{"id":36,"date":"2012-02-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/12\/sunday-2nd-december-2012-happy-new-year\/"},"modified":"2012-02-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-12T00:00:00","slug":"sunday-2nd-december-2012-happy-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/12\/sunday-2nd-december-2012-happy-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 2nd December 2012 – Happy New Year!"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Word This Week:<\/font><\/strong>
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Jeremiah\u00a0 33:14-16<\/u>
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<\/span>Psalm\u00a0 25:1-10<\/u><\/a>
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<\/span>1\u00a0 Thessalonians 3:9-13<\/u><\/a>
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<\/span>Luke\u00a0 21:25-36<\/u><\/a>
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<\/span>Thoughts on The Word:
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<\/strong><\/font>Happy New Year! Today marks the beginning of the Chruchs’ liturgical year.\u00a0 The beginnning of the season we call Advent is a time of anticipation, of expectation and excitement.\u00a0 Excitement not only at the upcoming festivities of Christmas where we recall the first advent of our Lord, when he appeared among us as a baby, born to a virgin.\u00a0 Excitement also\u00a0as we anticipate the second advent of our Lord and saviour when he returns as a triumphant King!
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<\/span>Last week we saw imagery of this great King, and learnt about his Kingship and how we can be participants in the kingdom.\u00a0 This week we see some more imagery of our triumphant King in our Gospel as Jesus foretells of his return with great power and glory.\u00a0 However there is also a warning in this – the time of his return will see much fear, and foreboading.\u00a0 You see the return of Christ will bring much joy for those of us who have accepted Him, but it will also bring a great realisation to all those who have rejected him of what they have done – and what now awaits them.
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<\/span>When Jesus returns, he will come in a position of judgement on creation, and those who have willingly and knowingly rejected him will need to give an account – so to will those of us who have accepted his offer of salvation.\u00a0 The difference is when our list of transgressions are recounted before the throne of Judgement we can respond confidently to each charge ‘;guilty, but pardoned through the atoning work of my saviour’.\u00a0 Sadly there are many who will not say those words or something similar… ther are literally billions of people on this planet who have not accepted the open invitation to forgiveness which is before them.\u00a0
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<\/span>During this time of Advent then, when we both remember the first coming and anticipate the second coming of our Lord, let us renew our own committment to be ambassadors of Christ to the world.\u00a0\u00a0 We are called to be beacons of the hope and love of Christ.\u00a0 We are called to be proclaimers of the Gospel, through our words, and through our actions.\u00a0 In this season of Advent then,\u00a0as we have at the forefront of our minds\u00a0both the joy we will feel, and the anguish and fear that awaits those who do not know our Lord\u00a0at his second coming, let us examine ourselves and our lives to ensure we are beacons and ambassadors of Christ, let us\u00a0“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and\u00a0drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly…”.\u00a0 Let us also though re-commit ourselves to taking every opportunity given us to proclaim the Gospel, let us not be ashamed of it lest we cause one more person to come before our Lord at his second advent and hear the words \u201c…You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the\u00a0 devil and his angels…’ (Matthew 25:41 – NRSV)
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<\/span>May God richly bless you this week and throughout this ne Christian year.
<\/span>Daryl.
<\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Word This Week:Jeremiah\u00a0 33:14-16Psalm\u00a0 25:1-101\u00a0 Thessalonians 3:9-13Luke\u00a0 21:25-36Thoughts on The Word:Happy New Year! Today marks the beginning of the Chruchs’ liturgical year.\u00a0 The beginnning of the season we call Advent is a time of anticipation, of expectation and excitement.\u00a0 Excitement not only at the upcoming festivities of Christmas where we recall the first advent … Continue reading “Sunday 2nd December 2012 – Happy New Year!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}