Advent message of Hope

As we come to a close of this Thanksgiving week of 2011 and are ready to enter the Advent season I would like to share a thought or two with you.

Our national tradition here in America sets aside one day each year as a day to give thanks to God for all that he has provided for us. For Christians, however, giving thanks to God should not be confined to a single day or to a special Thanksgiving service. Giving thanks to God should be a daily occurrence.

The Apostle Paul describes the worship in the new testament church as " Always and for everything giving thanks to God.” Paul talks to us about the grace of God of which we should be thankful. Paul says " I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace." For all of us the grace of God is the main reason for Christian Thanksgiving.

What do we mean when we talk about grace? Grace is God's undeserved love that he pours out on us. Grace stands for the remarkable fact that God has it in his heart to love us as we are, that his love is not determined by our unworthy or worthiness. It is his love that finds sin in our lives and leads us to salvation. This is the living center of the "Good News" the gospel of Christ. Romans 5:8 " God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Always give thanks to God for his loving grace.

God wants his love to abound more and more in each of us so that his love may bind us into one family of God. God wants all national and racial differences to be wiped out in this community of love.

That is the way it should be in all of our churches today. Our giving thanks to God for this day is a Christian Thanksgiving only when it is prompted by love and when it expresses itself in works of love.

We thank God above all for our savior Jesus Christ, for it is Christ who purifies our hearts of selfishness and fills our lives with the fruits of righteousness. It is in this way that God receives true praise and glory.

The song of praise that God loves to hear is a life that shows God at work, a life of forgetting self and being obedient to the word of God.

As we enter this Advent season, four Sundays before Christmas, we are beginning a journey toward a stable in Bethlehem. It is both a time of joy and a time for contemplation.

As we set out on this first Sunday of Advent on our journey, let us begin with the hope and expectation that something wonderful is going to happen.

Remember the courage of a young Jewish maiden, named Mary as she sat out on the journey to Bethlehem to bear a child whose parentage was suspect in a society that had strict and sometimes deadly laws about such matters.

Advent reminds us that Jesus, was born in a stable; that Jesus has come and is here today in the form of the Holy Spirit and yes, Jesus will come again! When God stepped into human history; the Word became flesh; Divinity in a human body; these are the truths we celebrate during the Advent season.

Be expectant! Wait with open hearts for God to break into your life, and be ready to welcome the newborn Jesus into your home.