Evening Prayer: December 4th

Holy God, dusk is upon me and there are so many voices among my own, crying out to you for a word from above. A word to lead us, a word to guide us, a word to heal us, a word to help us during the final month of this year. While we sleep, we rely on your promise to never slumber. Impress upon our being through our dreams, a vision for embracing salvation. Take away the fear that inhibits me from preparing my being to travel on and live in the straight and narrow way. Please say, “Well done,” should morning dawn and you call me home. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Daily Scripture Passage: Psalm 27

Psalm 27 (ESV)

The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation

27 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
    of whom shall I be afraid?

² When evildoers assail me
    to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
    it is they who stumble and fall.

³ Though an army encamp against me,
    my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
    yet I will be confident.

⁴ One thing have I asked of the Lord,
    that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
    and to inquire in his temple.

⁵ For he will hide me in his shelter
    in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
    he will lift me high upon a rock.

⁶ And now my head shall be lifted up
    above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
    sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

⁷ Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
    be gracious to me and answer me!
⁸ You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
    “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
⁹     Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
    O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
    O God of my salvation!
¹⁰ For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
    but the Lord will take me in.

¹¹ Teach me your way, O Lord,
    and lead me on a level path
    because of my enemies.
¹² Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
    for false witnesses have risen against me,
    and they breathe out violence.

¹³ I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living!
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!

Thoughts to Ponder from Psalm 95:1-7 and Colossians 1:15-20

Psalm 95:1-7 (ESV)

Let Us Sing Songs of Praise

95 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,

Colossians 1:15-20  (ESV)

The Preeminence of Christ

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

As Advent is now in full swing, we should be encouraged to step back and reflect on our life. The season of Advent is really a time, much like Lent, where we, as people of faith reorient our lives and refocus our perspective on the things in life that truly matter.

For many of us in the American culture, our lives are filled with schedules that demand so much from us that we often times forget that we need to be still and listen for the voice of God. It is only in those quiet moments, those still moments that we build our life and our relationship with God in a manner that allows us, when the storms of life blow, to be able to withstand those things that assail us.

So, in essence, Advent reminds us of that concept that we often times lose and it allows us the opportunity to get back on track for the things that matter.

Why is this so important? Because first of all, if we have our priority where it needs to be – if we have our focus where it should be – then no matter what life throws at us, we will be able to have joy because we know that we are in bigger hands than our circumstances. We know where our salvation comes. For the Psalmist to start right off with, “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise of our salvation…” speaks something of having a right perspective. Advent is a reminder that our salvation has indeed come in the form of Jesus. That is the source of our hope and expectations for the Advent season, and indeed, for all of life. It is our hope because we know that sin and death no longer hold power. Do we still struggle with these things? Tragically, yes. We know that the completion of God’s redemptive work is still to come, but it has begun. We have hope because our salvation is assured – Jesus has already paid the price and we can praise God with a loud voice.

Why should we praise with such fervency? Because our salvation is not by some fly-by-night source, like so many things offered people in our day and age. Our salvation has come from someone with substance. The litany that comes from the passage in Colossians speaks to why we should praise with all we are and why we can have hope. Who is this Jesus? “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Colossians 1:15-20

This Jesus is the One who created all things, he is the one who has conquered the powers of sin and death, through his own resurrection. There is nothing that is outside of Christ’s power. Things visible and invisible, dominions, thrones, powers and authorities will all be subject to Christ – they are all under his feet. The reality is: the one who created is also the one who came and reconciled (brought into a right relationship) all of his creation. The very ones who rejected him are the same ones he died to save.

We have two postures we can take as we enter this Advent season. We can either come with a grateful heart, realizing that our hope and salvation has come, that all the glitter, glamour and “noise” of Advent is nothing more than distractions from the real reason we have this season. We can come and praise God loudly because we also know that what he has begun in the birth of Jesus, will one day be completed when Christ returns. That one day we will live in a world in which there is no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death, no more trials and temptations – and no more tears.

Or we can come with the posture that we celebrate a nice story about a baby in a manger – but it is a story that has no power. This nice story, this baby, is all great but it is nothing more than a story that gives us a warm fuzzy feeling at Advent.

So this Advent season, will we momentarily gaze at a manger and move on or will we come on bended knee before the throne of grace before the one who has the power over life and death?

Advent gives us a time to reflect on what is truly important. Is our perspective where it should be? May we have the courage to be still and hear the voice of God and give praise to the God of all things – realizing that in earnest – our salvation is won.