Day 11

Luke 1:26-38

²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰ But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you,and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called^[b] the Son of God. ³⁶ Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.”

³⁸ “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Prize Challenge

Google images of angels and post the one you think looks the best to this post.

Day 10

Luke 1:11-25

1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled^[a] among us, ² just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. ³ With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, ⁴ so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

⁵ In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.⁶ Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. ⁷ But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
⁸ Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, ⁹ he was chosen by lot,according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
¹¹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³ But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. ¹⁴ He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
¹⁸ Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
¹⁹ The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. ²⁰ And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
²¹ Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. ²² When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
²³ When his time of service was completed, he returned home. ²⁴ After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ²⁵ “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

Zechariah was the first person in the Christmas Story to hear from one of Gods messengers about the birth of Jesus.  He is first response is disbelief, not that his child will prepare the way for the Lord, but that Elizabeth would get pregnant.  He pays for this momentary lapse of faith with the lose of his voice, but soon recovers his faith, and goes out and starts spreading the story using his own form of sign language.

Prize challenge

Tell me the Christmas story in your own version of sign language.

Day 9 (a bit late!!!!)

This one is easy.

I'm having loads of fun reading the updates from Natwivity on ace book, so if you are on Facebook, or Twitter, then follow along.

There you go, short and sweet!!

Day 7

Todays reading is Malachi 3:1

 “Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

What a great way to end a week looking at Prophets, and lead into the week looking at Preparation, a prophesy about John the Baptist coming to prepare the way for the Lord. 

Today our family went to the Lantern Walk at Chester Zoo, and we had a large family lantern to light our path to find Santa's grotto, with fairy lights along the way to help (and some yummy hot chocolate too!).  It made me think about the path that I am preparing for people who are following me.  For me, it is probably my daughter, some of the members of youth etc, for you it may be people who you see at college or school, or members of your family who follow your example.  What sort of way are you preparing for them?  And is it preparing the way for the Lord to enter their lives?

Here's a photo of our Lantern walk.

The Prize Challenge for today is to take a photo of some christmas lights that you like.

Day 5

Galations 4:4-7 (the message)
But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.

I'm only going to say this about this passage, God knew the perfect time to send Him into the world as the fulfillment of prophecy, to save us, and God's perfect timing is working in our lives today, but we must prepare our hearts to receive Him.

Prize Challenge

Completely unrelated to the above, but, as we are going bowling tomorrow and it snowed today, visit the snowball bowling game here and the person who gets the highest score will get the prize for today.  You must show proof, so a photo of the screen showing your high score, or a screen shot, will be fine.

Day 4 - Light of the World

Day 4 and another fantastic reading from Isaiah, and what words of encouragement for us "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you".
Again, with so many of the Old Testament Prophecies, especially about the birth of Jesus, it is easier for us to understand what they were saying, because we have seen the light of Christ in the world, we can read all about the Light in the New Testament, but what must the people listening to Isaiah thought?

Are you shining as bright as you should be for Christ in this run up to Christmas?  Its not always easy, we are all extra busy, extra excited, and extra stressed, but we mustn't forget the "reason for the season" and we must remember to shine, so that others can see the light of Christ through us.

I couldn't resist putting two versions of the same reading today, ther first from the New International Version, because I love the line "Arise, shine...." but when looking through different versions today, I also loved the Message version, so had to include it as well.

Isaiah 60:1-3, 19-22
“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
² See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
³ Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
The sun will no more be your light by day,
nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
²⁰ Your sun will never set again,
and your moon will wane no more;
the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your days of sorrow will end.
²¹ Then all your people will be righteous
and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted,
the work of my hands,
for the display of my splendor.
²² The least of you will become a thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the Lord;
in its time I will do this swiftly.”

Isaiah 60:1-3 (The Message)

 “Get out of bed, Jerusalem!
Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight.
God’s bright glory has risen for you.
The whole earth is wrapped in darkness,
all people sunk in deep darkness,
But God rises on you,
his sunrise glory breaks over you.
Nations will come to your light,
kings to your sunburst brightness.

Prize Challenge

I wonder whether Santa used a similar line when he went to get rudolp on that foggy Christmas Eve (cue song),

"Rudolph, Arise, Shine, for you have the Light of the Nose, and the world needs you!"

Perhaps not, but that's the link for todays challenge.  When you see me on Sunday (Ant's not there, so gets away with it!)  you must come up to me and sing rudolph the red nosed reindeer.  (please note, the middle of the Sunday morning service would not be a good time for this!!!)

There is also the opporunity for a bit of group work here, you could perform a group song??!!??

See you soon.

Day 3 - a king or a servant?

Today's reading is another one from the prophet Isaiah, and tells not of a King that will come to save us, but of a suffering servant.  Ther sort of person we wouldn't look twice at, might even laugh at, mock, even bully, and yet this is the the very person who can save us from our sin? Really?  Yes, really!!!

Isaiah 53:1-6

The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.

It must of been hard for people in Isaiahs time to understand exactly what he was telling them, as they hadn't got the story of Jesus to look at as well, surely it is easy for people now to see that Jesus is that servant, come to take our punishment and make us whole?
Have you accepted that Jesus died for you?  Have you accepted Christ as your Good Shepherd, or are you still a lone wandering sheep, getting lost, waiting to be found?

Take some time to think about this, if you want to chat about it and what it means for you, then please get in contact with one of the youth leaders, and we will be happy to chat and answer your questions.

And now, on to todays prize challenge.......

Day 3 prize challenge

This one is a bit more of a challenge than than just taking a photo of something.  For this challenge you need to to make of find something that will help you to look like a sheep.  Yes, that's right, a sheep!!! But it gets worse............... You need to wear it on Sunday.  It doesn't have to be a full costume, but it needs to identify you as a sheep!!!

So, have you got what it takes to be a sheep?