Monday, November 28, 2011

Let Every Heart...

... prepare Him room!
~ Joy To The World, by hymn-writer Isaac Watts, 1719.
Advent --- a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of Christmas. It's here!

How will you expectantly wait?
How will you prepare?
How will you celebrate?

In celebration, this is how our family will celebrate this year! Will you join us... in doing Christmas radically?

In preparation, I am reading through Advent Devotionals from BibleGateway... delivered to my email inbox every morning. I love it! This is part of what I read this morning...
The essence of being a Christian is placing all our hope in God, knowing we can trust him to fulfill all his promises --- even the ones that haven't been fulfilled yet. We are willing to wait, trusting that "God's way is perfect. All the Lord's promises prove true." (Psalm 18:30)
~ from Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room by Nancy Guthrie.
In expectation, I am continuing to count grace-gifts... expecting this, more of this... on this season of Advent and throughout Christmas as our family seeks to unwrap more of His love in this world by living out Micah 6:8...
Use me then, my Savior,
    for whatever purposes,
    and in whatever way you may require.
Here is my poor heart, an empty vessel;
    fill it with your grace.

~ a quote by D.L. Moody, God In The Moment desk calendar by Ann Voskamp.
#1134 - #1143 of grace-gifts... blessings that overflow... gifts that keep on giving...

:: My boy's class jumping in to pack shoeboxes at the last minute, and...
:: Resulting in 19 more gift-filled shoeboxes!!!
:: Delivering over 180 shoeboxes to the Collection Centre!
:: Attending volunteer appreciation night at Habitat Toronto.
:: Firming up plans for a Christmas outreach at UrbanPromise!
:: Putting up our Christmas tree and decorations!
:: Like-minded church leaders who are passionate about being compassionate.
:: An awesome church family!
:: Wonderful time of worship and communion...
:: The start of this Advent season...

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Unwrapping more of His love in this world.
Act justly.  Love mercy.  Walk humbly with God!

5 comments:

  1. I am thankful I popped over to your blog this morning from Ann's place. I have been looking for a free on line Advent devotional. Thanks for mentioning the one you are using here! I love Operation Christmas Child. We have adopted shoe box gift giving with our Christmas Dinner outreach every year, where we feed over 100 people!

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  2. Thank you for sharing. I love hearing how you will live Radically. Pray for us as everyone here is not totally on board.. but we are changing... a little at the time. My husband was looking at the Compassion gift catalog today and was talking about buying a goat or some chickens.

    We hope to be giving out coats/toys on Christmas Eve to those who are in need.

    I am doing several Advent devotions. Have you downloaded Ann's free one? It is wonderful.

    Hugs,
    Teena

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  3. Thanks for dropping by, Barbie. That is so awesome what you are doing at your Christmas Outreach Dinner. Blessings!

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  4. Teena... praying for you, dear friend! Changing one step at a time is the key thing... it can not happen overnight. The change certainly didn't happen overnight in our family either and we have far to go. Only by grace...

    RE: Advent devotions, we did Ann's free one last year --- what a blessing it was for our family!!!

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  5. Thank you, Aimee! Your words have soothed my heart. I so appreciate you sharing about the BBQ.. that was a hard post to write.

    I am so thankful for your friendship!

    Much love,
    Teena

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