To read the Advent devotional for today, simply click on the link below to download. Prepare your heart for Christmas with scripture,  pictures, music, a focus of the day, and prayer. Feel free to share any of your thoughts below.

Perhaps your family has a special Advent tradition that you could share with all of us. It would be helpful to make a list of suggestions and resources so that people can incorporate them into their worship. Just add them in the comment section.

Blessings,

Advent Devotional for Tuesday, December 3, 2013

To read the Advent devotional for today, simply click on the link below to download. Help prepare your heart for Christmas with scripture,  pictures, music, a focus of the day, and prayer. Feel free to leave any comments below.

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Advent Devotional, Monday, December 2

December 1 marks the first Sunday of Advent for 2013.

Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas. It is the start of the new calendar year for the Christian calendar. Traditionally, the season of Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas and continues through December 24, while the Christmas season starts on December 25 and goes until the Epiphany on January the 8th.

It seems that we often skip the season of Advent and jump right into Christmas. I wonder if Christmas would hold more meaning for us if we took the time to prepare our hearts to receive our Savior. That is the whole purpose of Advent. And that is the purpose of this devotional. It’s my prayer that by taking the time to read through these devotions during Advent that Christ will become even more special to you during the holiday season—and through the rest of the year too!

The word advent from the Latin adventus (Greek parousia), means “coming” or “arrival.” The season of Advent is focused on the coming of Jesus as Messiah (Christ or King). Our worship, scripture readings, and prayers not only prepare us spiritually for Christmas (His first coming), but also for His eventual Second Coming.

This is why the scripture readings during Advent include both Old Testament passages about the expected Messiah, and New Testament passages about Jesus’ Second Coming. We also read passages about John the Baptist, whom God sent ahead of Jesus to prepare the hearts of the people for Him.

Enjoy this Advent season, and may God bless you and your family.

Please click on the link below to download today’s devotional!

First Sunday of Advent

Captivating colors

                                                 and

                                                   tempting textures

of luscious yarn never fail to lure me into big or little knitting shops I happily stumble across. Such was the case the other morning, and I, entranced, open the door and follow my eyes to the skeins posing on the shelves.

I walk back and forth weighing my options, considering my ever-growing list of people to receive knitted Christmas gifts. Poking around the shelves, I find a perfect project to knit up quickly. With chunky yarn on big needles, even I, a notoriously s-l-o-w knitter, will finish five of them with time to spare before Christmas.

The bell jingles and the door shuts behind me as I head back to the car. The glinting sun illuminates the display window, stopping me in surprise. A Scripture glistens off the glass. Funny, I hadn’t noticed it on the way in, two of my favorite things juxtaposed like this.

This unexpected gift of scripture and yarn knitted together makes a happy spot in my soul. Why haven’t I ever thought about the work of my hands as being something sacred? Might my hands actually capture a bit of His beauty, reflect a bit of His creativity in every stitch, every pattern I make? My heart says “yes.”

God snuck in this Sacred Everyday at Always In Stitches today. Where have you found yours?

Pray on!

“Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Ephesians 4:26 (NIV)

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” Ephesians 4:31 (ESV)

“But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” 1Timothy 1:16

He is risen! Happy Easter!

Today we are looking at the final stanza of True Lenten Discipline:

FAST from anger; FEAST on patience.

(Here is the full poem of True Lenten Discipline. Here are the devotions for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Here is the link to the True Lenten Discipline Podcast.)

God’s word calls us to let all anger be put away from us. From this word let we can infer that we choose what, where, when, how long and if we will be angry. Just as love is a decision, anger is a decision. I have even caught myself thinking, “If he does that one more time, I’m going to become really angry!”

The word let used in this verse is airo which means “to raise, to lift up, to raise upward, to elevate.” This definition then is a reminder to us that when we are overcome with anger, we can choose to lift up in prayer the situation, circumstance, or person that we are upset about. The problem with anger is that it demands vengeance. But God has declared in Romans 12:19 that, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” We need to let our anger go. The longer we nourish it, the more tempted we will be to make others “pay” for how they have hurt us.

By definition the Greek word for anger means, “natural disposition, character, temperament, punishment, anger used as punishment.” In order to satisfy God’s righteous anger concerning our sin, He poured out His wrath upon Jesus through His death on the cross. Jesus took our punishment so God can now give us His grace and patience. Considering how we have been spared from just punishment, what right do we have to choose to continue to be angry with others? Ask God to remove your anger and help you to choose patience instead.

God in His infinite wisdom, has provided us with two different types of patience; one for difficult situations (hypomeno), one for difficult people (makrothymeo). As our verse above shows us, Jesus is our example of infinite patience. If He could have such patience with us, how can we have not extend that same patience to others?

Application: When traced back to its origin, the Greek root word for anger means mountain.Do you have a mountain of anger in your life, something that you can’t seem to let go? Mountains are seemingly huge impenetrable obstacles that are always before us. But God has given us a way to deal with the mountain of anger—by speaking His Word (Matthew 21:21). If an issue has you trapped in chains of anger, find a Scripture that applies to your situation and by faith pray that Scripture into your situation. Keep praying scripture into your situation and by an act of obedience show patience instead.

Because of Easter, because of Christ’s death on the cross, we too can choose to lay aside our anger and choose instead to be patient with others.

Prayer: God, we pray for the willingness to let go of our anger and extend instead the gift of patience. We thank you for your patience with us and your love as demonstrated through Jesus.

Easter morning. The wrath of God was satisfied!

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29 (NIV)

“A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” Proverbs 25:11 (NIV)

For our fifth devotion this Holy Week, we are looking at the following stanza of the poem True Lenten Discipline:

FAST from words that pollute. FEAST on phrases that purify.

(Here is the full poem of True Lenten Discipline. Here are the devotions for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.)

The old saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” simply isn’t true. Anyone who has ever been wounded by unkind words knows that hurtful words sink deeply into our souls, setting up residence and becoming difficult to uproot. They echo through our lives for years to come, affecting what we believe about ourselves and our choices—whether they’re true or not.

The Greek word for unwholesome is sapros, and it means “bad, rotten, decayed.” And if we need any further proof of the harm mean words can cause, we’ll find it in the meaning of the root word of sapros, which is sepo. It means “to destroy.”

(Now this is not to say that we can’t ever respectfully discuss difficult situations and character issues that need to be changed with someone. That’s a sometimes necessary part of living life with family and friends and is entirely different than mean words that tear others up.)

Well, it would be logical that if unwholesome talk can destroy, then the opposite of this should be true; wholesome words can build others up, and that’s precisely what this verse in Ephesians tells us.

It’s one of the conundrums of life that it’s such an easy thing for ugly words to effortlessly roll off of our tongues; it seems to be much harder work to cultivate the soil of a person’s life with seeds of praise and encouragement. Perhaps we’re embarrassed or afraid we’ll be perceived as just trying to gain their favor.

To be sure, kind words need to be sincere. Insincerity rings falsely with, well, insincerity. Maybe part of the problem is that building another person up with words that benefit requires us to be observant. We have to take our focus off of ourselves long enough to study a person and recognize his or her strengths. Once we see the laudable characteristic, we must then give life to the thought and speak the words to that person. It can actually feel a little uncomfortable at first, and it’s tempting to take the easy way out and think “I’ll tell her the next time I see her.” But then you’ve missed a chance to build someone up. The “next time” may not lend itself so well to what you want to say.

Although I still may be able to hear the faint echoes of harsh words in my head, the shout of a “word aptly spoken” by people who have built into my life drowns out the other words. I’ve been encouraged by several someones to reach for goals I thought were beyond my grasp, to dream dreams, and to make a difference by relying on the power of God working in my life. That’s what we need to be doing for others.

Application: On this Good Friday, we will focus on encouraging and building others up with our words. Be on the alert for someone that you can sincerely speak words of kindness to today. And let’s not make this just a one-day event, but rather a lifelong habit.

Prayer: Jesus, may we follow your example of speaking words of life and blessing to others. Stop our tongues when harsh words want to leap out of our mouths. Amen.