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Weekly Devotional

December 7, 2009

This week at SOG:

• Monday:  Women’s Fellowship 7:00

• Wednesday:  No Bible Study, Advent supper and service (6:15 and 7:00)

• Thursday:  Council 7:00

• Saturday:  Advent Dinner 5:30

God’s Peace be with you all.

Revelation 9:1  And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit;

Revelation 22:16-17  ¹⁶ "It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."  ¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let everyone who hears say, "Come." And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. 

Revelation 22:20-21   The one who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!  ²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.

            Advent is the season in which Christians tend to look at the Old Testament in relation to the things that happened in the New Testament.  Lots of our New Testament readings as well as our Gospel lessons will quote from the prophets of the Old Testament.  Yesterday was another example of this, as Luke quoted from Isaiah on multiple occasions.  As Christians, it is easy for us to look back and say “Yes, that scripture was talking about Jesus.”  But often times as we put the text into context, the water becomes a little more muddy.  The text could have been talking about Jesus, or it could not have been, based on the situations that were happening when the text was written.

            The book of Revelation is filled with prophecies for Christians.  Furthermore, it was written in a slightly different manner than some of the Old Testament prophecies.  As we read through Revelation, there is no question about whom it is written.  There are several occasions where the book talks about the morning star, and then as you can see from the above verses, the morning star is Jesus.

            But out of the above verses comes another interesting tie-in to the Old Testament.  Jesus says “I am the root and the descendant of David.”  Jesus is the beginning and the end of this lineage that will rule as King forever.  Yesterday in Sunday School we talked about how God makes a covenant and God fulfills a covenant.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with David, that a descendant of his house would be king forever.  Our passages from Revelation remind us of the one covenant that has yet to be fulfilled, which is that Jesus will return.   And so for this Advent season we once again here and heed the words of the prophet Isaiah:  “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  The Lord is coming, let us prepare for him as best we can.

In our prayers this week:

Doris, Mary Netta, Ann, Joseph, Lisa, Kim, Robert, Evelyn, Gail H., Catherine, and Carol

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson