Multimedia Advent Devotional – Week 1-5, Thursday
2023:
eek 1, Thursday:
- Scripture – Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27a (Karen Sculley)
- Reflection (Nancy Penton)
- Prayer (Patricia Dotson)
- Artwork: “Nativity” (Bernardino Luini)
- Music: “His Steadfast Love Endures Forever” (Jason Silver) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcEr9OkFP-s
Each short Multimedia Advent Devotional is an invitation to set aside time each day during a typically busy season preparing for Christmas to rejoice in the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus, and to respond to God’s invitation to us to join with Him in what He’s doing today.
Advent is a season of the liturgical year observed in most Christian denominations as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity and is part of the wider Christmas and holiday season.
This collaboration is brought to you by Liberty Vineyard Church
2022:
Week 1, Thursday:
- Scripture: Psalm 72:18-19 (John Trotter)
- Reflection (Karen Sculley)
- Prayer (Paul Sculley)
- Artwork: “Empty seat of God awaiting the Second Coming of Christ” (Paris, France)
- Music: “King of Justice” (Ronald JJ Wong, sung by Ethel Yap) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdDxCvHtIks
Each short Multimedia Advent Devotional is an invitation to set aside time each day during a typically busy season preparing for Christmas to rejoice in the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus, and to respond to God’s invitation to us to join with Him in what He’s doing today.
Advent is a season of the liturgical year observed in most Christian denominations as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity and is part of the wider Christmas and holiday season.
This collaboration is brought to you by Liberty Vineyard Church
Reflection:
Psalm 72:18-19 (NRSV) – “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.”
Today’s Scripture is the close of a Psalm celebrating the reign of the Messiah, when the whole world will be filled with the glory of God. The first part of today’s Scripture, rendered in various translations as “praise be to the Lord God” or “blessed be the Lord,” comes from a Hebrew word telling us to kneel, in other words, to bless God by adoring Him. Thirteenth century theologian Thomas Aquinas explains that adoration is the worship and homage that is rightly offered to God alone: to bless God by adoring Him means that we submit ourselves to the absolute Lordship of Christ; we acknowledge our dependence upon God; and we affirm the excellence of our uncreated Creator, who alone is worthy of all our praise.
Advent is a great season in which to ponder adoration. We and those close to us can tell who or what we adore by what we spend our time on, what we spend our money on, what we dream about, what we invest in. It’s good to take periodic pulse checks and make course corrections as needed.
To adore the Lord, which is to worship God with our bodies and our spirits, is to encounter Him personally. And every time we encounter God personally, the Holy Spirit transforms us, and we are filled with joy. Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Blessed be the Lord’s glorious name forever! May God’s glory fill the whole earth!
