The word “advent” is from the Latin word “adventus” meaning “appearing”. The Christmas season is a celebration of Jesus’ first appearing or coming. Christ-followers also look forward to Jesus’ Second Advent when He will return to set up His kingdom. Isaiah 9:1-9, written more than 600 years before the birth of Jesus looks forward to both the First and Second Advent.
Read Isaiah 7:1-6. To whom and for what occasion did Isaiah give this message? (See 2 Kings 16:1-20 & 2 Chronicles 28:1-4 for additional insight into King Ahaz)
How did King Ahaz respond to Isaiah’s message?
Read Isaiah 9:2 and John 1:4-5; 3:19-21. Compare and contrast “light” and “darkness” in these two Scripture passages.
In what ways could it be said that King Ahaz “loved the darkness”?
What decision did King Ahaz have to make?
In what ways are you faced with the same decision?
In Paul's greeting to the Thessalonian Christians he writes, "We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 1:2, ESV). What is written of these first century Christians is also true of Zion's Life Group leaders.
Almost daily I hear of stories of "works of faith" and "steadfastness of hope in Christ" being put into practice. The best part of Celebration Sunday for me was seeing hundreds of families come forward to present offerings of toys, shoes, coats and food (check out more at Pastor Trent's blog: www.trentkirk land.com). Sunday was special because we got to share in this experience together corporately as a church family. What happened Sunday is repeated all the time on a smaller scale in our life group communities.
Following the last message of 40 Days one of our Life Group leaders wrote to his group, "I hope you enjoyed last week's sermon from Trent, "Who is my neighbor"? I feel that as a Life Group we do very well at living this sermon! I can think of four or five occasions recently that members of our Group have selflessly served to help a 'neighbor'. I feel blessed to be a part of this Group." I echo his words and thank God him and the rest of our Life Group ministry team. Thank you for your ministry and for allowing Sherrill and I to be a part of it with you.
Ready or not tomorrow is Thanksgiving, then the start of the Christmas season. You got love how Ozzie tells Harriet that a week before Christmas is too early to be so "busy for Christmas"! This past week (a week before Thanksgiving) emails have been bouncing around our life group about when we should meet and what we should do for our group gatherings in December. While all of the ideas are good... Christmas party, Christmas Caroling, Visiting at Clearview Nursing Home... there is no getting past the busyness of Christmas.
If you are feeling this way about your group, you are not alone. Following is a post from smallgroups.com:
Darryl's group has been meeting for almost two years now, and things are going pretty well. Darryl at least is happy with the overall atmosphere of the group meetings and his own spiritual progress, and he gets the impression that the group members share his feelings.
During the most recent group meeting, people began discussing their plans for the upcoming holiday season. It turns out that several people in the group will be travelling during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Plus, two couples in the group will have to miss a meeting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In the middle of that discussion, one of the group members suggested that the group take an extended break over the holidays—from the week of Thanksgiving to the first week of January after Christmas. This seemed to pick up some steam from the other group members, many of whom mentioned that "the holidays are so busy."
Darryl was uncomfortable with the idea, however. It seemed like a long time to be apart, and it seemed to mark the small group as something unimportant—or at least something that is not a priority. He asked the group to think about it for a week and then make a final decision at the next meeting.
What do you think? Is Darryl overreacting, or does he have a valid concern? And what should Darryl do? What are your plans for group gatherings between Thanksgiving and Christmas?
