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Weekly Devotional

December 3, 2012

God’s Peace be with you all.

Psalm 130:1-8  Out of the depths I cry to thee, O LORD!  ² Lord, hear my voice! Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!  ³ If thou, O LORD, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?  ⁴ But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.  ⁵ I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;  ⁶ my soul waits for the LORD more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.  ⁷ O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plenteous redemption.  ⁸ And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Hurry up and wait.  That is a common phrase that is used in many situations in life, especially in moments where we feel anxious about results from a test, surgery, etc., and yet know we can’t do anything to speed up the process.  Hurry up and wait is also what we do in looking for the return of the Messiah.

This year, our season of Advent reminds us that as we prepare for Christmas, we also wait anxiously on an outcome that we cannot control.  Our text from Luke yesterday had Jesus stating that “this generation will not pass away before these things take place.”  As I read that passage, I see that Jesus is telling his disciples that the signs of the second coming will begin, and the generation will not pass away until after they have begun.  He was not saying that that generation would be witnesses to the second coming (although some interpret it that way).  In the incarnation of his Son, God has begun the process of the end.  No one except the Father knows when this will be, which is why we must hurry up and wait.  The process has started, much like the process of our own lives.  From the moment we are born, we are approaching death one day at a time.  From the moment of resurrection, the world is approaching the final judgment one day at a time.

Advent calls us to hurry up and to wait.  But as we wait, we are to stay prepared, to keep our heads held high, our lamps lit.  The Messiah will return!  And when he does, there will be salvation for God’s people.

In our prayers this week: Ann, Bobby, Gere, Jim A., Jerry V.

God’s Peace,