Some Sunday Thoughts after Thanksgiving:

For anyone else at Grace this morning, I wonder if you were as touched by Roger's sermon on the subject of "hope" as we were. What a time of hope Advent and Christmas really is! Roger used Isaiah 49:22-23 (and some other references as well). The hope is for right now!

How wonderful that it is for all of us..."See, I will beckon to the Gentiles..." and again..."those who hope in me will not be disappointed."

I did not recognize who spoke the words from the audience, "We, of all people, should be the ones with hope..." How true!

Then someone else spoke from the audience, "I've known hopeless...and I've known hope..."

How honest!

Sometimes it does seem like hopelessness, despair, depression, and cynicism are all around us (and with good cause for it). And then there is Jesus saying, "I am come that they may have life and have it to the full..." (John 10:10). That is the opposite of the dark message of hopelessness.

I'm thankful for Roger's good messages, I'm thankful for the endless creativity of our worship teams and those who decorate the church, and I'm thankful for the honesty and sincerity of those who worship at Grace.

Lana Ringgenberg

I did not know that

And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your seed and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.~Genesis 3:15

I was thinking this morning that I am really looking forward to Christmas this year. So I started thinking about Old Testament prophecies and how for YEARS the people of Israel waited for a Messiah. They were told in subtle and not so subtle ways that He is coming and this is how. What I didn't realize, is that prophecy started in Genesis 3. The above verse is God telling the serpent what's what after the fall in the Garden of Eden. Note with me that He tells him that there is going to be battle between the woman's seed and him. Quick biology note, women don't have "seed" we have eggs, men have seed and you need the 2 of then to make a baby. But the woman he is referring to is going to give birth with out the need for a human father. Did you know this??? It is the prophecy of the virgin birth right at the beginning of creation. And note He goes on to say, you will wound Him but He will take you out. He did it first at His resurrection and ultimately when He comes back and throws him into that lake of fire (see Revelation something). God had a plan for man kind's redemption at the exact moment they needed it. I don't think I ever thought that He needed to sit and think about it, like I do when I am going to punish my kids. But that is where my comparison has gone awry. We often think about this passage as "the curse" for the fall of man. I see now it is God saying "Here's the consequences but it's not the end. I have a plan for your salvation." I love it. I hope this blesses you today too.

joy