December 10, 2021 - Advent Devotion
This Week:
Saturday, December 11, 2021 - 10:00am-11:30am:
Children’s Christmas Program Dress Rehearsal
Sunday, December 12, 2021:
Join us for “Get Ready, for the Real Story,” a Lord of Life children’s Christmas program!
Share this event with family and friends so they can join us in person or live stream from the broadcast on Lord of Life LIVE, right in the event page!
Previous Lord of Life LIVE service:
Oh come strong Branch of Jesse free
Your own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of hell your people save
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave
Rejoice
Rejoice
Emmanuel
Shall come to you O Israel
“John went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins...”
Have you ever been playing a board game with a child, and someone rolls the dice off the table? Do over!
Have you ever seen a child swing at strike three only to announce, "do over"?
Have you seen a child start a dance routine or a musical composition or a vocal solo, the child gets a little mixed up, and then lets everyone know he or she is starting over again?
We all make mistakes.
Oh, how we wish to make use of a few `do overs' as we try to get it all right, and often get it all wrong.
In Charles Dickens', A Christmas Carol, Ebeneezer Scrooge gets the greatest gift of all. Scrooge gets a do over, a second chance. What a gift!
Friends, as believers, as those who follow the One who came to give us the gift of Baptism, let us be filled with the awe and power of the gift of forgiveness, a second chance, a do over, a new beginning.
Would you like the gift of a second chance or a do over this Advent and Christmas?
That is what God gives you in the blessing of today! Let us trust the Lord will lead us in repentance to live right in the midst of wrong, far as the curse is found, thanks to the grace only God can provide!
Let us pray: God of repentance and second chances, from the depths of hell, your people you save, and you alone give us victory over the grave and over the pain of our sins. Let us forever find awe and purpose in this blessed gift you give us: a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Send us out today, in this gift of a second chance, and let us sing with heaven and nature far as the curse is found as we rejoice, for Emmanuel has come to us! Amen.
