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Why Advent?

What is advent? The dictionary defines advent as: the arrival of a notable person, thing or event. 


We use advent to describe the time leading up to Christmas where we celebrate and remember the coming of Jesus to earth. The coming of Jesus was so significant that the calendar changed. His birth separated the literal time on earth; time is defined as this history happened before Jesus was born, BC and after the coming of the Lord, AD. AD is Latin for anno domini, which means “the year of our Lord.” 


When reading through the old testament, God calls his people to Remember. He set up calendars to have festivals and feasts so that they would take time to remember what He did for his people. Interestingly, just before the Passover happened, God gave instructions for how to celebrate it. 


You remember the Passover: it was God’s last judgement on Egypt when Pharaoh wouldn’t let the Israelites go. God had performed miracle after miracle to show He wanted Pharaoh to let his people go from Egypt where they were in slavery to go into the desert, led by Moses. Finally God told Pharaoh, through Moses, that He was asking all his people to kill a lamb, put the blood on the doorpost and those that did that would be spared when the angel of death came through Egypt that night. The angel would pass over the homes that had blood on the door posts. So the day before it happened God said- start the calendar over, this is a new day of a new month of a new year of a whole new calendar. And from now on I want you to remember what I’m about to do. This is how you will celebrate…(that’s another lesson). God was telling them I want you to celebrate every year because I don’t want you to forget to tell your children. And then they will know to tell their children. 


Now in New Testament life, we have the Holy Spirit to remind us. Jeremiah speaks of the days we are in now in Jeremiah 31:31-25. Here is that passage in bits and pieces: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant…. Not like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt…. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people…”


So now we do not have all the festivals and things that God called the Israelites to hold because by the Holy Spirit, God is writing His word on our hearts. But as the Christian church we still make a point to remember the birth of Christ and the death and resurrection of Christ. 


My heart has always been that we know and remember and celebrate Jesus at Christmas. Four years ago we looked at 25 names of Jesus and I thought we should visit them again. 


Happy Advent! Name #1 tomorrow….


May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

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