Delivered From Being Impoverished by Sin

When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to our people as an inheritance. (1 Kings 8:35-36) 

Over the next few weeks, I will be writing about 5 different things our Lord Jesus was anointed to do by the Spirit of the Lord. In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus enters his own synagogue in Nazareth (verses 16-17). He was handed the book of Isaiah and begins to read. 

Jesus did not select what was to be read that day He entered the synagogue, He read what was marked to be the next reading picking up at the place the previous reading had left off. With that being said, the marked passage that was in Isaiah 61:1-2 that Jesus read was not by coincidence. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” 

Our focus this week is on the fact that Jesus was anointed to “preach the gospel to the poor”: Sin impoverishes, and the Messiah brings good news to the poor. This is why during the Sermon on the Mount Jesus starts with “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) This has nothing to do with material possessions. Sin has brought spiritual bankruptcy to all of mankind and those that recognize that are more prone to hearing the message that Jesus came to deliver. 

Before the fall of man in the Garden, Adam and Eve were spiritually rich. They had constant relationship and provision with and from our Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  After the deception from the Lie Whisperer (Satan) they lost that richness provided by God and impoverishment came to them and all their descendants after they were expelled from the Garden. Jesus came to preach the fact that He was sent by the Father to restore spiritual richness to all those who were impoverished by sin! Thankfully, Jesus didn’t come to only preach deliverance or even to only bring deliverance. Jesus came to be deliverance for us! “Christ was the great enemy of bonds. He was the lover and the light of liberty.” (Morrison) 

The Lie Whisperer wants us to walk around impoverished by sin. However, he does not want us to recognize that we are impoverished and that we have a need for deliverance. Sadly, there are many in this world that are blinded by the fact that they, like everyone else in the world, are indeed impoverished by sin and have a need for deliverance. If you have recognized that you are “poor in spirit”, you are on the road to deliverance and receiving the kingdom of heaven as promised by Jesus. One can attain all the worldly wealth that is offered and yet be impoverished because they lack that relationship with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The flip side is that one could be the poorest of poor here on earth materially, yet because they have recognized the need for God, being “poor in spirit” and have received His free gift of deliverance, that person is the wealthiest of all. Jesus’ offer is to all!  

If you are still impoverished by sin, it’s because you have chosen to remain in that state and have rejected His offer to be set free. 

                              Dale LaFrance (please look up Jeremiah 5:25) 

Advent and Love

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us, we also ought to love one another.  (1John 4:7-11) 

The fourth candle is the last one lit in most advent wreaths marking the last phase of the Advent season. This fourth candle seemingly is the most sentimental of the four, sometimes it’s often seen just as a cliché. However, this candle’s meaning is unexpectedly powerful. That power is seen in our focus passage regarding the love of God. God is the very essence of love. Everything God does stems from His love for His creation. 

Traditional advent wreaths in contemporary Western Christianity have an evergreen wreath with four candles. Each one is lit during a new week of Advent and has, as I have written about over the past three weeks, a particular meaning attached to it. Candle 1 that is purple is known as “the Prophet’s Candle” standing for hope. Candle 2 is purple representing “the Bethlehem Candle” stands for peace. Candle 3, which is rose colored or pink, known as “the Shepherd’s Candle,” stands for joy. And this week’s 4^th candle is purple and is known as “the Angel’s Candle” representing love. Some Christians add a fifth candle, a white one known as “Christ’s Candle,” which stands for baby Jesus. This candle is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, the culmination of Advent. 

God’s love for mankind is so apparent throughout His word. Many times, we read in the scriptures how He uses angels as His messengers to declare His love. The Christmas Story is one of the most pronounced times of God’s angels appearing and speaking to men regarding God’s love toward all men. Gabriel appears to a priest named Zacharias regarding the birth of his son who would grow up to be John the Baptist (Luke 1:1-25).  Gabriel later appears to the young virgin woman known as Mary and declares to her that she would become pregnant with the long-promised Messiah (Luke 1:26-38). Later in a dream, Joseph who was contemplating divorce of his betrothed wife Mary, receives a message from an angel to marry her despite her pregnancy (Matthew 1:18-25). The night Jesus was born, angels appeared to shepherds outside of Bethlehem, announcing the Messiah’s birth (Luke 2:8-20). After the visit from the Wise Men an angel appears to Joseph in a dream warning him of Herod’s plan to kill Jesus and tells him to flee with his family to Egypt. He stayed until instructed by another angel to return to Israel (Matthew 2:13-23). 

The angels in the Christmas story function as messengers of God’s love. They told people “Good news” (Luke 1:19) which is unexpected, but no less good for being shocking. At times the news they delivered saved lives, other times it alerted people of something worthy of celebrating, in the future or nearby. In each of the cases their message showed God’s love. Please reread our focus passage and see just how perfect God’s love is. 

                              Dale LaFrance (please look up John 3:16-21 & 1 John 3:16-24) 

Advent and Joy

And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.”  (Luke 1: 46-50) 

The third candle that is lit during Advent is known as the Sheperd Candle; this candle represents the joy that comes through the arrival of Jesus to the world. This week of Advent is also known as Gaudete Sunday: Gaudete means “rejoice” in Latin. 

The focus of the third week of Advent is on the joy of Mary being chosen by God as His maidservant to bear His Son; this could be the main reason why this candle is pink. There are three purple, one pink, and one white (representing Christ) candles in the Advent wreath. It’s possible the history of the pink candle comes from the fact that twice a year priests wore rose colored vestments to celebrate the Eucharist and one of them fell on the third Sunday of Advent. 

During this time of year depression and despair come to the forefront for a lot of people because of a multitude of reasons, yet this candle offers a bright light during a dark time. This is the reason why the candle is also known as the Shepherd Candle: because it highlights the joy the shepherds experienced when they received the good news about the birth of Christ. (Luke 2:8-20) It was during the middle of the night, the darkest time, the shepherds encountered the angels bearing the good news of His birth. 

Joy is an extreme happiness that cannot be deterred by present circumstances. Joy is not external; it comes from within and only from God Himself and can be present even in the darkest of times. As Christians the joy we have can be manifested as we focus our minds on salvation and eternal life we have in Jesus! This joy that wells up from within comes from the Holy Spirit who gives us an eager anticipation about all the wonderful things that are coming: all that God has promised in His Word. 

The very same joy that flooded the hearts of the shepherds who received the good news, the angels who delivered that news, the wise men who traversed from afar, all the host of heaven, and Mary and Joseph is the joy that still has the power to overwhelm our hearts with rejoicing today. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. (Philippians 4:4-5) 

                              Dale LaFrance (please look up Romans 15:13 & Galatians 5:22) 

Advent and Faith

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him.  

(2 Peter 3:8-14) 

The second Sunday of advent just passed on the 4^th of December this year. Traditionally on the second Sunday of advent the purple candle is lit; this is symbolic of faith. The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word adventus, which means “coming”. Our focus passage speaks of His second coming, a prophesy that has yet to be fulfilled. Numerous passages in the Old Testament foretold of His first coming to deliver people from their sins. Each of those prophesies regarding His first coming have been fulfilled, and now His children (all followers of Christ) look forward to His second advent with faith. 

Sadly, for many, yes even some followers of Christ, this season can weigh heavy on hearts for a multitude of reasons. This should not be the case! The enemy of God whom I call the Lie Whisperer (Satan) strives to turn our thoughts and minds away from the promises of God. He has been doing this since the Garden of Eden and will continue until the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as promised in our focus passage. 

Let us set our hearts and minds with faith as we focus on the advent of His promised second coming. Instead of stressing out about buying all the right gifts and making sure everything is just perfect for the holidays, place your focus on the gift that God has given us through His Son Jesus who stepped down from heaven and took the form of man so that we might believe and be saved. 

Yes, this world is very chaotic and with each passing day seemingly becoming eviler. This however should not cause us to lose hope. The truth is that all who turn to Jesus can find peace in Him (Philippians 4:4-7). I want to encourage each of us to set our focus on His advent with the faith that He has given us so that we will not be overwhelmed with the sadness and despair that the Lie Whisperer is flooding the world with in these last of the last days! 

Let us joyfully celebrate the birth of His first advent while giving thanks to our Heavenly Father for His amazing gift, while we joyfully await in faith His second advent! 

                              Dale LaFrance (please look up Isaia 40:1-11) 

Hope and Faith

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. (Hebrews 11:1-3) Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

As we move into the Advent season of 2022 the world needs a dose of hope and faith. The Advent and Christmas season makes up God’s larger story. Within this story, we see that God loves all of mankind and has a plan to rescue us from our sin and disobedience. All we need to do is to believe and receive that plan that He has offered for our redemption.

Our hope is in the return of our Lord Jesus: This is something that He has promised will happen. In the first chapter of Acts the disciples watch in awe and wondering as Jesus ascends into heaven. Shortly thereafter, two angels appear and assure them that Jesus will return in like manner (Acts 1: 9-11). This is the hope that the church has had since that day until now as we await that promise.

Since the day of our Lord’s ascension, we have been in the last days for about 2,000 years. Some may say that seems like a long time, and yes, in the eyes of man it certainly is. However, with God (2 Peter 3:8) one day is as a thousand years. We must bear in mind that God is the Creator of all things, so that also includes time: because of that, God is not only inside of time, He’s also outside of time controlling all things.

This is where our faith comes into play. Amazingly, the faith that we have comes from God Himself. This faith is something that we do not acquire on our own. For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9) When we put our hope and faith on anything or anyone other than God, we are setting ourselves up for a great disappointment! There is nothing worse than hopelessness. For without hope one cannot have faith! They go hand in hand.

Today, if you are in that state of hopelessness, believe it or not, there is still hope for you! For as long as you have breath you can make that choice to believe and receive the greatest gift ever offered! That gift is salvation through God’s Son Jesus Christ sent to redeem (John 3:16) any who would receive it. Just cry out to your Creator, our Heavenly Father, to give you the hope and faith you need to receive Him. I assure you, if that is truly what you desire, He will hear you and answer you. It is His desire that no one should perish (2 Peter 3:9). He will save you and fill you with hope and faith!

                              Dale LaFrance (please look up Romans 5:1-5)