November 29, 2020
Greetings and blessings to all of you. We are now in the season of the Coming of the Lord. What does that mean to each one of us? For me, I think of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Luke describes them as “both were righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” (Luke 1:6). While most of Israel slept through the birth of Jesus {because they were not looking for the Messiah to come} John the Baptist parents were two of the exceptions. Are you looking for the return of the Messiah? You know He is coming back. Two angels said He was. In Acts 1:9-11 the Word said, “Men of Galilee why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” It is called the Rapture. In I Thess. 4:16 the Word says, “for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” In this season we should be so preoccupied with God’s Kingdom that when He interrupts our daily routine, with an assignment we will be ready to listen and obey. Are you being sensitive and responsive to God’s voice? His voice is difficult to hear when you are caught up in the world’s activities, and your mind is on other things that are not of God. The Coming of the Lord held a certain expectation for the first century Jews who witnessed the fulfillment of God’s Messianic prophecies. For centuries this expectation had kept them hopeful. In our times of the Deadly Ds (depression, death, deception) we as the Body of Christ need HOPE. That hope is Christ. The Word tells us “for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us….and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6). I am sometimes overwhelmed by the physical and emotional suffering that He had to endure for me. He is our Glorious Hope. He is our Light of the World. Although you may be in emotional pain or physical pain look away from that and focus on Him instead. He became man, spirit in the flesh for us.
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC