Tag: Advent thoughts

advent, Bible, Christian faith, Christian Writer, Jesus, Names of Christ, The Word of God

JESUS, IMMANUEL – ADVENT THOUGHTS (3)

joymargetts

One of my absolute favourite descriptions of Jesus, is Immanuel, God with Us. This advent it is good to know that even in the busyness, He is right with us. And when we feel alone or overwhelmed, Jesus is still our Immanuel.

God With Us

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son,

and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

Matthew 1:23

In Matthew 1:18 -21 we are told the story of Joseph, and his dream encounter with an angel of the Lord. Joseph is told that He should not be afraid to take Mary as his wife, as the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Then in the following verses Matthew adds a quote from Isaiah (Matthew 1:22-23). Jesus’ birth is going to fulfil another messianic prophecy. He will be called ‘Immanuel’ which means ‘God with us’ (Isaiah 7:14). It wasn’t to be His actual name, rather an expression of what His coming meant.

A God Who Understands

God Himself, in the person of His Son, descended into humanity so that He could live among us. We can put from our minds all thoughts of a distant, uninterested God. Jesus was born into poverty, hardship, shame, fear and uncertainty, under Roman oppression. He chose to experience these things, as well as injustice, hatred, misunderstanding, loneliness, physical torture and death. Jesus suffered these willingly, for our salvation, but also so that He could fully understand our pain and suffering (Hebrews 4:15).

He truly made Himself God with man, and this is our comfort. There is nothing that we can face that He has not experienced Himself. We can never believe that He does not care, because He truly knows how we feel. He also had no problem identifying with the undesirables – from the shepherds, to tax collectors and prostitutes. He came to be with those who needed Him most, God ‘with’ every person, whatever their status.

Our Battle Cry

But ‘Immanuel’ occurs elsewhere in Isaiah, in chapter 8 and verses 8 and 10. Here it is not a name but a cry of trust, from a nation facing humiliation and defeat; it is a yell, ‘God is With Us!’. Immanuel is our comfort but can also be our battle cry.

Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing;
Speak the word, but it will not stand,
For God is with us (Immanuel).           Isaiah 8:10

Whatever we face, He, our Immanuel, is truly with us. ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ is His promise (Hebrews 13:5). We too can cry ‘God is with us’! Our protector and defender stands victorious in heaven, but also lives within us by His Spirit. We never have to face anything without Him.

~~~~~~~

Ask Yourself: Does it comfort me that Jesus suffered as a human being, or do I find it hard to accept that He understands what I am going through?

Ask God: Show me Jesus, how and when to use ‘Immanuel’ as my battle cry.

Pray: Thank You Jesus that You are Immanuel, God With Us, in every sense of the word. You made Yourself as one of us in coming to live on earth. You are with me still, living within me by Your Spirit. Thank You that You promised to never leave me to face difficulties alone. I can stand in the face of hardship, knowing that the Victorious One stands with me. Almighty God is on my side, He is with me.

Help me to take comfort from the fact that You know what it means to suffer and that You truly care and understand. Help me to trust You to fight for me and with me.

Amen

Further Reading: Matthew 1:18-25

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Christ Illuminated: Seeing Jesus for who He is, an Advent Devotional

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advent, Bible, Christian Writer, christmas, Jesus, Names of Christ, The Word of God

ADVENT 14 : JESUS – LAMB OF GOD

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LAMB OF GOD

This is how John the Baptist announced Jesus in John 1:29, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ The next day he declared the same, and two of his disciples immediately left him to follow Jesus. John could have said, ‘behold the Messiah’, or ‘behold the Son of God’, but he didn’t make it that obvious. We can’t know for sure, but I wonder if those two disciples understood the description? Something made them follow after Jesus.

Text of John 1 v29 on a white background, surrounded by pine branches and tree decorations

WITHOUT BLEMISH

For them ‘lamb’ signified sacrifice, they had grown up under a covenant where lambs were routinely offered as sacrifices for the atonement of sin, as laid down in Levitical law. John was describing Jesus as a sacrifice for the whole world’s sin. They would also know of the importance of the ‘lamb without blemish’. Before even the law of sacrifices was established, God had told His people to take and kill a lamb without blemish and paint its blood on the doorposts of their homes, to protect themselves from the Angel of death, at the first Passover ( Exodus 12:3-5 ). The blood of the lamb was their protection and salvation.

photo of a new born lamb lying on a pile of grass with the words 'Lamb of God' above.

ETERNALLY WORSHIPPED

Jesus offered His blood as the price for our redemption, ‘as a lamb without blemish and spot’ (1Peter 1:18-19). He that ‘knew no sin’ (2 Corinthians 5 : 21) sacrificed Himself to make atonement for our sins. His blood was spilt and stained on the uprights and crossbeam of a wooden cross, so that the punishment of death would pass over us. We don’t see this description of Jesus anywhere else in the Gospels, but it is an eternal theme.  In Heaven that is how Jesus appears – as a Lamb that had been slain (Revelation 5 : 6), and it is as the Lamb of God that He is eternally worshipped: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honour, and glory and blessing’! (Revelation 5 :12)

Let’s worship along with heaven today!

Text of Revelation 5 v 12 on a white background, surrounded by pine branches and tree decorations

Image of front cover of the book the Pilgrim

 Here all was simplicity, and as the service progressed, so the simplicity of worship also became evident. There were no written words of liturgy, no formality, no separate area for monks and lay people, male or female, as Hywel was used to. All came together with one purpose, to praise their Creator together. The priest began to recite, and the words were from a psalm. The people in the congregation added their voices. They knew these words by heart, and they were spoken with conviction. One by one voices began to sing along with the responses, until there sounded the most beautiful of symphonies, voices coming together in sweet harmonies, rising and falling together. Their worship filled the space, until it felt as if heaven itself had leant a choir of angels to the realm of humans.

Hywel looked about him in wonder. All around him faces were lifted in adoration, bathed in peace and joy. Some knelt and spread their hands in devotion. One or two lay prostrate on the floor. It was a deeply moving experience and Hywel wished for it not to end. Could it be that God Himself had presenced Himself there, as a response to their praise, as He had in Solomon’s great Temple?[1] Hywel found himself on his knees, overcome by the heavy sense of the Holy in that simple place, among those simple people. He could not even pray, but where he knelt he was aware of tears coursing down his cheeks and falling to the cool stone floor beneath him.

THE PILGRIM p 214

Joy Margetts is a published author and blogger. Her books are works of Christian Historical fiction. Set in medieval Wales against the backdrop of Cistercian abbey life, they tell stories of faith, hope and God’s redemptive power. Her debut novel ‘The Healing‘ was published by Instant Apostle on 19 March 2021. Joy has also self- published a short novella, ‘The Beloved‘ as both a companion to ‘The Healing‘, and as an easy to read standalone story, which is available to buy on Amazon Kindle.

‘The Pilgrim‘, her second full length novel, was published by Instant Apostle on 22 July 2022

More information on Joy, and her books can be found here www.joymargetts.com

[1] See 2 Chronicles 5:13-14.

advent, Christian Writer, christmas, Faith, Thankfulness, The Word of God

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT?

joymargetts

A few years ago, around this time of year, I would be waiting for my son to arrive home from University, and getting very excited. We would be very much looking forward to seeing him. And hugging him, and feeding him, and even doing his washing! But he was at a university three hours away, had his own car, and would be driving himself home.

WORRYING THOUGHTS

Now I have to admit I could very easily have allowed myself to worry about that. The thoughts coming into my head might have gone something like this. The roads are going to busy. He won’t have slept much in the last few days,. Will he be careful and keep his concentration? He hasn’t driven a long way for a couple of months. The car isn’t particularly reliable; he won’t have checked the oil, water or tyres. He’ll drive too fast… I have to admit those were all thoughts that warred for attention in this poor mother’s mind.

If I had allowed those thoughts to settle and dwelt on them, then very quickly the excitement, anticipation and joy that I was feeling about welcoming my son home, would have been overshadowed with fear and anxiety. My wait would have been spoilt.

CHOOSE OUR THOUGHTS

We actually have a choice to decide what thoughts we meditate on and which we choose not to. This is a very important principle for every day of our lives but is especially important when we are waiting for God to fulfil His promises. That waiting period can be hard and there might be many valid negative thoughts we can allow to fill our minds. Does God really care? Will He keep His promises? What if He doesn’t? How much longer must I wait? Does He hear my prayers?

Phil 4 v 8 tells us to fill our minds with much more positive and life giving thoughts.

So, rather than let fearful and anxious thoughts dominate our thinking  we can choose instead to keep our minds busy with thinking about good, lovely, positive things. Reading scripture, listening to worship music, talking to an encouraging friend, can all help us re-align our thoughts when we feel overwhelmed by negativity.

THINK ON GOOD THINGS

My son has long flown the nest, but he still comes home for Christmas, and I will probably still be tempted to worry about him driving over. But I hope that my thoughts about his homecoming will be much more along the lines of how amazing it will be to see him, how we will enjoy his company over Christmas, and the fun we will all have together. And perhaps most importantly, my thoughts will dwell on how good God continues to be to us, and just how much He loves and cares for us all. My son included

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Joy Margetts is new to blogging, and new to being published. Her debut novel ‘The Healing‘ was published by Instant Apostle on 19 March 2021. A work of historic fiction, set in medieval Wales against the backdrop of Cistercian abbey life, it is also a story of faith, hope and God’s redemptive power. Joy has also self- published a short novella, ‘The Beloved‘ as both a companion to ‘The Healing‘, and as an easy to read standalone story, which is available to buy on Amazon Kindle.

‘The Pilgrim‘, her second full length novel, will be published by Instant Apostle in July 2022

More information on Joy and her writing, and links to purchase her books can be found here www.joymargetts.com