Hi Christ Church, 

I hope you enjoyed the series on The Forgotten God, based on the Holy Spirit.  But mostly I hope this helped you understand His role in our lives - the fruit He can produce in us, and the comfort He brings us. 

This week we have a stand alone sermon on a subject that affects us all - and then next week we start our Advent series called Almost Christmas.  As I have mentioned, there is a devotion book that goes along with this and I have ordered a few more if you have not been able to get one yet - those will be on the table in the lobby. 

This series will be based on a sermon that John Wesley gave called The Almost Christian.  He said a person who is an “almost Christian” has the outward appearance of a Christian, where they seem to do all the right things.  They go to church, they do their best to behave in the manner God wants us to, they are generally nice towards others.  But then Wesley says that is commendable - and that would be great if everyone did those things - and yet that only characterizes them as an “almost Christian.”  What would it take to go from being an almost Christian to an altogether Christian?

And that is the basis of this series as it relates to Christmas.  During Christmas we can focus on the gift buying, the decorations, the events, the parties, the carols we sing - but these four weeks of Advent should do more than that.  We must go beyond the almost Christmas focus and recalibrate ourselves to have an altogether commitment to Christ. 

God gave us the greatest gift ever in His Son Jesus Christ.  May we learn to be a gift to God this season by becoming that altogether Christian. 

Devotion This Week

Last week as I shared some things the Holy Spirit does in us, I touched on how He helps you understand the Bible.  You may have heard that the Bible is living and breathing - but never fully understood what that means.  Hebrews 4:12 starts out saying, “For the word of God is alive and active…”  But how does that happen?

The Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see - to see what God wants us to see in His Word.  When we read Scripture, if we are in a quiet place, if we have removed the distractions around us, if we have turned off our phone and just start reading…He illuminates the words on the page - they lift up and we begin to understand them in a whole new way. 

Have you ever read a book that then became a movie?  Rarely do we enjoy that because as we read a book, we have images in our head.  And those images may not match how the producers of that movie saw the characters in the book. The Word of God does not change based on who is reading it - the Bible says what it says and that doesn’t change.  But what does change is how the Spirit works in us to understand it.  And because we are all different people, He has to help us each understand it in the manner that is best for us. 

For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 1 Corinthians 2:11-12

The next time you open your Bible (which of course I hope is today and everyday!), take time to lean into the Spirit, to allow Him to work in you as you read those words, and they illuminate you in a whole new way. 

Blessings,
Pastor Marcy