Tag Archives: Bible reading

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I'm not sure how to add a youtube video from my ipad, so...

here's the link

or

Anyway, I'm going through Advent devotionals, and I'm reminded (again) that we need Christmas, because we need the cross more.

My daily Bible reading was Acts 4. Verses 14 and 15

But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses

Bonhoeffer wrote:

We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us.

Sh'ma tells us to "hear, o Israel, that our God is One" -

Every member of the Trinity is involved in Advent - God the Father, sent God the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit to be born in a manger, in order so that He might die, so that we might live.

Our God is One
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The Coming of Jesus in Our Midst”

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This verse is at the top of my "to do" list on my iPod this week (I have 2 "to do" lists - one for Bible reading, the other for "stuff")

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

A friend of mine called me on Saturday and told me that her husband's mom had passed away earlier in the week.  She had been sick for a long time; sick and in pain.

For Christians, funerals are a much different event than the funderals of the lost...

At the right hand of our Heavenly Father, there are pleasures forevermore...in His presence we find fullness of joy.

For the lost, this life is as good as it's going to get.  For the elect, this life is as bad as it is going to get.

Leaving this life is not a tragedy for the one "going home".  We miss them, yes.  But for them...it's their invitation to the wedding feast.