Advent

1 Peter 2
5
and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6
For it stands in scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame."
7
To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,"
8
and "A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall"; for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.




God bless you on this day.


Sandy

Isaiah 60
1
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
2
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
3
And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.


Light the Joy candle tonight! God bless you!


Sandy

2 Corinthians 4
3
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.
4
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.
5
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
6
For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.




God bless you on this day!


Sandy

1 John 1
4
And we are writing this that our joy may be complete.
5
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
6
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth;
7
but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.



God bless you on this day.


Sandy

John 3
16
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17
For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
18
He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19
And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20
For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21
But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.



God bless you on this day.


Sandy

Sorry, I musta been wearing shoes when I lost count.

Isaiah 40
1
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
3
A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
5
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
6
A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7
The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people is grass.
8
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever.
9
Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
10
Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
11
He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.


God bless you on this day.


Sandy

( Now I'm outa toes)


John 9
1
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth.
2
And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3
Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.
4
We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work.
5
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
6
As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay,
7
saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Silo'am" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.




God bless you on this day.


Sandy

Luke 3
1
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiber'i-us Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturae'a and Trachoni'tis, and Lysa'ni-as tetrarch of Abile'ne,
2
in the high-priesthood of Annas and Ca'iaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechari'ah in the wilderness;
3
and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
4
As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
5
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
6
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."



God bless you on this day.


Sandy

Isaiah 11
1
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
2
And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
3
And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;
4
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
5
Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.
6
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.
7
The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8
The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
9
They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
10
In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.



God bless you on this day.


Sandy

Zephaniah 3
14
Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!
15
The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has cast out your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear evil no more.
16
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: "Do not fear, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.
17
The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing



God bless you on this joyous Christmas Eve!


Sandy

Matthew 1
18
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit;
19
and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
20
But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit;
21
she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."
22
All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23
"Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us).
24
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife,
25
but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.


He is born! Glory to God in the highest!

Merry Christmas!


Sandy

Luke 2
8
And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.
10
And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people;
11
for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12
And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."
13
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!"
15
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."
16
And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17
And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child;
18
and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
19
But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.
20
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.


He is born! Glory to God in the highest!


Sandy

Matthew 4
14
that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15
"The land of Zeb'ulun and the land of Naph'tali, toward the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles--
16
the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."




He is born! Glory to God in the highest!


Sandy

Isaiah 2
1
The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2
It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,
3
and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4
He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5
O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.



He is born! Glory to God in the highest!


Sandy

Luke 2
25
Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
26
And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
27
And inspired by the Spirit he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law,
28
he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
29
"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word;
30
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation
31
which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32
a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel."
33
And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him;


He is born! Glory to God in the highest!


I was out of the state over the weekend and missed posting this on Saturday. I have really enjoyed these daily readings and I hope that anyone else who may have stopped in has enjoyed it as well.

May God bless you all and may the joy of this special season stay with you all year.


Sandy