JOY: Draw Us Forth

Read: Isaiah 28:14-22 and Revelation 20:11-21:8

"Draw Us Forth" 
by Evan Amo 
Watch Evan Sing "Draw Us Forth" on YouTube

I know I’m waiting for a world to come
Where every division will be made one
This world has but one hope, our Risen Lord
For every disjointed soul he will restore

As I cry out longing
As my spirit groans

For the day that you come again
Where pain and tears will finally end
Draw us forth, draw us in
Into the space between the day and night
As your Spirit’s making all things right
Use us Lord, as you’re making all things new

This world is aching for you to vanquish sin
For every life to be embraced as your image
You will fully liberate those who are oppressed
And conquer every power in love and justice
And as the dark of night is passing away
We work towards your coming justice today
And as the dawn is surely drawing near
Help live out your healing love right here

Help us live out your healing love here
As we look toward the dawn that’s drawing near
Until the day that you come again
Where pain and tears will finally end
Draw us forth, draw us in

JOY: Part of God's Plan

Read: Isaiah 11:1-9

By Shana Hartman

Sometimes I think I make life harder than it really is or than God intends it to be.

I worry, search for answers, and worry some more. Despite my repeated best efforts, I realize over and over that I ultimately wind up right where God intends me to be all along.

One example I reflect on in this season of joy is how I met my husband. About seven years ago I had it all figured out: my current job was not for me and I needed to move on. After submitting numerous applications near and far, and spending lots of time worrying about where I would end up, I received a random voicemail from a guy I worked with but barely knew existed at the time.

The coming months sent me down a path of love and joy unlike any I had experienced. Our relationship grew with ease and with God. I never doubted. I never wondered. God showed up, pointed me in a completely different path than my human mind could fathom, and I (thankfully) heeded His call. I felt “God-Alive, a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide” (Isaiah 11:9 The Message).

While worry will come and my efforts to "do" life on my own will persist now and then, my hope this Advent season is that I can continue to trust in the ease of the Lord and realize that all the other fuss is just distracting background noise.

JOY: God is With Us

Read: Isaiah 12:2-6 and Psalm 100.

By Jerry Jernigan

Frederick Buechner wrote a sermon entitled, "Message in the Stars." In it he wonders what would happen if God literally wrote in the stars, "I REALLY EXIST." He imagines that, after some period of astonishment (and, no doubt, repentance), a child asks "so what?" And the message disappears.

We all want certainty that God is "up there" but scientific or philosophical proof won’t, in the long run, address our deepest needs. Buechner says "what we need to know, of course, is not just that God exists [like some] cosmic intelligence of some kind that keeps the whole show going, but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives..."

Isn’t that the Good News of the Gospels? God came to be with us and, through the Holy Spirit, continues to be with us. Here and now. In the doctor’s waiting room before the scan. Past curfew as we wait for a child’s return. When the umpteenth job interview doesn’t land a job. In times of fulfillment and gratitude and in lonely moments when we wonder if God, or anyone, would miss us if we were gone.

Soon we’ll celebrate the birth of a baby born to a young couple in a hard, challenging time. In some mysterious way, this baby was human and God, Emmanuel – God with us – in the easy days and the hard, the ordinary and the exceptional. So make a joyful noise! Be joyful! God is with us.

JOY: Experiencing Joy This Season

Read: Amos 8:4-12; 2 Corinthians 9:1-15

By Julian Wright
 

This Advent, like most, I am struck by the incongruities. A helpless babe as a Messiah. The lure and lucre of commerce in a season meant to be about redeeming love and – if the manger story retains any relevance – a certain simplicity of living. In today’s scripture, I am struck by the incongruities even more. Amos sends a clear warning on the perils of wealth to greedy capitalists and anyone not nearly attentive enough to the needs of the poor. (Amos 8:4-12). I find the message daunting as my law partners and I gather in much of the bounty of a years’ worth of work, and many of our clients finish deals and tally up balance sheets for the IRS’s year-end deadlines. Yet, we juxtapose Amos with Paul’s (the conventional writer of at least parts of 2 Corinthians) praise of zeal in giving and reaping abundantly. (2 Corinthians 9:1-15). Indeed, in this season of giving – as always, even if a bit late for stewardship season – we are reminded that “God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

It is often in such incongruities – these admitted mysteries of life – that I find the Joy of this Season. In heeding Amos’ warning and going from not trampling on the poor and needy to actually trying to help out on occasion, I glimpse hope and perhaps provide it for those I more conscientiously reach out to help. In bountiful giving – in whatever form – I aspire to do as much good and spread as much love in Paul’s “ministry of the saints” as I can. The Joy comes most readily in lighting up the eyes of a child, a family member, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger – all of whom give to me in some form and to whom I try to give to in some reciprocal measure – with some type of gift during this time of year and trying to extend that Joy throughout the year. For today, heed Amos’s warning; emulate the generosity of the church at Corinth in giving; and experience the Joy of the Season.

JOY: God's Greatest Gift

Read: 1 Peter 1:8-9 and James 1:2-3

By Elizabeth Anne Cooper

Immediately, the first image in my mind upon hearing this phrase is a large red box with a green bow and in big, gold letters “JOY” is written across the side. I’m not sure if I am embarrassed with the fact that my mind immediately goes to a materialistic object or the fact that my pre-Holiday gift giving stress is starting to kick in.

Either way, one thing is for certain, joy cannot be wrapped up in a pretty box with a large green bow or placed on our doorstep whenever we “place an order” to God. More importantly, joy should not always be confined, contained, or come from a tangible object. Joy can be delivered in so many different ways; the kicker is allowing our hearts to truly see it.

A few months ago someone prompted me with the challenge to focus on three positive things that happened that day instead of focusing on the one, large negative. Through this, I quickly came to realize something I have been taught all along, but rarely practiced in my daily routine: Staying in a constant companionship with God allows us to see more and more glimpses of His beauty and offerings of His everlasting joy. Whether it be a stranger with a kind gesture, a good laugh with coworkers, or an embrace from a loved one (pets included); each of your days are prompted with gifts of joy from above. Our job is to simply seek them out, even on the grayest of days.

PEACE: A Gift of Giving

By Diane McAlonan

Sometimes I don’t FEEL like being one of God’s “soldiers.” I feel unworthy, a bit useless, maybe a little down, too. But I carry on anyway.

One of the ways I “carry on” is to go to the mountains to be of service to my beloved, elderly parents. This usually gives me an abundant FEELING of gratitude, but even when it doesn’t, I have to remember that service is not really about the FEELING I get from it and it’s certainly not about ME. It’s about DOING something that helps others, and it’s about GIVING of myself, even if I don’t FEEL like it.

My father had a major heart attack in 2008, which left him with only ¼ use of his heart – the other ¾ is dead ... gone.

One day, he and I were cleaning the gutters on the house. He worked from his lawn chair with a bucket of Clorox water and brush cleaning gutter guards, and I stood on the ladder flushing and cleaning the gutters.

When we finished, he relaxed in a chair on the porch in the sun and fall leaves. He looked up at me with those beautiful blue eyes and said “It makes my heart feel good to have you here working with me – it really does – it makes my heart feel good. I’ve worked so hard all my life and done so many things all by myself…”

WOW! A feeling of G-R-A-T-I-T-U-D-E washed over me. If I died tomorrow, I couldn’t have been given a better gift. I thanked my Dad for his words. The fact that I had done something to make my Dad’s heart feel good… It was a gift of life – from God – forged through us and our work together. It was a gift of peace.

PEACE: God's Gift Which Passeth All Understanding

By Anna Caldwell

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you always. Amen.

This prayer for peace was offered in every church service of my childhood. As a young person, it was a long-winded jumble of unnecessary words. Peace was so obvious...pictures of Baby Jesus, no war, school bullies at bay, gas crisis ended, …gees, grown-ups, can’t you get that? As an adult, I’m SO grateful these words are carved on my heart and mind. They come back to me when I don’t know how pray, and need words. Thank you God for mom and dad, for making me go to church.

We don’t get much peace, do we? Snatches every now and then. When I was in college I had no peace. Like for four years, I was a disaster.

Take that back - I had one moment of peace so profound it’s a benchmark in my Christian witness. One particularly awful night, I took my misery to the campus chapel. On my knees, sobbing, mercifully alone, I was so desperate for equilibrium that my need to understand why this was my condition ceased. My heart begged for respite I knew no human work could give me. I got it. For several moments I experienced a physical peace that was just as if someone had blanketed me. I was stilled, completely whole, calm. Later, I learned my mom and her friends were praying for me at the same time.

That moment of peace didn’t change my circumstances; I was still a total wreck. God had a lot of work cut out for me, and He still does! But, over the years, that personal, physical experience of peace and the well-worn childhood prayer for peace have co-mingled, and press on my Christian person every day.

At 44, here’s what I think about peace:

God’s peace is a gift, that “passeth all understanding.” I can’t explain the extraordinary comfort I felt in those crucial moments, years ago. But it was real.

Peace requires a sort of arrest of “our hearts and minds.” It is absolutely our work to train our Christian minds in thought, word and deed: memorize scripture, pore over God’s word, employ our best Christian choices and practices. It is equally our work to pray humbly from the heart, to grasp that we do not fully control our circumstances; to ask earnestly that God’s will is done, and then... stand back!