Friday, December 14, 2024 - Advent Devotion
This Morning:
Children’s Christmas Program - Dress Rehearsal
Suturday, December 14, 2024, 10am
This Sunday:
The Third Sunday In Advent
Children’s Christmas Program - “The Little Shepherd!”
Lighting of the Advent Wreath - The Shepherd Candle
Sunday, December 15, 2024, 9:30am
Find a bulletin for this week’s service using the link below!
This week’s service will not be live streamed. We look forward to resuming Lord of Life LIVE next week with our Children’s Christmas program.
On Jordan’s Banks The Baptist’s Cry
Coffin
On Jordan's banks the Baptist's cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh
Awake and hearken for he brings
Glad tidings of the King of kings
Then cleansed be ev'ry life from sin
Make straight the way for God within
And let us all our hearts prepare
For Christ to come and enter there
All praise to you, eternal Son
Whose advent has our freedom won
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Spirit, evermore
“... As it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’””
"The Lord is nigh." "Awake and hearken." "Let us all our hearts prepare, for Christ to come and enter there."
As our second week of Advent comes to a close, we are invited to ask ourselves not how we best get ready, but what it is and who it is we are getting ready for this Christmas, and throughout our walk of discipleship?
It is so easy to start off the journey each year, to even start each new day, with energy and spirit, and then find ourselves far off course, to be, a voice crying out into the wilderness.
This season, and our spiritual life, can easily become more about who is coming to dinner, and how to best buy for those on our list, or how best to meet the expectations of others, than for us to "prepare the way of the Lord."
Let us trust that while time is short, it is never too late to ask The One we are getting ready for, to get us ready, to "make straight the way for God within!"
Let us pray: King of kings, Father who we adore, Holy Spirit, renew us to prepare the way for you in the wilderness of our daily lives and in the wilderness of all the details of Advent this year. Give us a spirit and a faith to surrender it all into your care, as we trust Christ to come and enter here. Fill us with hope far as the curse is found to praise The Son whose advent, whose arrival, has our freedom won. As we pray, we give thanks to God who prepares all things for heaven and nature to sing. Amen.
