How do we celebrate Advent? By Phil Tiews

We live in the Advent season.  Certainly it is currently the season that many churches observe as Advent, but I mean a more continual state.  Jesus has come, died, risen, ascended and charged us to look for His return, the final Advent.  We join with all the earth in expectation: Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.  Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth.  Psalm 98:11-13

Those Advent candles we light this time of year don’t point us toward Bethlehem so much as toward Armageddon & the New Jerusalem!

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So what are we to do to celebrate this continual Advent?  Definitely sing for joy!  But at His coming in the flesh the King told us what His reign looks like:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

As those on whom the King has bestowed His Spirit, this gives us a pretty good program to follow during this extended Advent while we await His final return.  There is enough preaching, binding, proclaiming, comforting, bestowing, rebuilding, restoring and renewing to keep us busy, I think.  Let’s be about it so the King will find us so doing at His Coming.

Have a fruitful Advent and a blessed Christmas!