Here is an Advent calendars that I have begun to study and will attempt to complete in the next week. Looks fairly simple, so I'm all over it! Perhaps a piece chocolate and reflective reading suggestion inside. Advent isn't another liturgical suggestion or church idea, it's a preparation of the heart to enjoy and savor this upcoming sweet season of Christmas.
I'll use burlap with a color number stamps, maybe red?
Advent is truly a season of waiting, hope, prayer (ie.reflection,repenting,etc.), and love...before celebrating the gift of Christ's birth. God's only Son. Life comes at us fast near the holidays, breathe in the fresh cool air and praise God for it. Don't worry about "compartmentalizing your day" for your Creator. Go ahead and meet with Him where ever you are and whatever you're doing.
It refreshed my spirit to read from Jared Wilson's new book, Gospel Wakefullness. (pp. 90-92) shared by Desiring God's Weekly Blog.
"Let us stake the flag of Christ's kingdom into the soil of our first waking moment. Drink your coffee when you get up, of course, but drink it to the glory of God. Then carry on in this way all day, no matter the task, be it menial or notable, so that each day may be a living prayer that God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is what it means to live a gospel-saturated life: it means being so conscious of the greatness of the gospel that changing diapers or cutting the grass is as much an act of worship as singing a praise chorus in a church service….
Jesus Christ is Lord over my heart, and he is Lord over my hands, and he is Lord over what I do with these hands, and he is Lord over what I say in my heart while I'm doing it. In submitting to the lordship of Christ, then, I do not treat washing dishes as wasting time I could be spending doing something "meaningful," but rather as a service to those who eat in my home, as a service to those who would have to wash the dishes if I did not, and as an offering of thanksgiving to God that I have food to eat, dishes to eat it on, and running water inside my home to clean with.
To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, there is not a square inch of our lives that is not claimed by God and counterclaimed by ourselves. If we believe God is sovereign, however, we will see all of life as mission and be led to submit the square inches we otherwise hold so tightly to the Maker of inches and hands."
Amen brother.
1 comment:
This post really encouraged my heart, Amanda Blake. In a season of deafening silence and solitude, I was reminded to submit moment by moment to my heavenly Father. I think of you more often than I write, but please know that I think of you often and read your blog faithfully.
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