Worship for Your Week - December
This blog exists to help fuel our worship - to help us see and savor God as the greatest treasure in all of existence! We'll be posting playlists of songs and a brief reflection on particular issues related to worship.
We are officially in the season of Advent (literally: "arrival"), which means intentionally focusing our attention on the coming of God to earth in human flesh, ultimately to restore and redeem human flesh - to redeem you and me - from our broken sinfulness.
We always celebrate Jesus, but Advent is a sweet time to both intentionally remember and longingly anticipate.
We remember Jesus' work of salvation through His first coming. In fact, this is what His name actually means - "God saves." Just prior to His lowly birth in Bethlehem, an angel approached Mary and Joseph telling them that Mary would give birth to a King and that His name would be Jesus, "for He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:31-32).
So, we intentionally remember the rescue from sin that was purchased by God, who not only dwelled among us, but also died for us!
But it's not enough to merely remember; we also anticipate. We, too, like the Israelites who awaited the promised Messiah, look forward with eager expectation for this same Messiah Jesus to come again bringing about His rescue in full!
As followers of Jesus, we have tasted and seen the beauty of His forgiveness through the cross and the victory of His empowering presence through the Spirit.
Yet, we all still feel it.
We know things aren't as they should be. In this time in between Jesus' first and second coming, the battle is all too real. Our selfish desires and doubts. Our inability to relinquish control, lay down our pride, and rest. The heaviness of pain and hurt as injustice is committed in our homes, neighborhoods and around the globe.
So, we longingly anticipate the day Jesus returns to fully rescue us - and all of creation - from the sin that so heavily weighs us down and holds us back from knowing God in all of His glory and grace!
In this precious season, may we behold and look to our Savior, Immanuel, who is God with us. And as we do, may we intentionally remember His past coming and longingly anticipate his next coming. All glory be to Christ, the newborn King!
