Advent{ures}: Let’s Go To Bethlehem
This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 4:10 NLT
1 John 4:10 NLT
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Love: To Hold Dear; Cherish
Category: love
Peace: To Become Quiet
Advent{ures}: Let’s Go to Bethlehem
For the LORD your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty savior. He will rejoice over you with great gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will exult over you by singing a happy song.
(Zephaniah 3:17 NLT)
Anxiety attacks. Worries weary. Stress increases.
Pause for peace. Peace embraces. Peace calms. Peace blesses.
This peace makes no human sense.
Peace be with you. Jesus promises. Immanuel comforts. Mercy refreshes.
When Jesus enters the room, the disquieting thoughts flee. Heads turn. Do you see Him in the face of a newborn? Or hear Him in the chortle of a toddler? Or notice him in the momentary sparkle of a teenager’s eyes?
Will you pass Him as you hurry from store to store? Will you smile or scowl? Will you see Him sitting at the window of a nursing home, lost in memory? Will emotion overwhelm you when that loved one enters your mind?
When will peace appear? In our moments of quiet doubt? In our moments of loud fears shouting, “Why bother?” Or in the deep joy of knowing everything matters?
Peace will come, always showing up, when we least expect. Peace dispels all fear. It only takes a moment to light a candle in the dark. To sing a happy song.
When Peace enters the room, our eyes meet. All is well once again.
Bethlehem: The Birthplace of Faith
Advent{ures}: Let’s Go to Bethlehem
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 NKJV)
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV)
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
(Luke 2:10-12 ESV)
Hope. Substance. That which undergirds. Desire, expectation, wanting something to happen.
Faith is the reality of hope. Faith offers tangible reality. Hope and faint not. Trust completely. Love with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
Hope does not disappoint. Faith comes wrapped in the hope of things to arrive. Hope generates a longing for someone to show up who is able to help and save us. Come, Lord Jesus, Come.
Enter our hearts, our homes. Transform us with things hoped for, with real love and experience. Show us. Reveal your presence. In a burning bush. In waters parted. In blood poured out. In a child swaddled and lying in a manger.
With an infant’s smile pierce our hearts and let us embrace hope once again.
Grasp:To Embrace
Grasping at straws. Sifting through sand. Wandering through the wastelands of my mind, wondering why this desert season?
“Grasp my hand.” A faint call from across the universe. I step closer, incline my ear. “You are not alone. Take my hand.” I reach out and the distance seems unreachable, but you are infinite and able to reach me before I fall completely in the dust of despair.
You grasp my shoulders in an embrace, steadying me on the path. You dust me off, offering a drink of Living Water from a well I did not see through my tears. You are the God who sees me, who sees ahead and has seen the wilderness before.
You were here, yourself, a long time ago, wandering and wondering and waiting. Tested and tried. Weary and worn. Hungering for bread. Thirsting for water. Training for the Cross.
You grasp it all. You get my despair. You were tempted like me, yet without turning your back on the Father or grumbling against His intention for Your life. You took hold of what I can never totally comprehend. You clung to the goodness of your loving Father all the way through the sweat and blood and pain, enduring it all. Grasping for the JOY set before time, the JOY of seeing and providing for the great hunger and thirst left from the scars of Eden.
I get glimpses and every once in a wilderness, grasp how wide and how long and how high and how deep is this LOVE.
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Intuition Diaries 