First Advent Reading

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First Sunday in Advent

December 2, 2018

DARKNESS -TO- THE LIGHT OF LIFE

Written by Jonathan Sturgis

Genesis 1:1-3  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.   Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.   And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

We can find the reason and plan for the Advent of Jesus in the creation story.  In the original language of the Old Testament, Hebrew, Tohuw, which is translated Formless, also means confusion and sometimes chaos.  Bohuw, translated empty, also means void and waste.  So, when God brought LIGHT into existence with a word, He vanquished confusion and waste in the creation story.  He then separated the darkness from the light.  It was God’s desire and design that darkness and light not co-mingle.  His Spirit would not suffer the gray of confusion, which can bring chaos and waste.  In the beginning God intended there would be darkness and there would be LIGHT.  And in and by that light, life would exist and grow.  For darkness nourishes nothing.  Its existence is to provide light a purpose.  God sent the LIGHT to overcome the darkness.  “And there was evening and there was morning on the First day.

The first Miracle of Christmas and the Advent of Jesus, God’s son, is that he gives us the Light of Life.  In Jesus we HAVE

RESCUE FROM DARKNESS

Job 33:28        “God has delivered me from going down to the pit, and I shall live to enjoy the light of life”

RESURRECTION

Isaiah 53:11    “After he has suffered, the Messiah will see the light of life and be satisfied”

ILLUMINATION

John 8:12       “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

VICTORY

John 1:4-5      “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

It is the Light of Life that pierces the dark, confused, empty voids of our lives.  The darkness of sin is exposed and vanquish by God’s Light.  The dull complacency of the gray must be overcome with His purifying light.  So, if the Christmas season brings with it dark memories or depression; thoughts of envy or greed; loneliness or confusion… Allow the Light of Jesus Christ, our Messiah • Savior • Redeemer • Deliverer to shine His light into your very soul.  “Turn your eyes upon Jesus; and the things of this world will grow strangely dim, in the light of His Glory and Grace.”