Advent means coming. The first coming of Jesus is celebrated beginning the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Four candles are typically used, symbolizing Hope, Love, Joy and Peace. The first candle is lit on the first Sunday. Each following Sunday a another successive candle is lit with it. The spiritual focus of worship and preaching follows … [Read more…]
Blessing in word and deed Blessing conveys God’s love and our love, God’s grace and our grace, God’s peace and our peace. Thus, speaking or writing blessings is vital in our relationship with God and one another. They edify. When we verbalize God’s love and our love, we also share the inheritance God has given … [Read more…]
Paul addresses Ephesians to God’s holy ones/saints and blesses with grace and peace. As saints, they believed in Christ Jesus as the Redeemer that had atoned for all their sins, and by this faith they were consecrated and sanctified to God. Grace and peace are blessings which come from God our Father and our Lord … [Read more…]
The kingdom of God is Shalom Excerpts from: Kingdom, Church, and World: Biblical Themes for Today The Bible is full of teaching on the kingdom of God, and the church has largely missed it. But in the providence of God we may now have reached a time when the good news of the kingdom can be heard … [Read more…]
The kingdom of God is … peace in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 In our gentile understanding, peace means: to join, one, set at one again. The Jews understood many more of the implications of peace than we do because they had a much richer word for peace—“shalom.” Shalom is the environment of God’s kingdom … [Read more…]
God has made us what we are by His blessings. God’s blessings are what He has done for us, what He is doing and what He will do. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Messiah Jesus in the heavenly realm (Eph 1:3). God has poured His love into our hearts by His Spirit … [Read more…]