Beloved, as we prepare to celebrate Christmas, I want to say a few things to the GOD TV audience that I pray will be an encouragement. And provide radical hope for where we are, where we are going, and what God has for you.
You know, we got so excited about the Jewish calendar and Rosh Hashana. That is wonderful. We often dismiss as religious, the celebration of the Christian calendar. We often fail to realize that Advent is the beginning of the Christian year which ushers in and culminates at the Christmas celebration. I think Advent is a very important feast to celebrate. Historically, for 2,000 years in the Church, because Christ fulfilled Passover because Christ fulfilled Pentecost and the outpouring of the Spirit. And Christ who will fulfill tabernacles at the great end gathering breaks into human existence in the incarnation and also promises to come again. But, in between His first coming and His second coming, there are fresh in-breakings, fresh comings, fresh inrushings of Christ with hope, with joy, with mercy, with peace, with promise.
In a season where many people battle with heaviness and actually battle depression and anxiety, I pray that this Advent season, this beginning of the sacred year of the Church, which for 2,000 years has been celebrated as a time of a fresh anticipation, of a fresh coming of the Lord into our lives. For all of you that are battling with heaviness and heartache, that there would be in your heart, a turning in your lament to the One who is your joy, who is the desire of all nations, who promises He will never fail you or forsake you. He is with you in the suffering, and yet He wants to bring you to a place of glorious joy. Joy unspeakable and full of glory.
The question isn’t simply, “What do you want for Christmas?” The question is: “What are you expecting for Advent?” Because the same God who broke into history with the chorus of angels saying, “Glory to God in the highest! And on Earth, shalom.” Nothing missing, nothing broken, the absence of all things evil. The presence of all things beneficial wants to come in this season of Advent with a promise of shalom, the absence of all things harmful, the presence of all things beneficial. Nothing missing, nothing broken. Have a blessed, Merry Christmas as you enjoy this Advent season.