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New Year’s Retreat: January 6
We’re just days away from 2024—a new year, a chance for a fresh start, a time to refine our perspective, an opportunity to set our course for the next twelve months. Or… to do nothing and continue on whatever default path we’ve been following. Of course there’s nothing inherently special about January 1st. It’s not like the winter solstice, when the days cease becoming shorter and slowly start lengthening. And it’s not like that glorious day when the first spring blossom bursts forth with its promise of riotous color and exuberant birdsong to come. Despite that lack of inherent meaning, I like to take the turning of one calendar year…
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Advent Longing, Hope, & Waiting
The Advent themes of longing, hope, and waiting have been running through my mind all week. I’m thinking about my deeper longings and how properly placed hope can help me wait confidently and with expectation for those longings to be fulfilled. We’re surrounded by upbeat Christmas music, lights, and glitter, but if we stop to get in touch with the longings that often stay hidden beneath all our activity and also the longings of much of the world, we know that all is not truly upbeat for us or for the world. What are some of my longings? I long for broken hearts to be healed, broken relationships to be…
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Advent Retreat: Waiting, Longing, & Hope
“Advent is a season of expectant waiting, tapping into the sense we have that all is not well, the longing for the world to be made right again… By helping us to hope intensely for restoration, to feel our own need to be saved, Advent prepares us for genuine Christmas joy and faith in the One who saves us from our sin, Jesus.” (Reinders, Philip. Seeking God’s Face: Praying with the Bible Through the Year. Faith Alive Christian Resources & Baker Book House. 2005) Advent RetreatDecember 2, 9:45 AM to 3:00 PMImmanuel ChurchWappingers Falls, NY You’re invited to an Advent Retreat at Immanuel Church on Saturday, December 2nd from 9:45am to 3pm. Join us for a…
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Hope and Assurance
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:19-20 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having…
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Hope: Hebrews 6:19-20 & 10:19-22
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:19-20 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having…