Take the Advent Challenge
December 1
Wake up! It's December 1st. Jesus is coming! Let's celebrate all month long.
"It won't slow down," my husband mumbled. "What?" I asked. "The Christmas pace. Whatever you attempt to do, the pace will not slow down," he replied.
"Well, I can still make an attempt to make it more about Jesus!"
Our daughter, who is living in Paris, email this link to John Piper's approach at getting us focused on Christ during Advent. It's excellent. So, this is where I will dwell the next 25 days. Each day, I'll take the verse Piper assigns and ask God to put in into Advent Action in a tangible form.
http://cdn.desiringgod.org/website_uploads/documents/books/the-dawning-of-indestructible-joy.pdf?1414777983
Piper writes:
Jesus said, “I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in
you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). His joy was
the very joy of God. He promises to put that in us. That is
what the Holy Spirit does. He pours out the love of God in
our hearts (Rom. 5:5), and with it the joy of God in God.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth…For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. John 1:14-16
"Paul prays that we would experience Christ’s fullness—not just know about it, but be filled with it. Here is the way I hear him praying for me: he prays that I may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19)
The “fullness of God” is experienced, he says, as we are given the “strength to comprehend” the love of Christ in its height and depth and length and breadth."
So off we go, a caroling and a searching for what God has in store for us during this fabulous season.
December 1 From The Dawning of Indestructible Joy, by John Piper
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth…For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. John 1:14-16
"Paul prays that we would experience Christ’s fullness—not just know about it, but be filled with it. Here is the way I hear him praying for me: he prays that I may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19)
The “fullness of God” is experienced, he says, as we are given the “strength to comprehend” the love of Christ in its height and depth and length and breadth."
So off we go, a caroling and a searching for what God has in store for us during this fabulous season.
December 1 From The Dawning of Indestructible Joy, by John Piper
The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Luke 19:10
"It's a season for cherishing and worshiping the characteristic of God-that he is a searching and saving God, that he is a God on a mission, that he is not aloof or passive or indecisive. He is never in the maintenance mode, coasting or drifting. He is sending, pursuing, searching, saving.
That's the meaning of Advent."
Lord, send us out today with a passion to pursue Your purpose. May we be guided by the Holy Spirit and look at others with the eyes of Christ. Motivate us to immediate obedience. May we search Your Word and paste it deeply in our hearts, realizing within those Words you posses the power to save the lost. Bring to recall the Words that ignited our souls and made Your salvation make sense to us. In Jesus' Name, Amen
Question: What are we seeking today?
