Tuesday, December 19, 2017:
We are in the third week of Advent, the week of joy! Thus, as we wait for God’s presence among us, we wait with hope, peace and joy because our Sovereign God has not left us without His promise, presence and power. He is always with us, and will be so tangibly soon — on Christmas Day and at second coming. The first coming was about His grace and the second coming is about His glory. What hope, peace and joy this brings.
However, we can become distracted by the busyness and multiple responsibilities that are integral parts of our daily lives. We can move in one direction so long that the only thing that will slow us down is a derailment. What a horror yesterday to know of the derailment of an Amtrak train Washington State that was on it’s inaugural run, going 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. This can be a metaphor for our world. God came in the person of Jesus to a world when religion had picked up such steam in it’s own trajectory that it was missing the mark, the big picture — the Hebrew faith among with the multitude of others. The secular world continued it’s trajectory of power and control believing that it could run the world and dictate it’s own future, but they too, as always, missed the mark. The world was derailed and only the Sovereign God could jolt the world, in a humble and vulnerable child, back onto the right track.
Slow down today and don’t miss the signs around you! Slow down and see the hope, peace and joy given to you by the grace of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Watch the glory of God shine around you as God repairs the track and gently repositions you, and wants to do so to others, so that we can continue on the journey of life until we reach the desired destination — the last candle to be lighted — love — and all four know in the Christ candle that lights the world and the way.
Our prayers are with the victims and those families who lost loved ones in this horrible train wreck! I pray for them to know the hope of eternal life, the peace of the resurrected Christ, and the joy that no one and nothing can snatch us out of God’s hands!
Hope, peace and joy to you today!
“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”
John 1:11-14, 16 ESV