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Walk In Hope
the mountain of the LORD’s house will be established at the top of the mountains
and will be raised above the hills.
All nations will stream to it,
and many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about his ways
so that we may walk in his paths.”
He will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plows
and their spears into pruning knives. Nation will not take up the sword against nation, and they will never again train for war. House of Jacob,
come and let’s walk in the LORD’s light.
In preparing for Christmas, we look back and celebrate the hope we have in Jesus, who provided the way for us, humans trapped in sin, to have forgiveness and peace with God. While still living in this broken world, we wait expectantly for our hope to come, for our struggle with the schemes of the devil to be over, for the day when weapons of destruction and division are forever transformed into garden tools to cultivate peace, growth, partnership, and goodness. In the meantime, we are to live as people of hope, walking in the LORD’s light. As we walk, or run, we are to lay aside whatever hinders us from being children of light.
It has been a challenging year. Have you spent time praying about what sins or strongholds you may be carrying into this season? Take a moment to consider:
What feels heavy in my life?
What are my biggest challenges right now?
What consumes my thoughts?
What am I grieving?
What am I most anxious about?
What am I most afraid of?
Where am I feeling pressure to perform?
Release these things to God. Place your trust in our Eternal Hope.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you. Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world. The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while. To him be dominion forever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:6-11)
You are not alone in your struggle. You are part of a global Church, a royal priesthood. God calls you His own. One day, together with all nations, we will be fully reunited with our Creator in a new heaven and a new earth where will be eternally restored, established, strengthened, and supported. The tension will forever release and we will forever dwell in God’s perfect Kingdom. As we prepare our homes for Christmas, may we not neglect preparing our hearts to worship the coming King today and forever.
Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 5:5; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 21:1
Journey In Hope
where the tribes, the LORD’s tribes, go up to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
Climb In Hope
have seen a great light;
a light has dawned
on those living in the land of darkness. For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
The dominion will be vast,
and its prosperity will never end.
He will reign on the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it
with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of Armies will accomplish this.
How Are You Coping?
I went down a Google-rabbit-hole this week, searching how our bodies respond to stress. It is amazing! God made our bodies to be able to handle stress internally, but how you are coping with the stress of this year externally? I believe one way the Enemy has been spreading darkness in our world this year is by leading Christ-followers to escape their emotions and feelings of stress by numbing out—by selling us the lie that we just need to get by. When we believe this lie, we adopt habits of complacency. Our coping strategies will either help form us into Christlikeness (Gal. 4:19) or deform us, away from Christlikeness.
In his book, For The Love Of God, D.A. Carson writes, “People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”
How are you coping with the uncomfortable emotions and stress of this year? Your children are watching you and are learning from you. “Today is the proving ground of what [you] believe and of whom [you] worship.” (Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary) As the apostle Peter reminded the early churches, “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” (2 Peter 1:3)
God made us with the hormones we need to handle stress internally and is ready to daily give us the grace we need to handle the stress of life externally. When your emotions hit a peak, to whom or what do to turn?
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Herrnhut Today (Photo by StefFleiPhotography)
293 years ago today, on August 13, 1727, Moravian Christians in Herrnhut (in modern-day Germany) experienced the power of God, through the Holy Spirit, in a new way during their church service. Before this day, this small church of refugees was divided and argued about much. This encounter with God, however, unified them and launched a non-stop prayer meeting that lasted more than 100 years. You read that right: praying for 24-hours a day, 7 days a week for over 100 years. About 5 years later, this church began to send out missionaries around the world to spread the story of Jesus.

P.C.G. Reuter, “That Quarter of the World,” closeup of map showing Herrnhut (“HHuth”) near Berlin
Source: Herrnhut diary, quoted in Hans-Christoph Hahn and Hellmut Reichel, eds., Zinzendorf und die Herrnhuter Brüder: Quellen zur Geschichte der Brüder-Unität von 1722 bis 1760 (Hamburg 1977), 106-108.
This Week’s Worship Playlist
Mochi People of Pakistan
