Celebrating Advent

Advent is the season in the church that we celebrate the birth of Jesus who is heaven’s gift of salvation to the earth and God’s gift of love to humanity.

Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us’. Matthew 1:23

God could have chosen many ways to save his creation from self-destruction. He could have harnessed the power of the universe and spoken His Word as he did in the original creation. But He didn't. God remained true to his original design of working through humanity.  And this meant saving his creation by sending His Word. 

So the Word became human and made his home among us. John 1:14

He chose to be with us by taking on flesh and literally becoming one with humanity.  In that, he surprises us again. Not coming strong and 'in control', ready to whip creation back into shape. He chose to come small, vulnerable and completely dependent on human parents to care for him and to meet his needs. He was born into a natural family with a mom and dad, neighbors, cousins. He was also born into a kingdom family and followed a long line of heroic (and messy) men and women of the faith who had prepared the way for Him. Jesus was born into God's love story for humanity.

For Advent this year we’ll be looking at the coming of Jesus through both his genealogical ancestry and his faith heritage. As we witness both the 'God withness' and the 'humanness' of these who are part of our story too - may we grow in the grace of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love - knowing we're cut from the same cloth and we too have an important  role in his love story. 

For the messages, we’ll be utilizing a portion of a devotional written by Dan Wilt. If you’d like to dive deeper, we highly recommend purchasing the e-book for yourself. It includes simple daily readings that explores the lives of the people listed in the genealogy of Jesus as written in Matthew 1:1-17.

It’s a wonderful prayer tool to spend time with the God who loves you and has come to be with you.

Order Now – ROOTS, Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt