This week in Advent is joy.
Luke 2:8-20 tells of when the angels appeared to the shepards proclaiming the Messiah's birth with great joy. And the shepards found Jesus, and then left with great joy.
Jesus brings joy. I've heard several different pastor's use this acronym for a happy life:
Jesus
Others
You
I have two favorite Christmas songs. One is rather somber and I always imagined monks singing it, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." Even though the verses are somber, prayerful plea, the refrain is "Rejoice, Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, o Israel."
The second favorite is "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." It not only tells the story of Jesus birth throughout it's verses, but once again, the refrain says "O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, o tidings of comfort and joy."
And that's what this season should bring us - Comfort and Joy. Today I pray you can go out with joy and share that with all you see.
3 comments:
Regarding Comfort and Joy - I'm reading a book that hints at the idea that the God is to be our comforter and he gives us this comfort through the Holy Spirit - who is one with God. He goes on to say, we can only recieve God's comfort, if we need comfort. What he means is, if we seek and find comfort in food, sex, rock'n'roll, bank accounts, spouses, kids, jobs, etc. Then we won't seek comfort in the Holy Spirit. The Comforter has come, but do we receive him as he intended us to?
Love the last question! What's the name of the book?
Book is "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan. I just finished it. If you want I could send it your way.
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