December 10, 2023
Greetings and blessings to all of you. This is the Advent season. Long ago the people were expecting Christ. The Word says in Isaiah 9:6-7 “For a child will be born to us a son will be given to us and the government will rest on His shoulders and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” He came. He lived. He died. He rose again sitting now at the right hand of the Father. We are waiting for Him to return. In Acts 1:10-11 the Word says, “Two men in white robes stood by them and spoke. ‘Men of Galilee’ why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” There was a man name Simeon who was devoted to the Lord…waiting for the Promise. Luke 2:25 said about him, “and there was a man in Jerusalem …this man was righteous and devout looking for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” Since He lived prior to the cross the Holy Spirit came “upon him.” “And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26) The Holy Spirit guides us into truth. In John 16:13 the Word says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” Having the Holy Spirit “upon him” Simeon life was radically affected how he lived and viewed his life. Since the Holy Spirit came to live in you how do you live and see things? Are you like Mary who trusted the Lord implicitly or her husband Joseph who learned to listen to God or like Simeon who spent his days in the temple waiting for the promise and living in anticipation of the moment he would see the Lord? Dear Saints, we must understand the verse in First Cor. 2:12-14 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised.” If we accept this truth we can have that same hope, devotion and trust that these saints from long ago had.
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC