Week 1 Day 1

 Hello!!!

I am so very excited as we start this study and prepare Him room. I look forward to this every single year. This year you will notice things will be a bit different. We are studying passages this year rather than a chunk, leading up to and then teaching on the birth of Christ. Hope fulfilled in His promises made and promises kept. We can take confidence that He did what He said He would do and wait with eager expectation that He will yet come again. Mondays will set the stage for the week, so save the links! 

For many we have been saying 2020 has been a year like no other. For others who have lived through wars or famine or displacement, or anything else, 2020 might have just been another year. Regardless I think it put in the forefront of every person that suffering is real, loss is real, and that we truly don't know what tomorrow holds. BUT for those of us in Christ we know who holds tomorrow. We have that truth to share as the Light of Christmas this year. Psalm 36:9b in your light do we see light. Jesus Christ the Lord.

This week: We will be studying Isaiah 9:6. I would encourage you to read Isaiah 9:1-7. This is the link of Seeds Family Worship Isaiah 9:6. Also included...Christmas hymns and history! This week: Joy to the World! I will probably include a few artists versions, find a favorite, Wednesday we will go through the words and theology as part of the study. 

For today: Read Isaiah 9:1-7, Listen to God with Us, Sing Joy to the World!

MONDAY:  Our view is from the prophecy fulfilled, so as far as the birth of Christ is considered, in many ways we take it for granted. We didn't sit in darkness (as in waiting for the promised Messiah), we didn't wait with eager expectation on the hope, will this be the year the He comes? We enter into Advent with Immanuel (God with us.) That thought alone makes me want to sob. For centuries, even truly since the Garden of Eden those before us waited for the Savior to come. I enter into the season of His birth WITH Christ. Yet, it is so good to remember this same Christ who came as a babe in the manger with return not as a babe but as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given...The notes in my Bible note here 'The verbs are consistent with HIs humanity and deity.' This thought, fully God, fully man, has been overwhelming to me this year as I studied. The Son of God, taking on human flesh, to come to take away this sins of the world. God made flesh. This is so, remarkable. The one who created the entire universe would allow us to hold Him in our hands. Fully God, fully man. 

Isaiah's prophecy was made hundreds of years before Christ came. In the darkness without Christ it was these promises that people had to hold onto. I think of how incapable I am of holding onto the Word of God for even 5 minutes sometimes without having unwavering faith. And I have the FULL council of God at my fingertips in several translations. Oh how I can take this for granted. How not only have I lost my longing for Him at times, there are seasons I forget there is even one yet to long for.

Friend, this year, I will say often prepare Him room. That is my object as we study together this year. That we take a good deep examination of our hearts. Ask the hard questions. Do I long for Him? Do I yearn for Him? Or am I satisfied by another? Have I put my hope so solely on the things of this world, elections, trips, plans, health, education that I have completely found myself this Christmas still yet not longing for Jesus but longing for it to be over? We have a chance to reset our gaze. That we can look at Him and in His Light see Light. He (Christ) is the radiance of the glory of God!!!! The Glory of God is the Light of the World and especially for this season the true Light of Christmas. Sister- journey with me to the manger as we once again seek and savor the coming of the King.