The Fourth Day of Advent, 2016

Wednesday, November 30, 2016
by Patience Nave

I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed – I, and not some foreign god among you.  Isaiah 43:11-12  

Sometimes I am amazed at how absolutely clear the Lord makes His thoughts known! There is not anything obscure about God’s words here in Isaiah! Even before Jesus was born, hundreds of years before, God clearly promised He would be the revealing, saving, proclaiming God – He and He alone! I wonder why my hearing is so dulled that I seem to be unable to hear once and for all what He has said and continues to say!

All around me today, there are people who encourage me to be more broad-minded! They want me to acknowledge other religions and to join some ecumenical throng that says we must each find our own way to God, and whatever that way, it’s legitimate. They want me to join others as they pray to whatever it is they believe in. They want me to acknowledge all gods as equal. If I do not go along with this popular trend, I am labeled narrow in my thinking.

God says, I, even I am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior. I have to make up my mind – not just at Christmas, but all the time – whether I will hear God or hear the popular messages of this time.

Father, thank you for revealing yourself to me in your Son, Jesus the Christ! Thank you that I know that the message of Christmas is that you have come in Person – Emmanuel – God with us! Please, Father, as the secular message takes over the holidays, help me remember that you have provided the only Savior. Amen

And Then It Was Christmas: A Journey Toward Christmas
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, 2006,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator.