PASTOR’S CORNER

Brothers and Sisters,

 The last Sunday of this month marks the beginning of Advent, a season of preparation, anticipation, and waiting. We prepare to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child at Christmas, and we also should be preparing for the Lord’s second coming. Preparing our spiritual houses for all that comes with the second coming of Christ; the threshing floor where wheat and chaff are separated. While we prepare for this foretold end to this age, we wait…Patiently? Expectantly? Excitedly? Fearfully? Nervously? Anxiously? Or maybe some of us aren’t waiting for Christ’s return at all; maybe we’ve determined that it won’t be in our time, so we don’t need to worry about it. However we wait or don’t wait, when Christ is returning is a mystery. Matthew 24:36 says: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” No one knows when Christ will come again; it could be tomorrow or 100 years from now, or any time before or after those times. However, we should prepare as if Christ is coming within the hour. I’m not saying that we should rush around like chickens with our heads chopped off, preparing for an unexpected guest, shoving piles of clothes that need put away on closet floors, and dirty dishes into sinks. However, we do need to confess our sins and repent of them daily. We need to strive to further our knowledge of God, strengthen our relationship with Christ, listen more intently to the Holy Spirit, spend more time in prayer, serve others as the Lord directs, witness to others the good news of the gospel, and follow where ever God leads.

Waiting in and for the Kingdom of God that is here in part but not in whole, needs to be active waiting. Waiting for the second coming of Christ, needs to be active waiting. In fact we need to be preparing for it while we wait. The coming of the Christ Child was foretold by the prophets and the signs were looked for by scholars in the East, but many of God’s people didn’t recognize the Messiah when he was born or when he was teaching, or even while he was preforming miracles. They were still waiting, even after the stone rolled away at Easter, waiting complacently for God to wake them from their slumber waiting but not listening, or looking. In their in-active waiting they missed the Messiah.

As we prepare for this holiday season many are busy getting everything ready; houses decorated, presents bought, meals planned, vacations scheduled, some even prepared year round for this season that is coming. I encourage you all to prepare for the Lord with even more vigor and anticipation.

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Jon