Archive for the ‘Advent’ Tag
“Advent in a World of Suffering: Hope in the Final Coming of Christ!”
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Advent does not ask us to pretend the world isn’t aching. It does not demand that grief be hidden beneath Christmas lights, or that broken relationships suddenly feel whole because the calendar has turned to December. In fact, doesn’t December often feel harder, more hectic, more strained, more overwhelming than we expected?
Advent is given to turn our tired eyes back to Jesus Christ, to anchor our hope not in circumstances but in the certainty of His glorious coming again.
For all who sit in the tension of already but not yet, Advent whispers that Christ has come, Christ comes to us now, and Christ will come again in splendor.
It is the Father-Son-Holy Spirit-God’s word to the tired church, the grieving widow, the waiting intercessor, the one watching a loved one slip toward death, the member sitting in the sanctuary with silent pain behind the smile.
Advent is not the denial of sorrow; it is the defiant declaration that sorrow does not get the final word. It is the season where the Church lifts her eyes through tears and whispers Come, Lord Jesus. It is where we remember that Christ has already come, Christ comes to us now by His Spirit, and Christ will come again in glory. Advent reminds us that the manger was only the beginning, and the Cross was the victory; but the second Advent is the trumpet of victory, the unveiling of glory. This needs to be our focus.
Salvation is already accomplished, yet not fully consummated. We are redeemed, yet still being sanctified. Christ reigns, yet the world still groans beneath death and decay. And so we wait, not with wishful thinking, but with Christ’s promise.
John Calvin directs our longing upwards: “We must hunger after Christ until the dawning of that great day when our Lord will fully manifest the glory of His kingdom.” Institutes III.25.1
Hunger grows strongest in seasons of ache, when our solutions fail, when prayers seem unanswered, when reconciliation never arrives, when hope feels thin. Yet, Advent proclaims that what we long for is coming. Not possibly. Not faintly. SURELY. Because Christ is not merely the child wrapped in straw anymore. He is The King who will return in glory.
John Calvin also comforts the suffering believer: “The Lord himself, by adversity, trains us to patience and obedience.” Institutes III.8.1
We can still hope, knowing that suffering with Christ is never meaningless. It sanctifies. It loosens our grip on this passing age we live in and anchors us to the world to come. The world where God Himself will wipe every tear from our eyes and death will be no more. (Revelation 21:4). And even now, Scripture reminds us that “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord… they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them” (Revelation 14:13 NIV). In Christ, pain is never wasted; it becomes seed for glory.
John Calvin continues: “Our present life is indeed a fleeting pilgrimage, but we are sustained by the hope of eternal life.” Institutes III.9.5
Hope is not fragile. It is rooted in Christ.
Martin Luther, writing in the shadow of plague and death, declared: “Even in the midst of death, we Christians have a sure and certain hope.” Sermon on Preparing to Die (1519)
This is Advent. Not sentiment, but substance.
Not shallow cheer, but the hope that defies the grave.
Not escape, but expectation.
Not rushing past pain, but waiting for the One who will end it.
Scripture tells us: “We wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13 (CSB) Blessed hope. Not a feeling but a promise. Not a mood but a return.
So, as we light the candles of Hope, Love, Joy, Peace, we are not just decorating tradition.
We are training our eyes for dawn while it is still dark.
We are forming hearts that know how to wait well.
We are teaching our souls to look to Christ Himself, not merely to relief.
Advent is for those who limp, not those who float. For disciples who fail and rise again. For churches who bury saints on Saturday and worship again on Sunday. For the weak, the wounded, the worn out. For us.
Christ has come. Christ comes to us now. Christ will come again. And when He comes, every tear will dry, every grave will surrender, every sorrow will be healed, every saint will stand in glory. Until then, we wait, hands lifted rather than empty. Not with fading hope, but with blessed hope. Not with denial of pain, but with faith in the One who will end it.
Come, Lord Jesus, COME. Our hope is in YOU ALONE. We are waiting, and with YOU we will not give up.
“Know The God Who Is Here And Is Coming!”
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Part A:
Part B:
Full Message:
Scripture: Revelation 4
Summary:
This first Sunday of Advent invites us to awaken from spiritual sleep and lift our eyes to the God who is both here and is coming. In This powerful sermon, Pastor Tim reminded us that time is not a dull, repetitive cycle but a purposeful, forward-moving story shaped by God’s self-revealing love. As Karl Barth writes, “God’s revelation is His self-unveiling, in which He speaks for Himself and acts for Himself; in which He makes Himself known.” Advent is this unveiling. God showing Himself, not staying hidden, not remaining distant, but revealing His heart through Jesus Christ.
Using the imagery of a spiral staircase, the sermon teaches that we are all moving either upward toward Christ, or downward away from Him. There is no neutral place in discipleship. To face Jesus in trust is to ascend by grace; to turn away is to drift downward. This sober picture is intensified by the reality of human fragility, the certainty of death, and the nearness of Christ’s return. We are closer to His final appearing today than we were last year, last month, or even yesterday.
Advent also calls us to understand the one coming of Christ expressed in a three-fold way:
- Christ came in the Incarnation.
- Christ comes now in the Holy Spirit.
- Christ will come again in His final, glorious Advent.
This is not confusion or contradiction, it is God’s relational, dynamic way of revealing Himself. As T.F. Torrance beautifully puts it, “God does not remain at a distance but draws near to us in His incarnate Son, making Himself known within the fabric of our human existence.” This nearness is not metaphorical; it is the very heartbeat of Advent.
Pastor Tim also helped us understand biblical “separation from God” not as God’s absence but as our relational refusal. God is present everywhere, sustaining all existence, even in the depths. Hell itself is not the absence of God. Hell has to do with rejecting a relationship with the Father, Son, Holy Spirit God…And we know that separation from God is not something God chooses for people…Hell is the natural consequence of rejecting the relationship God continually offers.”
Advent calls us to reject our double-mindedness, embrace the God who is making Himself known, and respond with trust, repentance, and love.
As Advent begins, the message is clear:
Wake up. Lift your eyes. Receive the God who is here and coming. And invite others into this urgent, beautiful relationship while there is still time. Christ is coming soon and HIS PROMISE is our hope.
Key Themes and Reflection Questions:
- Wake Up to God’s Presence 👁️🔥
- Theme: Advent shakes us from spiritual sleep, reminding us that God is already near, closer than our breath, and calling us to renewed awareness.
- Discipleship Question: Where have you grown spiritually sleepy, and how is Jesus inviting you to wake up to His presence?
- #WakeUpToChrist
- Time Is Moving Toward Christ’s Return ⏳👑
- Theme: Time is not a repeating cycle but a God-directed story moving toward the glorious return of Jesus.
- Discipleship Question: How does remembering Christ’s soon return shape your priorities this week?
- #ChristIsComing
- The Spiral Staircase of Discipleship 🌀✝️
- Theme: We are always moving, either upward toward Jesus by grace or downward by neglect; there is no neutral ground.
- Discipleship Question: Are you facing Christ in trust, or drifting downward in self-reliance?
- #StepTowardJesus
- The One Coming of Christ in Threefold Advent 🌟🕊️✨
- Theme: Christ came in the Incarnation, comes now through the Spirit, and will come again in glory. One God revealing Himself in three relational ways.
- Discipleship Question: Which aspect of Christ’s Advent: past, present, or future, do you need to reflect on more deeply this season?
- #GodWhoComes
- Relationship, Not Distance, Defines Salvation ❤️🔥🤲
- Theme: Separation from God is never His absence but our refusal of relationship and Advent calls us back into His embrace.
- Discipleship Question: Who in your life needs the hope that God is always present and always pursuing?
- #ChooseRelationship
Reflective Moment:
Take a quiet moment and allow the truth of Advent to settle into your heart: the God who created you is nearer than your own breath, and yet He is also the One who comes, revealing Himself, drawing near, and inviting you into relationship. Let this season lift your eyes above routine and awaken your spirit to His presence. Hear His whisper: “I am here. I am coming. Stay awake to Me.” Trust His nearness, embrace His coming, and let hope rise in you again.
The Most Important Priority For Everyone Everywhere! Part 2 (Our Christian/Biblical Worldview)
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Part 2B:
Full Message:
Bible Verses: Colossians ( Various Scriptures)
Introduction:
In a world:
Where people, including those in the Church, are still fighting over the various shades of color of skin,
Where people are seeking to live life in their own made up identities and pushing politicians to identify mainly with their cause,
Where people are exalting their own independence and individualism at the complete cost of their neighbors suffering,
Where the ultimate innocents and vulnerable among us are being aborted at an alarmingly high rate, and,
Where one of the scariest places in all the world to be is a nursing home, and,
Where, in our cities, the murder rate is not only high, but where research shows that most murders are meant to kill…
What hope do we Christians have to share with the world?
Theological Theme:
According to our Christian Hope shared through our Christian Calendar (following the events of God in History), we have entered the season of Advent where we celebrate the fact, specifically, that the Father’s Son came among us as Jesus 2000 years ago, as promised in scripture, and has come and is here again after his resurrection (in the Spirit), and is anticipated to come to earth again, bodily, at his Final Appearing! What does the word Advent mean? It is a word that means “The Coming and the Arrival of something great and important!” For us Christians it means the Coming of Some-One Who is The Greatest and The Most Important Someone, and that Some-One is the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God the Father, Filled with the Love, Communion and Power of the Holy Spirit!
Christ Connection:
Because of Who Jesus is not only as God, but also as Man, His ministry and comings not only have something to do with His Body the Church, but with all of creation. He is Creator, Reconciler, and Redeemer of All Things spiritual and physical within creation. In His Person and Work He holds all things together, uniting all things as they should be united and giving His entire creation His peace, all evil and destruction having been overcome in His Life, Death and Resurrection to a Life of New Creation!
Biblically this is spelled out in summary form in Colossians 1:
15 He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
16 For everything was created by him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through him and for him.
17 He is before all things,
and by him all things hold together.
18 He is also the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have
first place in everything.
19 For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.
Missional Application:
Like the Apostle Paul, the Church is now eager to share this Good News with the world that it might have its hope and faith in the love of God-Father-Son-Holy-Spirit, also! We encourage the world, and share with all who will listen, that it should repent of its sin and sinful perspective about God, creation and itself, and receive the gift of a new relationship with the Father, in the Spirit and through Jesus Christ, Lord of all Creation:
Colossians 1:
“21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. 22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him— 23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it. 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body, that is, the church. 25 I have become its servant, according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.”
Photo Compliments: Dr. Gary Deddo
Christmas: God’s Plan and Response For Man!
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In this Message on the 4th week of Advent, and heading toward Christmas, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed to those gathered in worship at New Life Fellowship of Baltimore. The special emphasis of this message is that just as the Head, Jesus, was born into this world 2000 years ago as God’s Plan and Response for humanity, His Body, the Church, follows Him today, participating with Him in his ongoing work of redemption in this present world!
Check it out and be assured and unafraid as you GO with Jesus into our world, proclaiming Him in word and deed!
picture courtesy of ad-ne.org
God’s Coming Humanly Means God’s Going Humanly!
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Christmas, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Liturgy, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, Song, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Advent, Ascension, Bible, blessings, born again, born from above, Christ in our place, Christ in us, Christian Living, Christianity, Christmas, Christmas message, Church, compassion, disciples, disciples of Christ, Discipleship, Forgiveness, Forgiveness of Sin, God, God Father Son and Spirit, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, God the Trinity, God's adopted sons and daughters, God's Amazing Grace, God's Coming, God's Going, God's good news, God's Grace, God's Judgment, God's Will, God: Father, good news, Gospel, Grace, gratitude, Holy Spirit, human, Incarnation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, jesus ministry, JESUS THE CHRIST, Jesus's coming, life, Love, new life fellowship, parousia, Participation, Participation with Christ, Pastor Tim, Pastor Timothy Brassell, Preaching, Purpose, Questions, real struggle, Reality, Receiving Christ, Receiving God's Love, Relational God Revealed, relationship with God, Relationships, repentance, response, Resurrection, Rhythms of Grace, Salvation, Scriptures, second coming, Sin, Sinners, Suffering, The One for the Many, Theology, Through Jesus Christ, Timothy Brassell, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, victory, Will of God, Worship
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Do you wonder how you can live through suffering in a way where you are still filled with FAITH, HOPE and LOVE? Where you can know VICTORY and experience New Life and a Higher Dimension of LIFE and DIGNITY?
On this 1st Sunday after Christmas, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore points us to the answer to this dilemma in this GOSPEL FILLED GOOD NEWS message entitled, “God’s Coming Humanly Means God’s Going Humanly”and shows through Hebrews 10: 19-25 that, God Father, Son and Spirit KNOW and SHARE IN our real suffering through JESUS CHRIST! In Christ, God reveals that He is not one who stands apart from suffering, but One who stands WITH US, stands ESPECIALLY IN HUMAN SUFFERING!
Listen and understand better that:
~God’s coming as a human being, him becoming human through Christ, means He comes not just in our celebrations but in the depths of our human sufferings!
~Since the Ascension of Christ, humanity has a hope built on an accomplished fact that humanity could not have before the Ascension. That God has taken up our cause in CHRIST and not only cried our cries but in the resurrection and ascension He has ANSWERED our cries and has VICTORY over them now, IN HIS PRESENT HUMAN BEING! In Christ, God has been a Gift for Himself and for us!!
~The most clear understanding of who God is, IS JESUS CHRIST! Understand our participation with Christ now in the “Rhythms of Grace” and not “Regulations of Law”, as ways of relating with Our Father and Jesus in the Spirit !
~The most clear understanding of who man is, IS JESUS CHRIST! To see Jesus from His birth to His Ascension before the Father is how we understand what it really means to be human, since Jesus is and always has been God’s Plan for Man in man’s adoption!
~God’s Coming Humanly Always means God’s Going Humanly! His coming always means His going = God’s Being a Living, Active and Dynamic Lord, filled with Life and Movement! NOT A STATIC GOD!
WILL YOU COME AND GO WITH HIM, as His chosen disciple?
Christmas: What It Means! Why It Matters!
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Christmas, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Humor, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, Song, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Advent, Bible, blessings, born again, born from above, Christ in our place, Christ in us, Christian Living, Christianity, Christmas, Christmas message, Church, compassion, Forgiveness, Forgiveness of Sin, God, God Father Son and Spirit, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, God the Trinity, God's adopted sons and daughters, God's Amazing Grace, God's good news, God's Grace, God's Judgment, God's Will, good news, Gospel, Grace, gratitude, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, jesus ministry, JESUS THE CHRIST, Jesus's coming, life, Love, new life fellowship, Participation, Participation with Christ, Pastor Tim, Pastor Timothy Brassell, Preaching, Purpose, Questions, real struggle, Reality, Receiving Christ, Receiving God's Love, Relational God Revealed, relationship with God, Relationships, repentance, response, Salvation, Sin, Sinners, Suffering, The One for the Many, Theology, Through Jesus Christ, Timothy Brassell, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, What Christmas means, Why Christmas matters, Will of God, Worship
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On this 4th Sunday Of Advent 2014, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore delivers this Christmas message filled with ASTOUNDING GOSPEL GOOD NEWS entitled, “Christmas: What it Means! Why it Matters! and shows through John 1: 1-14 that because JESUS IS THE WORD made flesh, CHRISTMAS MEANS: That God in Jesus LISTENS to us and FEELS us – That God is CHRIST LIKE, he has revealed himself in Christ – That man was made in the LIKENESS of GOD.
In this message we grasp how Christmas helps us:
~ Rehearse why it is important to hold to the fact that Christ shared in our actual and sinful, human flesh, inherited from Mary, His mother, AND “dwelt among US” and not in some other make-believe fantasy world that doesn’t exist!
~ Recognize and Live more fully in Reality in our daily lives, and in line with Who God is as Revealed in Jesus Christ, and who we are in Jesus; Recognize what Christ’s Ministry and Mission can and should look like among believers.
~ Respond to the burning questions: “Does God REALLY Care?” “Who and What is God REALLY Like? and “Will God REALLY turn out to be like Jesus?”
~ Realize why every human being has worth and is full of dignity even in this present, evil age (while also understanding reasons why the horrors of Nazi Germany happened and how its rotten strategies and effects are still being played out in our ordinary lives all over the world!)
….and MORE…
Photo compliments http://www.neloo.com
Everything In and Through Jesus The Christ!
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On this 2nd Sunday Of Advent 2014, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore delivers this GOSPEL FILLED GOOD NEWS entitled, “EVERYTHING IN AND THROUGH JESUS THE CHRIST” as we come to understand just what “Everything In and Through Jesus Christ” means. Learn more what it means that God is not only here but comes to us IN JESUS CHRIST; what it meant that the Son came as a man, and assumed our REAL HUMAN NATURE!
Pastor Tim explores the Gospel through Hebrews 10 :10 – 23 and reading from James Torrance’s article “Christ In Our Place”, showing that:
~Jesus has a personal relationship with God on OUR behalf and we have a relationship with God THROUGH JESUS CHRIST! Because of God’s goodness, he makes our responses for us, so that when we respond we are only responding to Jesus’ response to his Father. In Him, and through Jesus, we are renewed by the Spirit in the image of God and in the worship of God and His life of SHARED COMMUNION!
~We burden ourselves with questions like: Do I have to ask for forgiveness before God will give it to me? Do right words, regulations, rules, and repentance take my sins away? But the scriptures tell us that JESUS is MEDIATOR between God and Man and that God draws near to humanity IN AND THROUGH CHRIST to fulfill His purposes of our human worship and communion with God! This means that FORGIVENESS IS LOCATED IN THE PERSON OF CHRIST and that IN AND THROUGH CHRIST, God HAS ALREADY FORGIVEN US! So, WHEN YOU ASK FOR FORGIVENESS YOU CAN BE SURE OF GETTING IT! Why? Because it has already been given to you in Jesus! For God: Father, Son and Spirit, there is no going back on forgiveness of your sins because the Son of God will live as Jesus the God/Man forever!! In Jesus Christ, sin has been COMPLETELY ELIMINATED!
~There is NO such thing as a transaction Gospel, or “If you do this THEN God will save and adopt you!” We can unburden ourselves with that mentality by hearing the Fathers’ response to us: I have forgiven you, therefore ENJOY AND receive it! I LOVE YOU therefore FOLLOW ME IN TRUST AND LOVE because YOU ARE ALWAYS GOING TO BE CARED FOR! THE GOSPEL IS REALLY GOOD NEWS!
~Specifically, because everything is IN AND THROUGH CHRIST, we can give a real word of REST and JOY to people, so that in the JOY of Jesus they can RUN as WE DO, as The ADOPTED SONS AND DAUGHTERS THAT GOD ALWAYS WANTED!!!
~There is not so much work we have to do in getting the words right, or in getting the concepts down. We receive that Jesus got down here for and with us in our place and that there is NOTHING we can ever do to make God more Gracious and we are NEVER going to be able to condition God to like us. What we need to understand is WHO JESUS IS and WHAT HE has done for us, participating in His Response of gratitude and thankfulness to His Father, and in His Trust and Obedience!
Living In and Through Your Impossibilities!
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Everywhere I turn lately, and I mean everywhere, I am seeing and experiencing impossibilities! On a national level, I see the impossibility of our trying to permanently solve domestic abuse issues. I see the impossibility of our laws and courts to legislate racial harmony.
Locally and personally, I experience the impossibility of seeing the issues and biting problems of communities, families, and bad relationships issues solved by people participating in the Good News of God: Father, Son and Spirit. I have learned the impossibility of trying to use apologetics and healing to prove and convince people of God. I know the impossibility of trying to solve some of my thorniest and bone-weary problems, including getting a house sold and rented properly for more than 18 years after moving from it for the sake of Jesus calling me into His practical pastoral ministry in another state! hmpf! And being middle-aged, I am learning the impossibility of so much more than that “small stuff” I just mentioned…hahaha… (anyone 40 and above feeling me?!)
AND, in God’s good grace, I am learning that this is REALLY all Good News! Ha!
Why?!
Well, as Andrew Root writes about in his book entitled “Taking Theology to Youth Ministry”:
“The Church has often confessed that creation itself is ex nihilo, “out of nothingness”….The God of the burning bush [God: Father, Son and Spirit] reveals Godself out of human impossibility. Sarah is ninety, Abraham is impotent, Moses is a stutterer, and David is too young and small to be considered. God reveals Godself next to nothingness and impossibility; the breaking in of God often happens next to human weakness and yearning, in the backward and hidden (1 Corinthians 1:18). It is here that God moves; it is here that God is revealed; it is here that Gospel and mission are linked. God’s mission is to enter our impossibilities with the goodness that from the act of God a new reality in the love of God is breaking forth.
So, when we ask…’What is God up to in your life, where is God moving?'” we are compelled to look for God’s action in the kinds of places God is revealed. We look for God in places of brokenness, yearning, and suffering, places where God takes these deaths upon Godself for the sake of life. God is active at the places of our raw humanity. It is here, in our raw humanity, that we enter gospel and mission, that gospel and mission are held together. For the God of creation, the God [Father, Son and Spirit], the God who hears the groaning of God’s people, acts where there is the scent of nothingness. The God of exodus acts in those places where we are held captive, revealing Godself so death might be overcome with life.” pp.87-88
Footnoting the late Ray Anderson on this topic, Andrew quotes Ray who writes, “Why did the Lord wait until Moses was eighty years old, a failure and fugitive, with no possibilities? Because the element of human possibility must be removed. The people were powerless and helpless. They cried out to the Lord. Moses was chosen to be the redeemer because he was also without power on the human level. Moses understood that this “powerlessness” is itself a necessary ingredient in the chemistry of divine grace.” The Soul of Ministry, 45.
\May this Advent season for the Church, or season of focusing on the Coming of God: Father, Son and Spirit, in Jesus Christ, be a reminder and encouragement to you that God comes to us in our nothingness; our sin, death and hells. Our impossibilities. And He comes not at our initiative (our initiative is long dead and broken in sin!), but in his own initiative to bring forth his own future by His own Coming.
So as you and I believers enter into and participate in the suffering and death of this world with Father, through Jesus, and by the Spirit, no matter our age or circumstance,
“…we embody the promise that God is acting to bring forth God’s kingdom. Our hope is not that our efforts can make the world a better place. Our hope is in the action of God to open our eyes to see the small-but-sure ways God’s new reality is breaking forth.” – Andrew Root, Taking Theology To Youth Ministry, p.69
“[The end times and last things]…has finally not to do with the best that we can hope for in this world, but with a new world which will be brought into being only when God wills and acts to do so.” Richard Bauckham and Trevor Hart, Hope Against Hope: Christian Eschatology at the Turn of the Millennium, p.174
(In a related thought, though many people have been have been MISUNDERSTANDING and making fun of Janay Rice’s comment that she and NFL husband Ray Rice’s recent domestic violence incident was “God’s Plan!”, I suspect God: Father, Son and Spirit has shown up, and out, and IN the Rice’s impossibility. He loves creating possibilities out of our nothingness!)
– tjbrassell
What Jesus’ Coming Means For Us Today!
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Liturgy, Love, Ministry, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity, Uncategorized, Worship | Tags: Adoption, Advent, Amazing Grace, Answers, Bible, blessings, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, compassion, death, Forgiveness, Forgiveness of Sin, God, God Father Son and Spirit, god the father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, God the Trinity, God's Amazing Grace, God's Grace, God's Judgment, God's Will, Gospel, Grace, gratitude, Holiness, holy, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, jesus ministry, Jesus's coming, Judgment, kindness, life, Love, new life fellowship, Participation, Participation with Christ, Pastor Tim, Preaching, Purpose, Questions, Reality, Rebellion, Reflection, Relational God Revealed, Relationships, response, Salvation, Sin, Sinners, Suffering, Thanksgiving, Theology, Timothy Brassell, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Will of God, Worship
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On this 1st Sunday Of Advent 2014, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship of Baltimore delivers a message of Good News entitled, “What Jesus’ Coming Means For Us Today!” Through Hebrews 10:1-10, he proclaims the GOOD NEWS that GOD THE SON’S COMING IN JESUS IS OUR REALITY, LIFE, and RESURRECTION and that WE WILL BE FULFILLED BY NOTHING LESS THAN HIM!
In this message we reinforce that:
~ Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of ALL and will appear a second time not to bear sin but to bring salvation to those waiting for him.
~ We, IN OUR BROKENNESS, don’t GET to start everything; don’t get to control or guide the outcome of life with our questions and answers. It is our pleasure, our role, to RESPOND IN GRATITUDE to what has been done to us, and INITIATED by GOD FOR US, IN HIS GRACE. GOD, in Christ, and by the Spirit, SHARES THANKSGIVING with us as a human response to HIS GREAT INITIATIVES in our lives!
~ God’s will for the world was for the Son to be born into it as Jesus. The purpose of Jesus Christ was to BE AND DO THE WILL OF GOD AS MAN! It was NEVER put upon anyone other than Jesus to meet the will of God or to meet God’s expectations for Man. We were never meant to carry the burden and impossibility of working out our own adoption and salvation. It was always up to Jesus Christ to meet the expectations of God. We were meant to be dependent on Christ. It was the will of God to make humanity HOLY – to rule over everything and everywhere under Christ, God himself! Further, it was the will of the Father to bring us to Glory as his adopted sons and daughters through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.
~ The Reality of God in Jesus not only stands FOR US, but also against us and against all other people, things, and attempts for us to fulfill our own lives and create our own purpose!
~ The Lord wants us to run in the JOY of being sons and daughters and not with the weight of trying to prove that He exists or in our trying to transform the world. He empowers believers to be witnesses and proclaimers of who HE IS, and to be a people of Promise and Hope!
– There are better ways we can take part in Jesus’ Ministry as His Church that will make us more free and less bogged down as we join Jesus in His Mission to His World.
~ Whatever Jesus’ coming means for us TODAY doesn’t mean He isn’t coming in the future, and whatever His coming means for us in the future doesn’t mean He isn’t already here!
Photo Compliments Rio Vista Community Church
Mary and Eve
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Gospel, Trinity | Tags: Advent, Christmas, Incarnation, Jesus, Mary, Perichoresis, Theology, Trinity
Comments (2) While doing research for my upcoming sermon on Mary I came across an interesting passage from the writing of St. Irenaeus.
In this section he draws a parallel between Mary and Eve. In part he says:
. . . Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin (for in Paradise “they were both naked, and were not ashamed,” inasmuch as they, having been created a short time previously, had no understanding of the procreation of children: for it was necessary that they should first come to adult age, and then multiply from that time onward), having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race. . . . And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith. ~ Against Heresies, 3.22.4 (Emphasis Mine)
One of the basic tenents of Protestantism is to “demote” the Blessed Virgin (Luke quotes her as saying that all generations would her “blessed” and so they have – Luke 1:48.) In reaction to what we perceive as the over-exaltation of Mary by our Roman Catholic brethren we Protestants have a long history of ignoring Mary.
Here’s what I’ve been wondering about as I put this sermon together:
If Mariology hadn’t become such an issue in Christianity in the last 500 years wouldn’t we all be encouraging our kids to look up to Mary as a hero of the faith? We Protestants love to talk about Ruth, Esther, and the Proverbs 31 woman but when it comes to the “Second Eve” who was the one through whom the salvation of humanity entered humanity we fall strangely silent.
I think it should be obvious that I don’t advocate bizarre titles like “Co-Redepmtrix” for Mary but I do think it’s high time we Protestants gave the girl her props. The faith that the Holy Spirit gave her to trust the Father and receive the Son (as no one ever had or ever will again receive him) is a faith worth celebrating this Advent Season.
~ Jonathan Stepp
P.S. If you want to hear more about Mary check out the sermon I’ll be preaching this Sunday. I’ll have the audio of it posted at The Adopted Life on Monday.