I hope you have had a wonderful celebration of Christ’s Birth! Merry Christmas!

This week we are going to turn our attention to Matthew 2 and the account of the Magi’s visit to the Holy Family. There is a lot going on in this chapter, but I want to focus our attention on the concept of wisdom as it’s lived out in this passage. Wisdom is defined as “the ability to use your knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgments.” In our text we will see one man, King Herod, makes a bad decision and judgment because he refused to accept the knowledge he had. Herod failed to apply wisdom to his knowledge and experience. However, the Magi from the east had the same knowledge as Herod, but acted with wisdom based on what they knew. The results were drastically different between Herod and the Magi – that’s why we call them “Wisemen.”
All of mankind faces a similar situation as Herod and the Magi. We are blessed to live in an age of knowledge unlike anything human history has known. Together with knowledge people can have experiences previous generations could not even imagine. As with the characters in Matthew 2, all knowledge is used through the filter or lens of an individual’s own biases and presuppositions. People can filter the knowledge of the universe through their own presupposition, a presupposition that often elevates man’s place in the universe and at the same time diminishes God’s. The outcome from Sunday’s passage is one of either worship of the one true king, or embracing a culture that leads to death. Will you follow the path of the Magi and become a wiseman (or wisewoman) by considering the natural revelation through the knowledge and experience of a supernatural God.

Sunday is Christmas Sunday! As we move through the themes of Advent, this week we focus on the love of God we receive at Advent. John 3:16 is the most well known verse in all scripture and there we read that “God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son.” The Advent of Christ must be viewed as a gift, motivated by the pure love of God for us.
At Christmas we give gifts to various people in our lives, from close family members to people we barely know. The gifts we enjoy giving the most are ones we give motivated out of love for the person we give the gift to. But even then we may feel anxiety wondering if it is a good gift that they will like and enjoy. Sunday we will see that the gift of love at Advent is the right gift at the right time, a gift money cannot buy and a gift that keeps on giving. Join me as we celebrate God’s great gift of love to us in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Sunday starts the second week of advent and we will focus our attention on the peace Christ brings to us. The word peace in the Hebrew Scriptures speaks of a person’s wholeness, completeness, unity and harmony. As defined this way, peace is an undeniable need in our society. It is as though there is a force at play which seeks to divide, fragment and disrupt our human existence. Can you relate? Do you feel torn and pulled in different directions? Is your life lacking harmony that leaves you feeling used and worn out? The Heart of Christmas Brings Peace.

This Sunday we will look into the Old Testament to see when peace was first lost for mankind, what were the effects of losing that peace and how Advent restores peace. Understanding the back story to the loss of our peace will frame for us the work of Christ in bringing peace to us. Have you ever wondered why it was the shepherds God first announced the Advent of Christ into the world? Shepherds were considered unclean and out of the fellowship of the spiritual elite of the day. They would have been the last people most would have thought for that kind of announcement to be made. But that is just the point of the gospel; the Advent of Christ is Good News for everyone, including those that are on the outskirts of society. Join me this Sunday as we see that The Heart of Christmas Brings Peace.