advent devotional | introduction

A D V E N T 2 0 1 7

Born is the King

Advent is a season filled with expectation. It’s a time when we remember the world waiting for a coming Savior, and celebrate the way the world changed when Christ was born. It’s a season filled with the light and love of Jesus, the King, born to save us.

But if we’re being honest, it’s also a season filled with craziness. As Christmas approaches, the focus of Ad­vent sometimes gets lost amidst the chaos and busyness that comes with the holiday season.

So to help us focus our attention on the heart be­hind this season, we invite you to follow this four-week devotional guide as we walk through Advent. Each week focuses on a specific aspect reflected in the birth of King Jesus—hope, peace, joy, and love—the same 4 words we use as we light the Advent Candles

As you journey through this devotional, take time to think through the questions, spend time in prayer, and make time to participate in the activities that involve your family. Our prayer is that as you turn your eyes to the coming Savior this Christmas season, your hearts will be transformed as you remember the birth of the King who came to save us.

#noroomattheinn

Sign up at the Welcome Desk to have our Mary and Joseph figurines
stay at your home.

After their stay with you, your household will take Mary and Joseph to their next host home and enjoy some refreshments together.

That home will take them to the next home and enjoy some time together … and the cycle continues until the final family brings Mary and Joseph to church on Christmas Eve.

Sign up at the welcome at OCC

Don’t forget to take a picture or two and tag it with #noroomattheinn

Thank you | shoeboxes

Thank you to everyone who filled
an Operation Christmas Child shoebox
This year we filled 102 shoeboxes

advent…

…waiting 
…longing

The 1st Sunday of Advent is 3 December 2017.
Advent is about waiting.
It’s a bit of an odd thing,
since we know that Jesus has already come.

As John 1:14 MSG records
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”

And we also know that while Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:9-10 NLV
Father… may your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

But we know that God’s Kingdom has not yet come in its fullness Romans 8:22-25 MSG
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Paul points us forward in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NIV “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And so we wait, we long, we hope, we work, we serve, we proclaim, we live faithfully, now, while we wait.

Announcing by our presence and our words and our actions that the good news of Jesus has come and in coming.

 

 

reading the gospels | JOHN

This fall at OCC we are reading through the gospels
…one chapter a day, five days a week,
letting the gospels speak into our lives,
allowing the gospels to shape our thinking,
letting the gospels influence our actions…
so that’s God’s name is glorified and his kingdom is proclaimed.

We are moving into John on Monday, 13 November

Reading the Gospels john

Let me encourage you to post in the comments the verse that struck you the most & why