Advent Preparations Week One 2011 Wednesday

When we wake up, each day this week, we can light the first candle and just take a few moments to focus.

Each morning this week, our prayer may become more meaningful, as it prepares us for the day we face ahead. As we head to work, walk to a meeting, rush through lunch, take care of errands, meet with people, pick up the phone to return some calls, answer e-mail, return home to prepare a meal, listen to the ups and downs of our loved ones' day, we can take brief moments to relate our desire for the coming of the Lord to our life. We may physically light a candle each morning before the sunrise, we can also mentally light that candle all day long to keep that focus as we travel through the many activities that make up a normal day.

In the evening as we retire our day we can be aware of how that one small candle brought light into this day and we can give thanks. Going to bed each night this week with some gratitude is part of the preparation for growing anticipation and desire.

Prayer of the Day
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection waken us to the threantening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of your new day, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Romans 10: 9-18
Brothers and sisters:
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For one believes with the heart and so is justified,
and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
The Scripture says,
No one who believes in him will be put to shame.
There is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone to preach?
And how can people preach unless they are sent?
As it is written,
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!
But not everyone has heeded the good news;
for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what was heard from us?
Thus faith comes from what is heard,
and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
But I ask, did they not hear?
Certainly they did; for

Their voice has gone forth to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.


Thank you to the following web sites for their contribution to our daily offerings.

http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Worship/Lectionary/Year-B/Advent.aspx

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/112711.html

Advent Preparations Week One 2011 Tuesday

As the hurried days of the Holidays pass we can remember to create a new experience, a new way of preparations. We can all slow down. We can all breathe more deeply. We can all begin to trust that this will be a blessed time. Then, when we let ourselves be who we are, and hear the Scriptures, we can begin to quietly pray, “Come, Lord, Jesus.”

When we wake up, each day this week, we can light the first candle and take a few moments to focus on our prayer and scripture.

Prayer of the Day
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection waken us to the threantening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of your new day, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Isaiah 11: 1-10
On that day,
A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,
and from his roots a bud shall blossom.
The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
A Spirit of counsel and of strength,
a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.
Not by appearance shall he judge,
nor by hearsay shall he decide,
But he shall judge the poor with justice,
and decide aright for the land's afflicted.
He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Justice shall be the band around his waist,
and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
The calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra's den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
as water covers the sea.

On that day,
The root of Jesse,
set up as a signal for the nations,
The Gentiles shall seek out,
for his dwelling shall be glorious.


We need to really hear this “good news” so that our hearts can begin to be softened
to hear how profoundly our God desires to help us
and to make things right with all of creation.
Throughout the day today, we can lighten our spirits
as we turn to God and pray:
Let me rejoice at the coming of your Son, for me!

Thank you to the following web sites for their contribution to our daily offerings.

http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Worship/Lectionary/Year-B/Advent.aspx

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/112711.html

Advent Devotional Week One 2011 Monday

It can be tempting to think that, because we are struggling these days, we can’t enter into Advent without a big change in our mood or without distancing ourselves from our real experience. Nothing could be further from the truth. Advent is about letting God come to us. We do the letting and God does the coming. And, the whole mystery of our faith is that God is not reluctant to come into an unusual relationship (like Mary and Joseph’s) or to be born in the poverty of a makeshift stable. We are tempted to prepare for Advent by cleaning everything up first – by, in effect, saving ourselves first. Our opening to Advent is to realize we need saving and to accept the saving love of our God.

We Open today in prayer:

Prayer of the Day
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection waken us to the threantening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of your new day, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Today's Scripture Verse:
Isaiah 2: 1-5
This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz,
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In days to come,
The mountain of the LORD's house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it;
many peoples shall come and say:
"Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
That he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths."
For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and impose terms on many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.

O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the LORD!

Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

We want to begin this journey by rallying ourselves
to turn to the Lord with great hope.
In the midst of many discouraging challenges in our lives
and the violence in the world around us,
we desire to spend this day in anticipation of the graces
our God desires to give us.

Thank you to the following web sites for their contribution to our daily offerings.

http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Worship/Lectionary/Year-B/Advent.aspx

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/112711.html

Advent Devotional Week One 2011

As we begin Advent, we light one candle in the midst of all the darkness in our lives and in the world.

Prayer of the Day
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection waken us to the threantening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of your new day, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.


Jesus said to his disciples:
"Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad.
He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work,
and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore;
you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"
Mark 13:33-37

Jesus uses a little image which is important, but can be easily overlooked. Jesus uses the image of a land owner who goes on a journey, but leaves his servants, “each with his own work” to do. The challenge is not just to stay awake, but awake so as to do the work of bringing light and life to God’s world. Waiting and watching out of fear is passive and paralyzing. Waiting in faith is eager and exciting.

Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia. Show us your steadfast | love, O LORD,
and grant us | your salvation. Alleluia. (Ps. 85:7)

Thank you to the following web sites for their contribution to our daily offerings.

http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Worship/Lectionary/Year-B/Advent.aspx

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/112711.html