of the season.

I hope you’ll make a special effort to be with us for as much of our worship and fellowship as possible.

“Can’t you hear them bells ringin’, ringin’.  Joy to all, can’t you hear them singin’.  When it’s snowin’ I’ll be goin’ back to my country home!”

Glad to be your pastor,

Arnold Nelson

Advent Devo 2012 Coming Soon

Advent Devotionals to be posted daily beginning the first Sunday of Advent - Sunday, December 2

ADVENT

2012

 

First Christian Church

Duncan, Oklahoma

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel!

John 1: 1-14

John 1:1  "In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God.

John 1:3 and 4: Through him all things were made. In him was life and that life was the LIGHT of all mankind."

Today we celebrate and worship in awe ~ the birth of Jesus Christ.   Jesus' birth was a gift.  We have all gazed upon a newborn baby ~ a gift ~ and thought to ourselves: "priceless... it doesn't get any better than this!"

Because we "believe" that Jesus was born ~ to die for all sin and that He chose us to "receive" forgiveness of that sin...we were given yet another gift and became "children of God."  When God became man in the birth of Jesus - it was the highest gift of GRACE the world has ever known.

Our Lord's birth was an advent.

"Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel ~ God is with us."  Isaiah 7:14

One of my many favorite advent hymns says it all: (verse 3)  

Silent night! holy night! Son of God, love's pure LIGHT

             Radiant beams from Thy holy face 

With the dawn of redeeming GRACE

Jesus, Lord at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.

John 1:14  "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Father, full of GRACE and truth."

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel ~ God is with us!

Prayer:  Dear Lord, I am yours. Your gifts are priceless to me. Allow me to see your LIGHT and live your GRACE in my life. Amen and Amen.

Katherine Rogers

God uses the ordinary

Luke 2:1-20

In today’s scripture, we read about the first chapter of Jesus’ life.  What we can learn to be relevant to today—other than the obvious beginning of the life of Christ—is how God takes ordinary people and ordinary events and makes them extraordinary if we will do our part.  Mary, pregnant with her first child & Joseph, to whom she was engaged, were in Bethlehem to register when she gave birth to a son and laid him in a manger because there was no room in the inn. The Shepherds were in the field’s just doing their job of watching sheep when an angel appeared.  All were regular people to which extraordinary things happened.  Mary and Joseph accepted what God asked of them in becoming parents to Jesus.  The shepherds listened to the angel and went to see the new baby and tell others the story of Jesus. 

          Not all of us will be the person that will have the obvious, recorded extraordinary event happen in our life, but God wants all of us to take the opportunity to follow His will for our lives.  What you consider ‘ordinary’ may just be ‘extraordinary’ to the person whose life you touch.  God can and will use each of us if we will let him.  Enjoy all that he has planned for you—ordinary or extraordinary!

Prayer:  Dear God,  May I be open to the plan that you have for my life.  Even if I consider my life ordinary,  help me to realize, that with your help, I will be able to do just what you want me to do.  In Christ’s name, I pray.  Amen

Kathy Snider

Praise God

Psalm 96

In reading Psalm 96 several times, we were struck by how much we take for granted in our lives.  God is the giver of all things.   He is the one true God and is deserving of our praise and blessing.  We must give to the Lord both the glory He deserves and gifts to help to expand His kingdom.  Upon His return, all will be judged with fairness and justice.

Prayer:  Father, help us to remember and give you the glory daily for the blessings you so freely give to us.  Amen. 

Jo and Gene Fuller

A Song of Love

Zephaniah 3: 8-20

The prophet Zephaniah cries out, as all of the prophets from the heart of God, against the forces of darkness which destroy all that God loves.  Through Zephaniah God proclaims “The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.”  This is a holy jealousy, a jealousy which longs for the hearts of God’s people to turn again to the love and blessing of God.  This is a holy anger, expressed as a passion, which purifies for the sake of love.   God called his people to be the meek and the humble as God prepared to take away the punishment of sin that would become for them the salvation of life.  The compassion of God’s heart is expressed, “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing…. he will remove sorrows, rescue the lame and gather those who have been scattered, bringing them home.”  With the Advent of Christ we are given the gift of homecoming wrapped in the swaddling cloth of salvation as God sings over all of creation and humankind with the gift of himself in the tenderness of innocence.

A prayer of silence as listening to a lullaby. “The Lord will quiet you with his love and rejoice over you with singing.”

Jennifer Steil