Advent 4

“God knows everything about you. He is thoroughly aware of all the personal struggles that threaten to undo you. He knows your history and your present life, all of it. And all he says to you is ‘Christ’.  In previous days God distributed bits and pieces of information, and he gave it to us in a variety of ways. But now he tells us that everything he made known earlier is more fully revealed in Christ. That is his final speech, there is no more to say.  

God wants you to sit by the fire and listen to the Spirit read sixty six books that tell all about home… and when you think about a friend struggling he wants to you leave the living room and go to the attic where that person is telling his story , but to return quickly with your friend so both of you can listen to a far better story.

Most of us are crawling about in a stuffy attic, trying to explain life, demanding to be right, doing our best to relieve pain, and wondering where God is. It is time to find our way back into the living room and into the Fathers arms, where we can listen to his Spirit tell the story of Christ.”
Larry Crabb – Finding God

That story we remember during this advent time.

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Advent 3

1-2 “Comfort, oh comfort my people,”
says your God.
“Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem,
but also make it very clear
That she has served her sentence,
that her sin is taken care of—forgiven!
She’s been punished enough and more than enough,
and now it’s over and done with.”

3-5Thunder in the desert!
“Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road straight and smooth,
a highway fit for our God.
Fill in the valleys,
level off the hills,
Smooth out the ruts,
clear out the rocks.
Then God’s bright glory will shine
and everyone will see it.
Yes. Just as God has said.”

6-8A voice says, “Shout!”
I said, “What shall I shout?”

“These people are nothing but grass,
their love fragile as wildflowers.
The grass withers, the wildflowers fade,
if God so much as puffs on them.
Aren’t these people just so much grass?
True, the grass withers and the wildflowers fade,
but our God’s Word stands firm and forever.”

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Advent 2

gloomy mornings,
matted grey clouds cover the sky,
sunshine battles, rays break through,
streams of light fall on distant sea.

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Advent begins

Today is Advent Sunday, the start of Advent, the period of waiting, remembering the first coming of Jesus and longing, aching for when he comes again.  I love this time of year, perhaps because it forces me to inject hope into my otherwise despairing look at life. This year on the blog I’m going to be daily offering quotes, songs and the occasional thought about the whole thing.

Into the darkness of this world light was born, a light that the darkness didn’t understand.

Into the darkness of our hearts came a light that could not be quenched, put out or ignored.

God appeared on earth.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

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Bored of Brighton?

I feel the need to declare with great joy that I now write for Bored of Brighton. For those of you that dwell beyond the boundaries of Brighton and Hove (what are you thinking? move here now…) Bored of Brighton is a website that gives you one cool/interesting/fun/arty thing to do each day in Brighton. That gets my vote instantly. Click away for this weeks posts including one by yours truly. 

If you know of any interesting stuff going on that you think everyone (um, well the readers of the website…) should know about then get in touch and I’ll see what I can do about getting something written about it.

I’m sure it’s very uncool to be this excited about writing for a website, but it’s the first time I’ve stepped into the world of other people assessing what I write and that’s a whole new scary world. I’m hoping though that these first steps will help me gain confidence in making some more tentative steps towards getting more of my writing out there in the big bad world. Eek.

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