What if God were coming to Visit?!
I was quite disappointed to find that my advent devotion book ended yesterday. there was no devotion for today, so i reread the first one. it talked about advent being a time that christians prepare their hearts and minds for the second coming of christ while remembering his first coming. What follows is the path God took me down this Christmas morning...
What if God were coming to visit on Christmas Day? What if you knew that He would be incarnated in the grown man Jesus and knock on your door Christmas Day? How would you spent the weeks of preparation in December? (humor my somewhat blasphemous train of thought). I thought on this this morning and realized a few things:
1. I would be concentrating on preparing my heart and mind. I would spend so much time in prayer and reading His word. I'd want to be saturated with it so I'd have something to talk to him about and so I'd understand better...I'd realize knowing God was the most important thing in the world, and I'd want to know Him the most I could before He showed up at the door.
2. In terms of my home, I'd let it be modest and clean. I'd want to remove anything that would embarass me- lavish expensive purses, R rated or PG13 rated movies, anything that I knew wasn't above reproach. I'd want it to be clean because I'd want to demonstrate care for what God has given me and respect for it, but I'd not spend obsessive amounts of time trying to clean for my own happiness. I don't have time to be OCD with an idolatry of cleanliness and perfection. I'd want to have a comfortable place for Jesus to sit and recline and food for him to eat, but perhaps not the most expensive b/c He isn't concerned with name brand so much as with usefulness and the thing getting the job done.
3. In terms of my money, I'd not be spending it on the most expensive and the most amount of gifts for Him. What can I get for God anyway? He's God! He has it all already. I'd spend my money on things for others, but not on buying them things for the sake of giving them a certain number of gifts or for the sake of needing to get a gift for a person. I wouldn't buy things outside my means like blueray players or ipods. I'd buy practical needs if and only if the Holy Spirit led me to it. My gifts would be sometimes in the form of the gift I gave to the man yesterday during the divine qtip appointment. Or perhaps it would be in the form of a new believers teen devotion for the new Christian, Tiffany. Maybe a gift would be in the form of spending time with and loving the person who is lonely and loves me but is so hard to love.
4. I'd want to meet Jesus at the door and fall at His feet and tell Him that I surrender my whole life to Him, and I'd want my actions of the past month to demonstrate that in terms of how I spent my time and money and resources. I'd not want Jesus to say 'but you saw this man and didn't help him.' I'd also not want Jesus to say, 'you just lavishly spent your money trying to do good that I didn't lead you to do simply b/c it made you feel good about yourself or you were trying to impress me.' (i'm pretty sure not doing and overdoing are equally sins). I'd want to have done just what He would have had me to do, which would probably have been a modest, decent amount of loving and serving others.
But that's just it: I don't know when Jesus will show up, and I don't enough think about His second coming, so I don't live my life with the intensity of preparing for Him. But Mark 13 tells us that we don't know when He'll come although He most certainly will...and that we should be prepared. So pretty much, everyday is Christmas? Yes, yes it is. Christ is coming sometime, and I will meet Him and speak with Him. If I knew it was a certain day, I'd spend the time only right before that day to prepare, like if I knew it was Christmas, I'd prepare in December. Since I don't know, I should really spend each day preparing. Plus, if I REALLY loved Him, I'd want to do that anyway and not put off preparations till the last minute.
So I'm starting a new Advent season. I guess the regular one is supposed to end today, but Megin's Advent is beginning again. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, so I guess I'll just be intentional about it 21 days at first though hopefully it will make such a difference, it will transform my life and I can continue to live every day in preparation for Jesus' return. So here it is: the new Advent...as I intentionally think about preparing my heart and mind and life for Jesus. I WANT to give Him my all, but that means I must think about it and be intentional in setting aside the time I think about selfishness, the new fossil bag I want, making sure everyone in my family has the equal amount of gifts from me and thinks I'm a great person, etc. Jesus, help me. I'm going to try to prepare myself to meet you, but I can't do it unless you in your mercy grant me the wisdom and strength to do so. Holy Spirit guide me.
Merry Christmas everyone. Our Savior has come to earth once for all time. God incarnate. He will come again and take us with Him. I pray that today you will think about our Lord and Savior more than just when you pray before meals or read the Christmas story in Luke. I pray I will too.
And Cambodia team: I am praying specially for you and for the Cambodians today. Thank you for serving our Lord. I pray His blessings travel with you at every step you take.
Peace of Christ and glory to Him forever-
MeginLea
What if God were coming to visit on Christmas Day? What if you knew that He would be incarnated in the grown man Jesus and knock on your door Christmas Day? How would you spent the weeks of preparation in December? (humor my somewhat blasphemous train of thought). I thought on this this morning and realized a few things:
1. I would be concentrating on preparing my heart and mind. I would spend so much time in prayer and reading His word. I'd want to be saturated with it so I'd have something to talk to him about and so I'd understand better...I'd realize knowing God was the most important thing in the world, and I'd want to know Him the most I could before He showed up at the door.
2. In terms of my home, I'd let it be modest and clean. I'd want to remove anything that would embarass me- lavish expensive purses, R rated or PG13 rated movies, anything that I knew wasn't above reproach. I'd want it to be clean because I'd want to demonstrate care for what God has given me and respect for it, but I'd not spend obsessive amounts of time trying to clean for my own happiness. I don't have time to be OCD with an idolatry of cleanliness and perfection. I'd want to have a comfortable place for Jesus to sit and recline and food for him to eat, but perhaps not the most expensive b/c He isn't concerned with name brand so much as with usefulness and the thing getting the job done.
3. In terms of my money, I'd not be spending it on the most expensive and the most amount of gifts for Him. What can I get for God anyway? He's God! He has it all already. I'd spend my money on things for others, but not on buying them things for the sake of giving them a certain number of gifts or for the sake of needing to get a gift for a person. I wouldn't buy things outside my means like blueray players or ipods. I'd buy practical needs if and only if the Holy Spirit led me to it. My gifts would be sometimes in the form of the gift I gave to the man yesterday during the divine qtip appointment. Or perhaps it would be in the form of a new believers teen devotion for the new Christian, Tiffany. Maybe a gift would be in the form of spending time with and loving the person who is lonely and loves me but is so hard to love.
4. I'd want to meet Jesus at the door and fall at His feet and tell Him that I surrender my whole life to Him, and I'd want my actions of the past month to demonstrate that in terms of how I spent my time and money and resources. I'd not want Jesus to say 'but you saw this man and didn't help him.' I'd also not want Jesus to say, 'you just lavishly spent your money trying to do good that I didn't lead you to do simply b/c it made you feel good about yourself or you were trying to impress me.' (i'm pretty sure not doing and overdoing are equally sins). I'd want to have done just what He would have had me to do, which would probably have been a modest, decent amount of loving and serving others.
But that's just it: I don't know when Jesus will show up, and I don't enough think about His second coming, so I don't live my life with the intensity of preparing for Him. But Mark 13 tells us that we don't know when He'll come although He most certainly will...and that we should be prepared. So pretty much, everyday is Christmas? Yes, yes it is. Christ is coming sometime, and I will meet Him and speak with Him. If I knew it was a certain day, I'd spend the time only right before that day to prepare, like if I knew it was Christmas, I'd prepare in December. Since I don't know, I should really spend each day preparing. Plus, if I REALLY loved Him, I'd want to do that anyway and not put off preparations till the last minute.
So I'm starting a new Advent season. I guess the regular one is supposed to end today, but Megin's Advent is beginning again. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, so I guess I'll just be intentional about it 21 days at first though hopefully it will make such a difference, it will transform my life and I can continue to live every day in preparation for Jesus' return. So here it is: the new Advent...as I intentionally think about preparing my heart and mind and life for Jesus. I WANT to give Him my all, but that means I must think about it and be intentional in setting aside the time I think about selfishness, the new fossil bag I want, making sure everyone in my family has the equal amount of gifts from me and thinks I'm a great person, etc. Jesus, help me. I'm going to try to prepare myself to meet you, but I can't do it unless you in your mercy grant me the wisdom and strength to do so. Holy Spirit guide me.
Merry Christmas everyone. Our Savior has come to earth once for all time. God incarnate. He will come again and take us with Him. I pray that today you will think about our Lord and Savior more than just when you pray before meals or read the Christmas story in Luke. I pray I will too.
And Cambodia team: I am praying specially for you and for the Cambodians today. Thank you for serving our Lord. I pray His blessings travel with you at every step you take.
Peace of Christ and glory to Him forever-
MeginLea
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