Season of Advent.

The Season of Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas Day, starts on Sunday 29 November 2015. The word “Advent” essentially means “coming” and “expecting”.

We remember during Advent that Jesus Christ promised to physically come to us again, to create a new heaven and earth in which we will live for all eternity!  His first coming, celebrated on Christmas Day, inspires us to believe that the next coming of our Lord brings hope, peace, joy and love to our lives, our churches and our world!

1. During the Advent Season we in faith are looking forward to the day when the kingdom of the Lord Jesus will bring all distress to an end. And Jesus who promised to return to us says: “Yes, I am coming soon." (Rev 22:20).  It is a season for hope.

2. During this season we also remember that Jesus wants to come into our lives, here and now, through his Spirit’s work in us, and through us come to a lost world in dire need of him.  It is a time for peace with God and each other.

3. It also is a time to be filled with joy, because God became a human being and was born as a baby on that first Christmas, to become our Redeemer and King!

4.  Ultimately it is a time for love.  God so much loved us that he sent his Son, that we may not perish but have eternal life.  This love we share with our fellow believers and with the whole world.

Central Message of this Season:  God gave his Son

During the Advent Sundays, until Christmas day, we will remember that Christ took on our weak, human nature and became one of us.   As the Apostle Paul puts it in 2 Cor 5: 21:  God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

This is what Jesus Christ did for us on that first Christmas day. In taking on ”weak human flesh”, he associated himself with our dilemma which is the result of our mistakes, disobedience and sin.

Let’s put our trust in God the Son. Let’s rejoice, because he did everything we could not do to save us! Let’s pray that he will come soon to dry all our tears and grant us peace.  Let’s wait with the same urgent love of the believers in the New Testament Church for the victorious and conquering return of Christ, our King.