from Luke 1:39-56
There is a longing for home within each of us. Try as we might to fill that longing with promises of this world, with relationships, with achievement, or any other number of things in which we seek to find meaning and identity, there is only one place we are meant to be “at home.”
In the season of Advent we celebrate that God did not leave us to wander alone looking for home, instead, in Jesus He came to find us that we might find our home in Him.
On the 3rd Sunday of Advent we consider the joy that was so present in Mary and Elizabeth’s encounter. Is that type of joy possible still? What serves as the root of such joy? How might we live in a posture of joy in a world that seems bent in the opposite direction?
w/ Vern Collins
from Luke 1:46-55, Psalm 30:1-5
Perhaps more than ever we are desperate for Christmas to mean something more than gifts under the tree and time spent with family. What if, in this season of Advent, we didn’t just go through the motions of preparing for Christmas…what if we didn’t celebrate an “Almost Christmas,” but instead gave ourselves fully to the expectation…to the anticipation of what Christ’s coming means for this world?
More than ever, it seems like the Advent theme we need to be most true is the theme of Joy…and yet, it may seem like it is the most elusive. Sure there are moments that we might feel happiness, or there are joyful moments…but they are often fleeting. Certainly this can’t be what is offered in Christ…a feeling sense of happiness.
What if it’s not the gift that is bad, but our lack of understanding the fullness of what Joy in Christ means.
w/ Vern Collins
3rd Sunday of Advent
from Titus 2:11-14
“If only I had __________, then my life would be different.”
How would you fill in that blank? The things we hope for are often the things that shape our lives…how we spend our time and energy, how we spend our resources, the things we pursue…and so often, those are the same things that leave us frustrated.
What might be different if we had something to hope in that was more than just a fleeting desire. What if our hope could be rooted in something eternal, something that would transform us…SOMEONE Who came to find us? Imagine how life could change if we lived life built on the foundation of hope made possible by Jesus.
w/ Vern Collins
