Apprentice 2 Jesus

Advent

  • The Great Hope of Advent

    We have entered into Advent. It is a time of longing. This season brings a renewed sense of longing for the second coming of our Lord. Each year brings a new perspective to me. Sometimes it is remembering his first coming and the longing of Israel. This time it is a longing to see the… Read more

  • Sing of mercy and justice

    “Justice, biblically speaking, is about God taking everything that’s wrong with the world and making it right. In God’s kingdom, things are turned upside down. The least are now the greatest. The last are now the first. Justice is God taking what’s broken and bringing it to wholeness. In Advent, a season of longing and… Read more

  • Third Sunday of Advent

    O Lord Jesus Christ, you sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise make ready your way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient toward the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to judge… Read more

  • “Come Up Here”

    After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was… Read more

  • The One who is WITH us

    He was despised and rejected by mankind,    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.Like one from whom people hide their faces    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. (Isa. 53:3) We want a warrior Messiah. We want the Jesus mean and wild. We want the celebrity Jesus all too often. So, when Jesus… Read more

  • Advent and the Apocalypse

    In Luke’s gospel, when Jesus speaks apocalyptically of “signs in the sun and moon and stars” and the “distress of nations,” he ends by saying that humanity “will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:25–27). He is speaking of himself and his Second Coming. He’s telling… Read more

  • Happy New Year!

    Over the years I have learned more and more about Advent and the Church calendar. I have known it was the beginning of the Church Year because the Church calendar doesn’t follow the regular calendar of the world or culture. In the U.S. we put so much stock in a “new year” and January 1. Read more

  • In the wilderness

    When the pandemic hit earlier this year, it was during Lent. A popular saying I heard among liturgical friends was this: “This is the Lentiest Lent I’ve ever Lented.” Read more

  • Reason #317 Why You Should Be on the Church Calendar

    Advent begins November 29. For those who are not familiar with the Church Calendar, this would be a good year to become familiar… and a fan. Read more

  • As Advent approaches we are tempted to flood ourselves in light

    By all measures it is probable we can all agree we want 2020 behind us… NOW. Why wait until December 31? We’ve lost loved ones. The world has lost heroes. We’re fighting over masks to slow down a pandemic… People are putting up Christmas lights and trees and flooding their lives with Christmas music and… Read more