For To Us - Advent Reading 5 - Glory To God

This is the fifth advent reading that went along with the For Unto Us 2016 Christmas Prayer Loft at the Gathering House Covenant Church in Spokane Washington.   

Glory To God
by Margot Cioccio

Glory to God in the highest heaven, 

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. ~ Luke 2:14

Luke 2 tells the story of the birth of Christ that many families will read together as part of their Christmas celebrations. In verse13 of that story it says that “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 

Tonight is Christmas Eve and we light the final candle in our advent wreath. At this point all your shopping should be done. Hopefully your presents are all wrapped and the preparations are all completed and you can stop now and take a big breath or at least a little break from the madness if your not. 

How do we bring Glory to God? What exactly is glory anyway? There are things that are easy to describe like a candle. Its made of wax and has a wick you light it and it illuminates the darkness. There are other things that are hard to describe but when we see the we say there it is that God’s glory. Like, when we get to the point in the service later tonight as we light the candles and sing silent night. I am always over whelmed in that moment how God’s glory transforms a dark room and fills it with his beautiful glory. 

Isaiah 6:3 says of the angels, that they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 

Holiness is perhaps a little easier to understand and it can help us understand glory. John Piper writes “we have been taught that holy means separate—distinct and separated that he is in a class by himself, infinite perfections, infinite greatness and infinite worth. His holiness is what he is as God that nobody else is. It is his quality of perfection that can’t be improved upon, that can’t be imitated, that is incomparable, that determines all that he is and is determined by nothing from outside him. It signifies his infinite worth, his intrinsic, infinite value.” later in this same article titled What is God’s glory he writes “ The glory of God is the manifest beauty of his holiness. It is the going public of his holiness. It is the way he puts his holiness on display for people to apprehend. So the glory of God is the holiness of God made manifest.”

Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.  Whatever we do we should be displaying the beauty of God’s holiness. We can’t do that if we continue to focus on all that is wrong in the world around us. We need to focus on God and his incredible perfection, his love that is so beyond our comprehension. 

You don’t study the counterfeit or the copy if you want to be able to tell a real thing from a fake. You study the real thing. We need to focus on knowing our God.

Colossians 3:15-17 in The Message says 

15-17 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

We as believer are those upon whom his favor rests. The sin that once separated us from being able to have a relationship with God has been dealt with by Jesus. God did it in a way that was so contrary to how folks of that time thought it should happen that they by and large they pretty much missed his coming. Its easy to think that we would have handled things better than they did but if we are honest there is a good chance that we are so busy with our lives that we have not really made much room for him. He may have our Sundays but does He have us the rest of the week? Is his glory being revealed in our day to day lives? Tonight as we light this final candle, the Christ candle may we resolve to know him more fully and allow his light to and his glory so transform us that we become the light of his love to the world around us. May his Glory cover the whole earth. 

For To Us - Advent Reading 4 - Joy

This is the forth advent reading that went along with the For Unto Us 2016 Christmas Prayer Loft at the Gathering House Covenant Church in Spokane Washington. 

Joy

by Margot Cioccio 

establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness

from that time on 

and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

All of heaven rejoiced as Jesus was born. His coming would heal the great breach between mankind and the Almighty. As the church we have really run with the message that He is Redeemer and Savior. If we look at the many names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we start to realize they are so much more than we have begun to understand. Starting from the birth of Christ, from that time on and forever God has been establishing and up holding how we understand and relate to Him. Our God is multifaceted. What a joy it would be if we could help the world around us see God as a good father, a papa who’s love is displayed as strength, protection. Who wants to help us with our own family issues. Could we reflect his love as integrity in the power of Government and show a hurting world that he does care about them…all of them.  What if we could reflect God as communicator who wants to show his love as good news and blessing. Imagine the joy we would have as he brings world solutions through us, his children.  What if we could show God as teacher and show his wisdom as a form of his love?  He is provider and provision and resources can multiplied in and through us as we show the world the ways of kingdom economics. Everywhere we look we see God’s fingerprints, he has put great energy and detail into even the smallest flowers and things that we may not even notice. Could we show him as Creator who has fun creating. Stop and think about the amazing joy there is in actually being able to have a intimate relationship with the greatest creator and artist who has not yet run out of ideas and want to partner with each of us to do amazing things. Think about the joy there is in making him known and showing his love in all these areas and more. 

What if the only thing that holds back the great outpouring of his love in all of these ways is simply that have gotten so focused on the getting people saved and to heaven and getting there our selves that we forgot to be salt and light. We have become so focused on the problems of our world that we forgot to show them our creative solutions and the amazing love and kindness of God .Every generation since Jesus was taken to heaven has thought He would return in their time. Too often we have sat on our hill tops inside our churches trying really hard to be holy while the whole world groaned and ached for the light of God to come to them. Jesus said don’t hide your light under a basket. Put it up on a stand and let it shine brightly.

Acts 3:21-23 in theThe Message it says “Now it’s time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you, and send you the Messiah he prepared for you, namely, Jesus. For the time being he must remain out of sight in heaven until everything is restored to order again just the way God, through the preaching of his holy prophets of old, said it would be.

What if Jesus is held out of sight in heaven until we through the power of the Holy Spirit in us, work to bring about the restoration of all things to his order. Jesus said we would do greater things than he did because he was in heaven and had sent us the Holy Spirit. What if he's not the one asleep in the boat this time. What if we are the one’s who are asleep to his calling and purposes for our lives. What if we are here to make a difference?

Gods kingdom is advanced by influence and example not by forcing others to do it our way. It is how we live among others that gives us a platform to speak into their lives. There is great joy when things are done God’s way. When the righteous prosper the city rejoices.  

We have painted the town red like his blood but there are so many more colors of his love that we have yet to really discover and reveal with joy to the world.

Jesus is a living gift. He is waiting for us to unwrap more of the mystery of who he is in each of us. What does his rainbow of love look like as it comes out of you and spills into the things you are passionate about.  Joy is our advent candle today.  - Joy to the world - the Lord is come…Let every heart prepare him room. Let every heart rejoice. Let heaven and nature sing! 

For To Us - Advent Reading 3 - Hope

This is the third advent reading that went along with the For Unto Us 2016 Christmas Prayer Loft at the Gathering House Covenant Church in Spokane Washington. 

Hope 

by Margot Cioccio 

Of the greatness of his government and peace

there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,

In the Voice it reads like this. “His leadership will bring such prosperity as you’ve never seen before—sustainable peace for all time.This child: God’s promise to David—a throne forever, among us, to restore sound leadership that cannot be perverted or shaken. He will ensure justice without fail and absolute equity. Always.”

As I have thought about these readings I have made a point to not make them nostalgic, or filled the typical holiday fluff. Jesus wants to give you a gift of a greater revelation of himself as alive and truly active in your life. Today our Advent candle is Hope.  Our verse reminds us that Jesus has been given a throne forever among us. There is no end to what he is doing in you or in his beloved creation. To know that he cares and is still actively working gives us renewed hope for our lives and the world around us. 

We are his ambassadors. We are the very people through whom he chooses to work. Yet too often we have gotten saved and in our minds it has mostly been an insurance policy and our ticket to eternal bliss. It does very little to change our present circumstances or our lives moving forward. However, Salvation is a much bigger concept, it applies to here and now and to eternity. Over one hundred times when the word saved or salvation used in the New Testament, it is the word SOZO which means Saved, Healed and Delivered. Those are things that actively transform our life in the here and now.  We are to be reflections of His glory and his love in everything we do and every place we go. 

Our verse today talks about there being no end to the greatness of His government and peace. I want to talk about God’s government and what it looks likes. His government is free from corruption and when we are free from that we are able to experience his power in the form of love. God cares about all of us and uses His power and authority for our good. 

 “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;

    love and faithfulness go before you.” it says in Psalm 89:14 NIV

Hebrews 12:28 NIV  Says, Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, In Matthew 5:13 we are reminded  “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 

If we stop being salty, influencing the flavor of life around us,  we are cast aside and trampled. Religion is too often seen as useless and what we have walked in too much of the time is simply legalism. We have tried to conform others by use of law, or to force them to our version of morality. We now have a reputation as Christians of being those people who are anti everything. That is a corruption of God’s heart and not the kind of people we are called to be. My hope today - that repentance and revival would begin in the house of God. Let it begin with in each of us. 

To understand God as ruler and King we need to look at how Jesus lived and walked among us. According to Jesus, to be a leader one needed to be a great servant. To have true authority one must be willing to lay down their life for others. He showed us that those with real authority are always submitted to authority as well. It is his love that must move us and his kindness that leads to repentance. We as his people need to work to restore Gods image by power of His love where ever we find it has been distorted. The lie is that God doesn't care about things on earth. That we are left here as orphans to try and do the best we can against terrible odds. The truth is that God is for us, he does care about his creation. He has not left us as orphans we are adopted and accepted as sons and daughters who have been given authority to represent him in every segment of society. 

Trust brings His government into our own lives and that government brings us true peace. So now we light the candle of hope. A hope that as he changes us to conform to his image that the world around us can also be changed and his government and peace will increase. 

For To Us - Advent Reading 2 - Peace

This is the second advent reading that went along with the For Unto Us 2016 Christmas Prayer Loft at the Gathering House Covenant Church in Spokane Washington. 

Peace

by Margot Cioccio 

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, 

Prince of Peace.

In the prayer loft in front of the Peace banner there is a hand out that has 50 names of Jesus and some other items to help you be more connected.  

In the Bible a persons name told you about their character and destiny. In this verse we are given just four names. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. Let’s look briefly at each of them. 

Wonderful Counselor: We think of wonderful as meaning really good, nice, kind or likable but it is really more like incomprehensible and full of wonder. His name is so far beyond our understanding that we have to break it down into little bites to understand and even then without the help of Holy Spirit we don’t get very far. Jesus as wonderful counselor brings answers to problems that make a watching world scratch their heads in astonishment. Our lives as believers should never be dull or boring. Jesus wants to fill your life with wonder. In the early church you wouldn’t even be considered as a potential leader if signs, wonders and miracles were not evident in your life. Somewhere along the journey we opted for predictable tradition and religion when Jesus want to be our living God who does amazing things in and through us. Cool stuff beyond our own skills, ability and strength. Colossians 2:3 tells us In Christ is “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” this includes the knowledge of all human nature  and what makes us tick. He always knows what we are going through, and He always knows what needs to happen. In Hebrews 4 he is our great High Priest with grace and mercy for us in our time of need.

Mighty God: In Hebrew this is El Gibbor that means strong and mighty. A mighty warrior who demonstrates courage, bravery and action. In 2nd Corinthians 10 we are reminded that though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every high thing that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” In Ephesians 6 we are given armor. “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” God’s war is not against confused and damaged humanity but against the spiritual forces that continue lie, manipulate, kill, steal and destroy the people that God created and loves.

Everlasting Father: I like to think about what it is that Fathers are supposed to do and be for us. They are to protect, provide and give us a sense of our identity. Many of us have a messed up view of Father because our human fathers have not always been those things to us. As such it is often hard for us to relate to God in one or more of these areas. In our trinitarian ideas we don’t usually think of Jesus as Father, but they are all one. If we put on our Hebrew translation hats for a moment this phrase literally translated means “Father of Eternity.” He is the father over time and eternity, the amazing architect of the ages. 

Prince of Peace: We think of peace as being the end of conflict between peoples and nations. If everyone would just get along we could have peace, but perhaps political and cultural harmony is not what he is talking about. Shalom is the Hebrew word for “peace.” a calm and tranquility for individuals, groups, and nations. In Greek it is about unity and being in one accord or purpose. In Galatians 5:22–23 peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit. It is one of the evidences that the Holy Spirit is working in your life.

Still there is a much deeper meaning of peace in the spiritual harmony that comes when our relationship with God is restored. 

Today we light the Peace candle and are reminded that to truly have Peace we need our broken relationship with God restored. Jesus came to provide the way to accomplish that restoration. The lie we must over come is that we must work hard and be good to know God. The truth is that we need a redeemer in order to know God. That redeemer is Jesus. He has paid the price for you and simply waits for you to believe and call upon his name.

For to Us - Advent Reading 1 Love

This is the first advent reading that went along with the For Unto Us 2016 Christmas Prayer Loft at the Gathering House Covenant Church in Spokane Washington. 

Love 

by Margot Cioccio 

For to us 

a child is born, to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

We've all heard these words from Isaiah 9:6-7 before. You may also recognize them from Handel’s Messiah. It is a massive 259 page score, with a quarter of a million notes that he completed in 24 days. I believe that he was “God” inspired to write at such a pace. He would have had to average more than 15 notes a minute, yet his handwritten score has very few mistakes. It is as if he was hearing something from the spiritual realm and capturing it for us on earth. 

My intent is not to talk about Handle, but to reflect on Advent. The order of the candles will be a little scrambled this year on purpose to go along with Isaiah 9:6-7 passage featured in our prayer loft. The advent wreath is thought to be a teaching tool created by Martin Luther. I can’t completely confirm this but the advent wreath in its present form started in Germany as a Lutheran family custom. The first topic is supposed to be hope, then love, then joy, and finally peace. I want to turn it and view the advent season from heaven’s perspective rather than from that of mankind. I hope you will indulge me. Each of these readings goes along with things found in our prayer loft and you are welcome to enjoy them in any order as well. 

Today we start with love, the great love of God for creation. It is from the amazing depths of love that God not only gave us free will but had a plan already laid out to redeem us from the pit we all find ourselves in when we reject His ways and go it on our own.  I want to read you this same Isaiah passage of scripture from a translation called the voice.  “Hope of all hopes, dream of our dreams, a child is born, sweet-breathed; a son is given to us: a living gift. And even now, with tiny features and dewy hair, He is great. The power of leadership, and the weight of authority, will rest on His shoulders.”

We have been given a living gift and if we make room for it, it will transform not only our own lives but the world around us. We celebrate Jesus as a baby in the manger and maybe your Christian walk has gotten stuck there. This morning I want to remind you that Jesus is not a baby in a manger any more. When he ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty he sent us the Holy Spirit, to be our teacher, counselor and comforter. He didn’t leave us here as spiritual paupers but left us to be priests, kings and prophets. We are at very least to be people who influence others. Daniel 11:32 say …”the people who know their God shall be strong, and do great exploits.”  In John 14:12 “Jesus say to us, Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” We have been given kingdom authority and access t kingdom resources to make a kingdom difference. If you stop for a moment and look at the wonder and detail of creation or pause to think about the vast number of stars in the night sky, it is clear that our God in his love is infinitely creative. Romans 8:19 For all of creation is waiting, yearning for the time when the children of God will be revealed.” I have read that verse and perhaps you have too and thought some day in the far flung future God will set things right. Well…That day was the day Jesus was born. Creation is not waiting for God to do something but for his children to wake up to who they are called to be in him. For every problem in our world, God has an answer and perhaps if we would wake up, we might begin to walk as people of his love with influence and creative solutions.  

For unto us…God has given a living gift not a memorial statue found in a nativity scene. While we look at these verses and go through the holidays we can simply get all warm and nostalgic or we might turn on the light bulb to the truth to what happened that day and realize that gift was given to you and me and we might wake up and begin to be transformed by the magnitude of it. 

As we light this first candle of love,  let us remember that one of the very first teachings that Jesus shared was that we are the light of the world. We are the earthen vessels through which His love is poured out. Habakukkuk 2:14 says  “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

Lord, wake us up from our slumber to walk in all that you have provided and intended for us. Wake us up and help us to be living reflections of your love until it fills the earth for your glory.