Advent Week One

This is from the guest blogger and my friend, Trudi Parker, who will be sharing the Advent message for the next few weeks. Thanks, Trudi!

^{November 28, 2021, Sunday, Week 1, Day 1}

^{First Lavender Candle}

^{Hope: Preparation / Prophecy}

^{The Athenian historian and general,}^Thucydides^{(460-400 BC) describes hope as “danger’s comforter.” In modern military and intelligence vernacular the text translates as hope is not a course of action. While this may be true, hope is often all one has in times of despair. The lesson is as old as dirt: Be prepared.}

^Hope^{is further defined by Webster as “trust, reliance, to leap up in expectation to want and expect, to want very much, to have hope, to trust, or rely, to continue having hope though it seems baseless.”}

^{One thing sure, my crusty heart leapt when I discovered this year both :}^Advent^and^Hanukkah^{(the Festival of Lights) will begin the same day: November 28, 2021! The Hebrew/Jewish calendar is different from our Gregorian calendar. For such time as this for both Jew and Gentile to bow our heads and raise our heart’s glass to celebrate our coming Messiah’s birth, the shadow of the cross looming over the cradle, death overcome and His promised return. The word advent originates from the Latin term adventus: coming or arrival and was originally and primarily meant to be a season of prayer and self-reflection.}

^{Candidly speaking, trust for me has not been easy except to say that our trust muscle needs to be exercised often along with use of discernment. How about your heart? How are you preparing for the close of 2021? Are you preferring the season would just pass by? Are you dreading the potential of it all? What is your struggle? (We all have one or more). What may be stopping you: more credit card debt, the sugars, and/or the family gathering? I encourage you: stop, be silent and let the Holy Spirit lead as we seek His face (and not only His hand) together in faith.}

^{Join me in Adventures in Advent with a wreath of evergreens and five candles: three lavender, one pink and one white. Each day this week, light only one candle, the same candle the Preparation / Prophecy candle, then add a candle weekly. I believe the result will bring spiritual meaning and beauty to the celestial season.}

^{Listen to the music provided (or your own) to prepare Him room}^{(a four string quartet),}^{breathe and make the time to read the living word each day. At the heart of all gifts is the treasure of His love poured out into our open emptied readied hearts.}

^{Below are the links for today and this weeks’ read.}

Sunday: Isaiah 9:2,6,7: 11:1-6, 10 Ephesians 2:8-9

Monday: Genesis 1

Tuesday: Ephesians 2:10, 19-22 One Solitary Life

Wednesday: Romans 1:8-12

Thursday: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 13

Friday: Psalm 38:18; James 5:16

Saturday: Psalm 67:4

Advent resource: Max Lucado’s “Because of Bethlehem” begins December 3, 2021.

Trudi Parker lives in Southern California with her husband and four cats. Her somewhat static “time capsule” website is Trudistreasures.com