2nd Sunday in Advent
Jesus Christ is from the line of David. Some saw him as a great Prophet even the greatest of all prophets. But as we prepare to celebrate Christ’s Birthday. We must also take what God has done into the world, a world that needs hope joy peace and love.
Holly
The prickly leaves represent the crown of thorns that Jesus wore when he was crucified. The berries are the drops of blood that were shed by Jesus because of the thorns.
In Scandinavia it is known as the Christ Thorn.
Ivy
Ivy has to cling to something to support itself as it grows. This reminds us that we need to cling to God for support in our lives.
The Bible names many prophets,
Abraham, whom God himself calls a prophet (Genesis 20:7)
Moses the greatest of the Old Testament prophets (Deuteronomy 34:10)
Samuel, who anointed two kings of Israel on God’s behalf (1 Samuel 3:19–20)
David, a king whose Psalms were considered prophetic by the Jews (Acts 2:30
Elijah and Elisha, who worked miracles and anointed (and denounced) national leaders on God’s behalf (1 Kings 19:15–16)
Jeremiah, who warned Jerusalem’s leaders that Nebuchadnezzar would take the city (Jeremiah 1:5)
Micah is the last of the O. T. prophets
John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus Christ (Matthew 11:9–14)
Jesus Christ, who was called a prophet before he was resurrected (John 7:40)
In the Bible, and especially in the Old Testament, a prophet has the role of holding people accountable to the God of Israel. They do this through the ministry of prophecy, which has a much broader meaning in the Bible than we’re used to.
What is prophecy?
When you encounter prophecy in the Bible, it usually refers to a message claiming to be of divine nature or origin. Since most of the Bible focuses on the ancient Israelites’ relationship with their God, it makes sense that most of the Bible’s prophecy comes from the same God. These messages come in many forms: dreams, poetry, sermons, and even dramatic physical stunts—like when the prophet Isaiah went nude for three years to signify how the Assyrians would strip and shame the Egyptians (Isaiah 20:3).
Although it’s easy to think of prophecy as a message concerning the future, the prophets of the Bible speak of the past, present, and future. (Taken from over view bible )
Ancient words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vmTkXNpwzs
God has spoken by the prophets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rbR63VCTg4
A Prophet is a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God.
Isaiah as mentioned above is one of best known as the Hebrew prophets who predicted the coming of Jesus Christ to salvage mankind from sin. Isaiah lived about 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
Here is one of his prophecies
Isaiah 9: 1 – 7 NIV
9 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan 2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy;they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
Wonderful counsellor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixoeH-1SRJU
A Great light will shine out from from Galilee
The Prince of peace, offering a peace that’s free
Counsellor, wise turning me into we,
God the father of Isaac, Jacob and me.
Wonderful, Almighty, through all eternity.
Gods only Son for all the world to see.
S. Youdan
Micah, brought a message of judgment, he moves from consequences of disobedience to hope in God’s restoring power. (1:2; 3:1; 6:1).
Jesus is revealed in Micah Chapter 5:2 “You, O Bethlehem are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.” 700 years later St.Matthew writes, ( 2:1) Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod.
Long ago prophets knew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeLA1LhqFA4
Intrduction to the next song by the author Robin Mark
The Story Behind Days of Elijah
I have had quite a few people asking me for an explanation of the roots and meaning of the words and themes contained in "Days of Elijah" since I wrote the song way back in 1994.
The song is generally and principally a song of 'hope'. The themes it explores are to do with the fact that, although raised a Methodist, I attended a lot of Brethren or Gospel Hall meetings as a small boy and somehow the theology of Old Testament stories and characters being, either as themselves or by their actions, 'types' or 'examples' of Christ and the Church got stuck in my head. That is, even though they were historical factual people, living in the old covenant days, their actions and characters can be used to teach and represent the character of God under the new covenant and they continually and repeatedly point to Christ. People call this “Typology” or “Typical” analysis of the scriptures. Firstly the song came from watching a television "Review of the Year" at the end of 1994. This was the year of the Rwandan civil war tragedy which claimed 1 million people’s lives, and also when the first ceasefires in N.I. were declared. On this TV review were a lot of daft stories, happy stories, serious stories, and then absolutely devastating stories like the Rwandan situation. As I watched the review unfold I found myself despairing about the state of the world and, in prayer, began asking God if He was really in control and what sort of days were we living in.
I felt in my spirit that He replied to my prayer by saying that indeed He was very much in control and that the days we were living in were special times when He would require Christians to be filled with integrity and to stand up for Him just like Elijah did, particularly with the prophets of Baal. "These are 'Elijah' days". Elijah’s story is in the book of Kings and you can read how he felt isolated and alone in the culture in which he lived. But God told him to stand up and speak for Him.
We also needed to be a holy and just people and hence the reference to the "days of your servant Moses", meaning that righteousness and right living was important in all our attitudes and works. Now, we are under grace and not under law, but the righteousness that comes by faith can be no less than the moral law that Moses brought direct from God. It has not been superseded. In fact Jesus told us that our “righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees”, who were the most ardent followers of Gods laws as presented by Moses. Jesus was after righteous, servant hearts, of course, that desired to live holy lives for Him. "Days of great trial, of famine, darkness and sword" is a reflection of the apparent times in which we live when still thousands of people die every day from starvation, malnutrition and war. In the midst of it all we are called to make a declaration of what and who we believe in. The second verse refers to the restoration of unity of the body, what Jesus prayed for - "that they may be one even as I and the Father are one..." by reference to Ezekiel's prophetic vision of the valley of the dry bones becoming flesh and being knit together. There are lots of interpretations of this picture, but one of a united church rising up in unity and purpose, is a powerful call on us in these days. The restoration of praise and worship to the Church is represented by "the days of your servant David". Some folks use the term “Restoration Theology” to describe this restoring of attributes to the church. But in the song it’s mainly a picture of worship
Of course David didn't get to build the structural temple (that’s why the word in the song line is “rebuild”), that was left to Solomon his son, but David was used by God to introduce a revised form of worship, praise and thanksgiving into, firstly, his little tent which he pitched around the Ark of the covenant (the presence of God) and then the temple that Solomon his son built.
This worship, unlike the Mosaic Tabernacle, involved many people being able to come into Gods presence and worship him openly. (In Moses time only one man, the high priest, could enter the Holy of Holies, once a year. David’s tent was a picture of how Christ would enable us to come right into Gods presence, through his sacrifice, and worship openly there).
If you search carefully through the Book of Amos (chapter 9) you will find reference to this "Restoration of David's Tabernacle". In Acts this prophecy was used to explain, at the council of Jerusalem, why the “Gentiles” should be allowed to become Christians and worship their saviour without all the legal requirements of the Jewish law. It is also accepted among restoration theologians that this refers to restored Praise and Worship. The physical temple was "Solomon's", David’s “temple” was a little tent but you and I are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. It sounds complex, doesn’t it, but if you just understand that the line in the song refers to Praise and Worship before the presence of God just like David enjoyed, then that’s all there needs to be to it!
Finally the "days of the Harvest" point towards what is the purpose of the Christian to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. By the way “The fields are as white in the world” is from the old King James version and means, their ripe for harvest.
These are the themes of the verses - Declaration, Righteousness, Unity and Worship. I chose to express these thoughts by reference to the characters that represented these virtues in the Old Testament. It is in essence a song of hope for the Church and the world in times of great trial.
The chorus is the ultimate declaration of hope - Christ's return. It is paraphrased from the books of Revelation and Daniel and the vision that was seen of the coming King and refers to the return of Christ and the year of Jubilee. Theologians and Bible commentators believe that Israel never properly celebrated this particular 50th year jubilee, and that it will only be properly celebrated when Christ returns. That might be true but I reckon that a Jubilee is an apt description of what happens when Christ comes into anyone’s life at any time; debts are cancelled and a captive is set free. These thoughts were in my head when I came to church early one Sunday in 1995. We have two services and the Pastor spoke during the first service on the "valley of dry bones" from Ezekiel. I took a prompt from this and, in the 30 minutes between the services, wrote down the words and chords in the kitchen of our church building and we sang it, as a body, at the end of the second service. How do you express the sense that these might be days, not of failure and submission, but of the sort of resilient, declaring, even arrogant trust and hope that Elijah had in his God? That these are not days of God stepping back and allowing the world and the church to roll uncontrolled towards eternity, but rather days when he is calling on his body to make a stand, to offer right praises and to declare that He is totally in control. Well, I reckon you may write the words "These are the days of Elijah" and "These are the days of David". I've used word pictures and Biblical characters to make that expression, but this is no different from many of the great hymn writers and even David himself. I presented the song to the church that day with a short word of explanation, and we sang it as our worship. Now the rest, I suppose, is history. There is no mechanism (conspiracy theorists take note!) within the church for making people sing a particular song, or for increasing it's use in the national or international church body. As far as I was concerned the song was for our congregation, on that day and at that time. God obviously had other ideas and it is now sung almost world-wide. Grammatically, there may even be the odd aberration, but thankfully the church has forgiven me that particular shortcoming. I must make it clear that I did not set out to write an overly complex or "secret" song, and I hope the testimony above bears that out.
Days of Elijah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca9LnzJnpjQ
Prayer
Lord it is hard to understand the scripture open the eyes of my heart and iluminate the written word that the words of the prophets will rest on me that I will gain understanding of what you would have me do for you this Advent tide. May I bring peace to those around me. May I give thanks for the Joy I feel when all has gone well. Strengthen my faith when I feel week, keep me focused on the real meaning of Christmas.
Lord you gave voice through the prophets that your people may take heed and turn from sinning.
Keep me from sinning and open my heart to the needs of others. And through my actions may you be seen. Lord thank you for the prophets of today, may they speak your words guide them that your will be done. As prophets of old foretold the coming of the Messiah, the holy one. Today I watch and pray, May your love spread through out the world Bringing peace joy and hope. Amen
Christmas message of faith.
A few months before my husband and I had even met I thought that we would remain single . I was working nights which meant that I slept most of the days even though I had prayed about meeting Mr Right. It seemed it was not to be. But this particular night I had an usual dream, a piece of music kept waking me up. It was the Harmonious Blacksmith by Handel. If you do not know it I will put a link to it so you can hear it at the end.
A black smith uses an anvil to hammer and shape hot metal.
This tune would not leave me alone even while I was working I found myself humming it. The next day was my day off and I went to my parents house to see them. Dad told me a letter was on the stairs, it had come the day before.
This letter was from a dating agency called Anvil. I was so surprised that I opened it and duly sent my details off.
My Husband to be had just left work and he to had applied to the same agency. A few weeks later Jonathan’s father rang him to say that he had a present for him from his uncle Eric So that weekend he happened to be near to his dad’s so he popped home. His Dad said I have a wedding present for you. His uncle Eric had bought the three identical gifts at the same time knowing he had three nephews, two of the brothers had had their’s on their wedding days and Uncle Eric had got fed up waiting to see if Jonathan would wed so he sent the gift to him.
After Jonathan and I had been seeing esch other for four month Jonathan proposed. Then later, He rang his Uncle and said to him “You must be some kind of prophet” his uncle knew exactly what he meant and the conversation went on for some time.
When God uses us to do his will we sometimes do not know it. Like Uncle Eric. Some times God calls us to do or say something that we do not want to do but it lays so heavy we have to obey.
Trust God he will never ever be wrong He will never ask you to do something that you are not capable of doing. Micah, the last old testament prophet’s words were not easy to here then and even now but Jesus came to reconcile us to God and to call Him Father.
My father’s lasts words to us both on our wedding day, when he did his talk after marrying us (my late father was a methodist minister), “You have trusted God so far Trust Him with the rest of your lives.
I will always carry that with me. So friends you have trusted God so far. Trust him with the rest of your lives, God bless Susannah
An advent song to listen to
All ye nations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4sBgol0uAo
Every blessing Susannah
George Frideric Handel's Air and Variations, nicknamed "The Harmonious Blacksmith".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mza-xqk770k
