The Love that changed Everything

Happy Monday, I hope you are doing well, as we continue to celebrate this Advent season together. Yesterday’s service was a beautiful reminder of why we gather during this special time of year.

During the short Bible study, we explored the four Advent candles, hope, peace, joy, and love, showing how each characteristic builds upon the previous one, all centered in Christ. We examined how God's love isn't just a comfortable sentiment, but a purposeful, life-interrupting force that came to us in the most unexpected way: through an ordinary baby in an ordinary town. This truth, demonstrated in Mary's story and culminating in the Christmas pageant, reveals that God made His love accessible to everyone by coming to us in smallness and humility, unafraid to meet us where we are. Why? Well, becuase He loves us. 

Remember:

Hope, peace, joy, and love are sequential, not random. Biblical hope (confident expectation in God's promises) leads to peace (regardless of circumstances), which produces joy (from the heart), which flows into love. Christ is the source of all four.

Love is purposefully disruptive. God's love isn't about comfort; it interrupts our ordinary lives with extraordinary purpose. Like Mary, we may not be looking for a miracle, but God's love comes anyway because He wants a deep relationship with us.

God chose smallness to show His greatness. Jesus came as a vulnerable baby to ordinary people in an ordinary town so that no one would be afraid to approach Him. This wasn't weakness; it was love on purpose, making salvation accessible to all.

As we watched our children present the gospel story yesterday morning, we were reminded that God's love is perfect, purposeful, and personal. May we carry this truth with us throughout this week and beyond.

Merry Christmas, and see you on Christmas Eve at 7:30 pm for our candlelight service. 

Lars