Advent: The Time of Spiritual Renewal

Deuteronomy 7:9 (NIV) “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.”

* author's note: This is a very worthy repost from Nov. 26, 2014

What Advent means to ME

The season of Advent is upon us and while many believe this is a season for the Catholic faith to celebrate the coming of Jesus’ birth, they are sadly mistaken. While the Catholic Church does celebrate through rites and rituals such as burning a colored candle each week as they focus on the coming of the Lord, many Christians such as myself celebrate Advent as a spiritual renewal.

This was a time in history documented and prophesied about in the Old Testament and came to fruition in the advent of the New Testament. The weeks leading up to Christ being born into this world are a pivotal proclamation to every single Christian. Our faith in Jesus Christ is solid proof, to ME, that the Advent of Christ is true to the biblical word.

Granted I don’t believe December 25th as the exact day He was born. But it is the day that man has chosen to appoint and celebrate as the day of Jesus’ birth. Advent to me is preparing for the coming of the Lord instead of getting all caught up in the commercialization of a sacred Holy Day.

We’re living in a world where people make up their own choices and minds with how to honor the King of Kings. Christians everywhere claim to be Christian but shrug off Lent and Advent and other spiritual expectancies that the very bible they claim to read speaks of and are happy just declaring they’re Christian’s. To me, that’s a mockery of Christ and the Holy Bible.

Yes, claiming to be a Christian is all well and good but it is more than just words, you have to put physical and spiritual ACTION behind those words for them to be believed. Even through my computer screen I can tell which friends are spirit-filled and which ones put on a show. When sitting in Church I can physically see who is there just to show people that they’re there. I am not judging people; I am confirming that I have eyes to see.

THIS is why a spiritual rejuvenation is needed throughout the year. THIS is why Advent and Lent are so dear to ME. Yes, I spiritually reflect throughout the year, but these two seasons take on special meaning to my spiritual growth.

I watch as a globe erupts in turmoil; races against races, wars against innocent, death to believers, fear in the loving. Satan is standing at the threshold of corruption, rising in great power throwing swords of fire at the earthbound physically and spiritually weak. The flames have reached every corner of the earth, blades of fire have licked the spirit of all as we sit and watch, waiting, just waiting to understand.

THIS is the season for true Christians to fully understand the biblical elements at work. This is where we gather our spiritual strength and prepare for the coming of Christ. We can’t shrug off what we are called to be; we can’t ignore and draw a blind eye of what is to come. We can’t walk and pretend that we’re doing everything in our power to prayerfully heal a nation in the throes of an uprising while we're too busy to reflect even once on the spiritual growth of our being. We’re not called to ‘just’ believe.

This is not a time to wear a mask and delight in the show of the Christmas spectacle; this is the time to be spiritually awake in the depths of your soul. This is not the time to look around at all you don’t hold in your hands; this is the time to be grateful for every little thing you DO have. This is not the time to walk in confidence knowing you have a faith and belief in God; this is the time to meditate on all you are, all you hold true and all you hope to one day become THROUGH the blood and power of Christ.

THIS, my friends, is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. (Pss.118:24) 

Thumbprint On My Soul

Acts 2: 26 “Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:”

Yesterday my day was going along normally with me pitter-pattering around. I left to go to the store and in this small town that takes an hour or so. The drive was nice, the scenery was beautiful as the sun blemished the brown fields, and gas is a pretty low penny so the fill-up meant my day was going nicely as I silently rejoiced in all of God’s blessings. 

I returned home to see a package on my steps. Another praise Jesus moment because the postman usually takes it back to the Post Office and leaves me a note to pick up the parcel. Not this day and I was so glad because I had been waiting for this package for four whole days!

If you remember back in December when I received a box, there was some damage in the way that the Old Bay had exploded all over everything and left all of the contents smelling, how shall I say – seasonal? After all, it was Christmas and the rush to get packages delivered probably became a hurried chore and boxes got damaged.

Not this box though, no way, this was the box with my necklace that my mother purchased for me (and one for my sister) when my father passed away. It is a beautiful shiny pendant that not only has my fathers’ actual thumbprint on the front, it has my dads date of birth and death on the back along with his name. Talk about holding a part of my father in my hand. My eyes overflowed with tears as I held it to my heart and wept. 

Earlier in the day when my mother left me a message that she took her medicine, (this is my way of making sure she takes her medicine every day, because I NEED her alive) she said my father woke her up. I chuckled. So here my dad woke her up, made sure my package was on my steps, and when I called mother last evening our nightly ritual began. 

We started talking about my dad waking her up. She said, “Joni, I was sound asleep and I hear a tap tap tap on the bedroom door and I jumped up.” She went on to tell me how my dad always came to check on her by eleven in the morning to make sure she was alive? And he’d do so by tapping on the bedroom door. 

This isn’t the first instance that my dad has made himself known to her. There are just too many times to mention and no, my mother is not insane, she is in love and misses her best lifelong friend and he lets her know he is ever present in their home. I don’t judge because I’ve had my own experiences with my dad in some form communicating to me. 

For instance, I was in my laundry room talking to my mother. We were talking about the necklace and the box and all that was in the box and at that moment, all the lights on my washing machine lit up as if it was going into cycle. No, it was off, but all of the lights blinked on and chills ran up my arm and I just smiled because to me, my father was letting me know that he was there. 

I have a friend who just lost her father and I bet she has the same instances where her dad is letting her know and the rest of her family know, that he is a okay! I have a lot of friends actually who know what to look for in seeing their loved ones who have passed. I also know a lot of folks never see anything and I think it is because they’re just not believers in anything spiritual or supernatural, you know, things you can’t explain? Well, to non-believers nothing ever happens. To believers, we see everything!

My father left a thumbprint on my soul and now I carry his very thumbprint next to my heart. And coincidentally, there’s a hurricane out in the Atlantic. The first time in January since… the year my dad was born. They even named it after him, Alex! *wink wink*

God rest your soul, Dad!

Mark 8:18 “Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?”

MY Commitment to Christ

Pss. 31:5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.

MY Commitment to Christ

I need to think of the commitment I made to Christ and not my readers. While you all are important to me, not to hurt any feelings, but I need Christ more than I need you. I watch as people are committed to the social media walls, their allegiance to unhealthy food is quite amazing, they have the audacity of committing to anything BUT Christ. They commit on a Sunday morning but then they fall until the next Sunday.

Sure they read and believe, but commitment to Christ is 24/7, it cannot be compartmentalized to suit you when you need it. You can’t be a Christian one-day a week. You go to church on Sunday and the rest of the week you act like your good old sinful self, then Sunday comes around again and you’re suddenly a Christian again? Does anyone else see something wrong with that picture?

We live in a world where everyone knows more than everyone else. Ministers are in the pulpit preaching and we feel they MUST know more than we do not only about the Word but most everything. I’ve seen so many times a preacher taking advantage of the system he vowed to uphold by way of taking money from the poor leading them to believe the more they give the closer they will get to God.

Sometimes I’ve seen the church give gold-bound Bibles out for a fee of course, or a little crystal bird to display and show everyone you gave more than 100 dollars. When I was younger a priest was fired for putting alcohol in the chalice instead of the grape juice all the other priests used.

Then we have the Jim and Tammy Faye ministers of society preaching the word of God as they see it and believe. Do we wonder why the world is in such a Christ crisis? We wonder why we’re such a confused nation? We have churchgoers acting sinful, priests acting sinful, ministers participating in the act of sin; we as followers of Christ might have a hard time discerning truth from fiction here.

We live in a ‘jump on the bandwagon’ nation. If someone says you’re going to hell because your beliefs aren’t perfectly aligned with their beliefs, everyone jumps in cheering, “yeah, yeah, you’re going to hell!”  I am so glad that God appointed man judge and jury of who is going to hell; it sure makes His job a lot easier.

I read something interesting today:

“The Chinese have an interesting lesson in the two characters chosen for their word “crisis.” One character is danger and the other is opportunity. The inference is that in every crisis experience, both elements are present. So a crisis is a dangerous situation presenting an opportunity. When you focus on just the danger, you become paralyzed by fear. Focusing on the opportunity, however, enables you to fly with wings of faith. It is we, ourselves, who choose on which of the two we will focus.” ~ Paul Estabrooks

I think the world is in a Christ crisis. While people see men not of Christ as a danger, I see the situation as an opportunity to show MY commitment to Christ. Not by lashing out but by being what He intended for ME to be, Christ-like.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Nowhere in this scripture does Jesus point fingers at people and boldly proclaim YOUR GOING TO HELL. I do distinctly remember Him saying, ‘Judge not lest YOU be judged.’ And for that very reason, I may slide off the grid for a while. I will not sit, point fingers and judge my fellow man. The only thing I WILL judge is my soul. It is not MY mind that needs the help, I realize it is the world I’m surrounded by. I cannot allow myself to be exposed day after day to the negative aspects of humans that try and put a dent in MY commitment to Christ.

My commitment is 24/7. I don’t pick and choose the hours and days I will stand committed to Him. He dwells in me; He is a part of my Spirit. I do not have a one-way ticket to Heaven just because I believe in Christ. What, no baptism, no being born again, just believing is my ticket? I for one am not THAT naïve. I cannot conform to man and his ways, I can only conform to the Spirit that dwells in me and that my friends is MY commitment to Christ.

John 14:15-17 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

 

 

God be with you ALL!