Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Tuesday after Ad te levavi, the First Sunday in Advent

Posted on December 1, 2020 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: Colossians 1:12-23 (NKJV)
 
1:12 …giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
 
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
 
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
 
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
 
Devotion
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ prophesies in Matthew 24:14, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” This prophecy was fulfilled already in the time of the Apostles, for St. Paul speaks of “the gospel…which was preached to every creature under heaven.” If the Gospel has been preached to every creature, then nothing prevents our Lord from returning any moment.
 
Advent is a time of sober and urgent reflection. The Christ is coming; who is ready to meet Him? Those ready to meet the Christ are those who “continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel.” Now, this “continuing in the faith” is not a work of ours but, as it says, “[the Father] has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood.” God the Father makes us ready for the Christ’s return through the blood of His Son and through faith which is sown by the Holy Spirit.
 
Who, then, is prepared for the Advent of the Christ? The Christian Church and all her true members are prepared, who trust by faith in the salvation of Christ’s blood.
 
Prayer: Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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