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I'M A YOGA WIDOWER!
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Join Date: Feb 2002
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ADVENT Mid-Week Boost #6
Be joyful always
1 Thessalonians 5: 16
Joy Joy Joy
Unfortunately, as Christians throughout the world celebrate peace, joy, and comfort this Christmas season, there are many who believe it to be a lie. They look around and see no peace; sons and daughters are away fighting in wars, others are facing critical health issues, some are losing loved ones, and then there are so many families facing financial distress.
Vicar reminded us on Sunday in his sermon of the military pilot who has been burdened with guilt and sadness at the death of four people due to a tragic jet crash.
It is true that there is no peace, no comfort, no joy in these things.
Life is full of situations that bring no comfort, and unfortunately those things will remain until Christ comes again in His glory. There will continue to be war, death, broken relationships, sickness, and money worries. But, believe it or not, before that first Christmas, things used to be worse -- much worse!
Before Christ came, the Scriptures tell us, we were the enemies of God.
Talk about despair! If you think life has problems now, what would it be like if you knew that God considered you an enemy! BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: Romans 5: 9-10;
However, the Good News we celebrate this season is this -- because of Christ, and His atoning death upon the cross, God has now reconciled us to Himself
The peace that God promised,
the peace that the angels announced on that first Christmas has come!
The war between God and man is now over!
When there is conflict and bitterness in our lives, there is no joy.
The first result of true love in relationships is the renewal of joy. God, through His unconditional true love for us has healed and restored us – established Joy in us.
God takes what is dark and hurting in our lives: our pain, sorrows and griefs, and replaces it with His peace, giving us a joy that is overflowing in us. Through Christ, we receive a calming reassurance, a sense of well being that gladdens our heart, our soul, our life -- it permeates our very being!
Let us pray that the comfort and joy we experience through Christ will pour out into our relationships and bring healing, comfort, and a new sense of joy to the people we love: our friends, our families, our co-workers - all whom we know
So no matter what is going on in your life this Christmas, circumstances may have you worried or down, remember –
There is Comfort and Joy for us who are now the friends of God.
We sing a wonderful Christmas carol, full of an amazing promise, a promise fulfilled in the birth of Christ. A promise that gives us Comfort and Joy!
God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day;
To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.
Refrain
O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy;
O tidings of comfort and joy.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
2 Corinthians 1:3 – 5
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