After a long hiatus from having specific thoughts "jump out" at me from My Utmost for His Highest, once again this week I have found some great nuggets to chew on as this Advent season draws to a close:
Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing--it makes no difference. It means...whatever God's plans may be, we are there and ready...Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. (April 18)
Unsurprisingly, this idea ties in particularly well with the message from this past Sunday. John Farmer gave a teaching entitled "Not Just Another Christmas." He begins the message by describing how changing one word of the title makes a big difference:
You could take out the word "just" and say instead "Not another Christmas." Maybe that causes us to think about being no more Christmases. That might be sad...however another way to think about it would be that Jesus' return [might not] end Christmas but it would certainly transform it. The Christmas season is often called Advent season in the church... Jesus' return is called the Second Advent. When He returns...that would be a good thing, right?
These ideas might make it easy to focus on the future, but we should never let our hope in the Second Advent eclipse the work God has called us to do today.
What makes this ...not just another Christmas? I think it has to be the choice to open the gift of Jesus freshly and receive and enjoy that gift for what Jesus intended it to be...God is ready to satisfy us this Christmas and every Christmas.
Chambers also alludes to this important truth:
The mystery of God is not in what is
going to be--it is now, though we look for it to be revealed in the
future in some overwhelming, momentous event...Realize that the Lord is
here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate. (April 21)
I want to live in the freedom and joy that comes from knowing the One who is central to all of history, not just the Christmas season. May it ever be so.
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