This is the first Advent in twenty-five years that I have not been part of the design and implementation of an Advent experience. It's a very strange feeling. However, what I continue to realize is that our ministry and life together are about God entering our world in flesh and blood.
Advent is a time to prepare for God's coming into our lives through Christ Jesus. The mysterious part of Advent is that we prepare our lives for two visitations. The most recognized preparation of Advent is preparing our lives for the celebration of Jesus coming as a baby in Bethlehem. The second visitation is the coming of Christ at the close of the age. We prepare our lives for the day in which Christ will complete creation. One way of looking at this "second coming" of Christ is that as we reach lost people with good news, practice hostitality, work for peace, give shelter to the homeless, and feed the hungry, we are living in ways that advance the perfect, completed creation. Maybe another way of looking at this time of preparation is that when we are about these things and sharing our faith, we are about the work of Jesus. In this mission we will recognize him and he will recognize us.
In a world in which we fuss about a heathcare plan, debate over whether to go to war or not, worry about job security and making ends meet, and experience division in our homes, communities, and faith communities, does our Advent preparation make any diffierence at all? What if followers of Jesus simply followed the one born in a manger, who died on a cross, and promised to come back again to complete what was started in the beginning as good? We'd love others as we find them. We'd share good news with them. We'd serve them. And nothing would be the same.
Hi.
I found your Web Site by Google
And I wish you the best you can get,
the peace of God through Jesus Christ.
Welcome to visit my Site.
Allan Svensson, Sweden
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/INDEX.HTM
In the time of the apostles any church did not exist, and
therefore the word "church" does not occur in the Bible.
Everywhere in your English Bible where you see the word
"church" it is a grave translation error. Also Matt. 16:18.
It ought to be "assembly".
In the reality, the word "church" occurs not at all in the Bible.
I have five Bible translations in Swedish, (the oldest from
1703). Nowhere in these Bibles does the word "church"
(kyrka) occur. I have also a reference book where the New
Testament is translated word by word from Greek to Swedish.
Everywhere they translate the Greek word "ekklesia" to
församling (assembly).
Perhaps you want to raise the objection, there are many
bible translations in English which all have the word "church".
This is a very stupid argument. A translation error does not
become better of repeating. A lie is a lie no matter how many
time it be repeated.
In Col. 1:18 (KJV) we can read: "And he (Christ) is the head
of the body, the church ..." And in Eph. 5:23-24, "For the
husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of
the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the
church is subject unto Christ..."
This is a lie! The church is not subjected unto Christ. The
head of the Church is the pope, the black pope, and the devil.
The Bible translators do not make a difference between God's
true people and Satan's Church. From the Church's deeds we
shall know the Church. Matt. 7:15-20. By their fruit we shall
recognize the false priesthood. The Catholic Church has
persecuted, tortured and murdered many millions of Christians.
This is a well-known fact. How could a good tree bear such
an evil fruit?
Why did the Bible translators use the same word "church" also
for God's people, the Body of Christ? Why did not they see the
difference between the murderer and the victims for the
murderer? The first Christians were no church. Calling the
first Christians "the first church" is a grave insult against these
Christians. The Church is a mass murderer. The devil is the
real church father.
If we use the same name "church" on the murderer as on the
victims for the murderer, how then can we know what that
means when someone says "church"?
Right since the great falling away took place a very long
time ago and the first churches came into existence,
2 Thess. 2:3, God's people have lived in slavery under
Satan's churches and denominations. The churches have
all the time served the devil, but pretend to be God's
servants and representatives. The churches have never
been any God's assemblies or God's temples. They have
already from their beginning been harlot beings. They
are born through religious fornication. People have
mixed God's word with doctrines of evil spirits, and so
new churches appear.
Churches and denominations are Satan's tools to hold control
over the Christians. The purpose of the churches is that with
false doctrine defend churches and denominations, and to hold
their members in religious slavery, and hinder them to
understand God's word.
Rev. 18:4 is the most powerful revival message of the Lord
we can find in the Bible. Yet, this truth of the Bible has not
been preached among God's people, and therefore the
Christians are entirely unprepared for Jesus' coming. Only
few Christians have obeyed this command of the Lord to
come out of the great Babylon.
Just this is revival, that all God's people become free from
all churches and denominations, the great Babylon. Many
preachers are speaking that Jesus shall come, but they do
nothing to prepare themselves.
None be saved by works of the law, Gal. 2:16,
and none be saved without works of faith. Matt. 7:21-23.
Prepare you to meet Jesus!
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PREPARE.HTM
Evil spirits in the churches
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/SPIRITS.HTM
Why did the Pentecostal Revival take an end?
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/CRISIS.HTM#end
What does hinder the Antichrist to appear?
What is the Restrainer?
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/MESSAGE.HTM#Antichrist
Jesus cannot come today because God's people are not ready
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/TODAY.HTM
Posted by: Allan Svensson | 02/17/2010 at 09:33 AM