Small Beginnings
The holidays are fast approaching.
All the stores have rolled out their Christmas campaigns. It seems that all the malls have a tree, or lights, or some kitschy character covered in snow to welcome the season.
I noticed an apparent paradox in the oncoming holiday season.
The storefronts beckon us to more. While the weather forces us to slow down.
The commercials call us to celebrate and hurry. While our daylight diminishes. Morning and evening, once full of light, are now darker and quieter. A sense of lonesomeness frames our days.
The celebration of Christmas beckons us to busyness, while the season of winter tells a contrasting story.
These mixed messages are pulling at us all the time.
The dark and light.
The excitement and the quiet.
The frantic pace and the forced pause.
And we can be left feeling like seasonal schizophrenics.
Does this fit your heart?
Does this feel like your holiday yet?
And how can we stay near to the work of the Holy Spirit this holiday season?
Well, this Christmas, we'll begin an Advent series called The Journey to Bethlehem.
We'll study the long journeys that the main characters of the Christmas story undertake on the basis of a small promise.
The wisemen, the shepherds, and Mary & Joseph are given a small word about this little baby...a promise that they believe.
They travel miles to get to Bethlehem. Some of them risk their lives, some their reputations, others their safety.
All to find this little baby.
This promised child.
In the Old Testament God says, "Do not despise these small beginnings" (Zechariah 4:10 NLT).
As if, there's something in us that can miss the beginning of a work of God.
I wonder how often we miss His small beginnings? Maybe it's the flurry of the season. Maybe it's our season of life.
Do we see the small beginnings?
Would we have traveled to Bethlehem for a baby?
It's difficult to turn from the mixed messages around us to see the promise of God in seed form.
God didn't send us a full-blown King.
He sent us a baby.
Most of those whose faith took them to the Nativity wouldn't live to see the promises they believed fulfilled.
They went on a journey for a baby they scarcely knew, to glimpse a living promise that would outlive them.
And we, too, this holiday season, are on a journey.
We, too, have the promises of Jesus in the Scriptures, in the Spirit.
We, too, have "hopes and fears of all the years" that linger with us.
And we, too, as a church and with those who will wander with us this Christmas, can once again glimpse the promise in its seed-form: the Baby that turned the world upside down.
So let's join our journeys together with those whose faith led them to Bethlehem and see what the Holy Spirit will reveal as we gather.
See you Sunday for our beloved Thanksgiving service!
Read the prompts below so you can think about how to testify of what God has been doing in you and among us this year. Let's give Him the praise He deserves!
Pastor Dave
______
Thanksgiving Questions:
______
Question 1 - (This last year) How have you seen God move in your life, in this church, or in others around you?
Question 2 - (This last year) Where have you experienced an area of struggle or difficulty in which you've seen God at work?And who has God put in your life to walk with you and encourage, support, bless and/or speak truth to you?
Question 3 - (This last year) Is there a person you would like to bless, affirm or encourage? Is there a verse, image or aspect of God’s heart that you want to “bless” them with?