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  • St Peters by the Sea Cross Sunshine

It is easy to get discouraged if you watch the news.  There is so much reporting on the darkness that surrounds us.  But the Gospel has a different emphasis!  The Gospel’s message is that the light shines in the darkness.  The Gospel says that the peacemakers are blessed because the Kingdom of God is theirs.  The message is that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to God’s purpose.  We pray “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven and we pray deliver us from temptation and evil”.  Our prayers are answered if we have the heart and the eyes to see the answers to these prayers.

I think of how encouraging many of our hymns are in these dark times.  “Great is thy faithfulness”  “How Great Thou Art”  “Amazing Grace”  “Love Divine”  “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”  The list goes on and on!!  Next time you feel overcome with the darkness of this world sing these words:  “Great is thy faithfulness , Oh God my Father.  There is no shadow of turning with Thee” or “O Lord my God when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made”  or “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see” or “Love divine, all love excelling, joy of earth from heaven come down.  Fix in us thy humble dwelling”  or “What a friend we have in Jesus all thy sins and griefs to bear”.

For Advent I will give a series of messages on Psalm 23.  I want to bring out the wonderful light this Psalm proclaims in our darkest times.  Doris has done a wonderful job recording special music and a familiar liturgy to add much to the Wednesdays of Advent.

I will share a message on the following parts of Psalm 23:

Wednesday, December 2nd: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”

Wednesday, December 9th: “He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul”

Wednesday, December 16th:: “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his names sake”

Wednesday, December 23rd: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.  Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

We do not have to be victims of the darkness.  We can be children of the light.  The Bible says: “If the light within you is darkness, how great is the darkness”.  We have the light of Jesus to celebrate this Advent season.  We can shine the light of Jesus and it can give us encouragement, hope and love.  Let the light of the Advent wreath give you light for your darkness, joy for your sadness and love for your way.

 

Pastor Rick