The Third Sunday of Advent

The Third Sunday of Advent (Titus 2:11-14)

How is God breaking into your life and mine during this Advent season? I remind you again of Robert Webber’s statement about the season. “Advent is a time when God disturbs the waters of our lives.” That “disturbing” has past, present and future implications. The primary message of Advent is simple: God chooses to walk in our world and work in our world. Advent reminds us to wait for the work and for His imminent appearing.

Paul talks about the waiting in his epistle to Titus. “ . . .looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ . . ..” He reminds Titus and us to live in the anticipation of Jesus next appearance. That anticipation prompts us to live godly lives in an ungodly world.

I urge you to live in “watch mode.” Choose to listen for God’s voice in your life as He shows you His work in your life and your world. Let the Advent season renew you and remind you that you live for more than now. As followers of Jesus, all of us live with an eye toward heaven. We watch for His work and His second coming into our world. We know our world is a hostile environment for the person who follows Jesus. To live in the expectation of Jesus’ return demands willingness to live “against the flow” for as long as it takes. We’ll wait for Him for as long as is needed.

The problem for most of us is that we don’t like waiting. We don’t do well in the patience practice. Scripture teaches us, however, that patience is part of the Christian life. If we don’t see God work today, we wait patiently for the day when He does work. If we look for Him to return today and He doesn’t, we wait patiently for the day to come. We know He will. We just don’t know when. So, we wait. And, while we wait we live our lives in the expectation that He could some today or tomorrow or the next day. It’s always too soon to quit waiting with expectation.

The Advent wreath with its five candles reminds us of the waiting. Each week we light another candle and remember that we’re waiting for the full reality of Christ’s work to invade our world. The third week we light the “Joy” candle. It reminds us to rejoice at the first coming of Jesus into our world and to take joy in the promise that He will come again. So far the Advent candles have reminded us that we have HOPE, we’re LOVED and we can live with JOY because Jesus has come into our world and into our lives.

I pray the spirit of Advent—Hope, Love and Joy--will fill your soul this week. -- Pastor John is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Toms River

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 14, Joel; Revelation 5

Think About This: What, then, is the biblical basis for social concern? Why should Christians get involved? In the end there are only two possibleattitudes which Christians can adopt towards the world: Escape and Engagement...'Escape' means turning our backs on the world in rejection,washing our hands of it ... and steeling our hearts against its agonized cries for help. In contrast, 'engagement' means turning our facestowards the world in compassion, getting our hands dirty, sore and worn in its service, and feeling deep within us the stirring of the love ofwhich cannot be contained. John R. W. Stott