Merry Christmas from Flowers Family

Dear friends, I want to thank you for following The Centrality & Supremacy of Jesus Christ. Some of you have been reading the blog since it all began five years ago. And many of you have joined in the last year or so. Thank you!

I’m truly humbled that you read and give serious thought to my writings. It is so very encouraging to know that we are on a meaningful journey together.

It’s been a great year here at the blog. I covered some of the blog highlights for 2013 in my last post, 2013 in Review.

I have enjoyed hearing from many of you this year, and hope to hear from even more of my readers in 2014. Thank you for taking time to add to the conversation. Your thoughts and feedback are edifying to me as a Christian thinker and writer. And I’m grateful for the relationships that have formed online, via social networking and the blogosphere.

It’s not only been an exciting year here at the blog, but also in life and ministry. Back in September, I announced that I will be pastoring a small Anabaptist congregation in Virginia. Our family will be moving over the holidays to begin an exciting new adventure together.

We would appreciate your prayers for a smooth and peaceful transition as we leave our friends and family in Texas. We take comfort in knowing that the Spirit is leading us. And what a fitting season to make this change!

Advent—Hope for a New Beginning

Advent is the season of expectation, waiting, and preparing to celebrate the parousia (coming) of Christ. The old is gone, the new has come!

I’ve given a lot of thought to what it’s like to wait and anticipate something good from the Lord. I’ve been waiting about 9 months for a move onto the next step of vocation and ministry. It has been a very trying time.

The wait has allowed time for God to work out many details of our life in order to bring about an exciting change, but it has also been an intense season of introspection, as well as general reflection over the last 14 years.

Advent and the Christmas season is like that as we look forward to Christ’s birth (and return) to the world. We believe in the future, but are painfully aware of the present. We see signs of life and resurrection, but we’re all too familiar with sorrow and death. Advent recognizes this cosmic tension.

From the perspective of expectant Jews living in first-century Palestine, waiting for the Messiah was a complicated mix of hope and despair.

As they awaited redemption and renewal by God, they were aware of both light and darkness. We also experience this today as we wait patiently for God to show up and save us, and keep his merciful promises to us.

The presence of Christ through the power of his Spirit assures us that God is with us. For he is Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matt 1:23).

Remember God’s perfect salvation to us in Christ this Advent season, right here and now. And celebrate what is not yet, but is sure to come.

Let the first and third stanzas of one of my favorite hymns assist you.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

From the Flowers Family (David, Lanna & Kainan) to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Greater things are yet to come!

May the Lord richly bless you this holiday season.

Your Bro, David

Other Related Posts:

• The Woman & the Dragon: Christmas in the Book of Revelation
• Greg Boyd on Christmas (video)
• Trinity & Incarnation

D.D. Flowers, 2013.