Dear Family at Christ Community,

Why DID Christ come in His first advent? What ARE we waiting for in His final advent? The answers to these questions prove formative to how we live out our union with Christ. This Sunday we will hear Isaiah’s prophetic answers to these questions from Isaiah 9:1-7. The brief poem contained in these verses beautifully sums up the sweep of Redemptive History from Eden to the New Heavens and Earth. This serves to provide us with an unwavering hope of who and Whose we are as the Beloved of God in the light of Christ regardless of who we were in the haunts of darkness. John Calvin in his Commentary on Isaiah offers us this encouragement concerning this new reality:

“Now, hence it is evident what Christ brings to us, namely, a full and perfect joy, of which we cannot in any way be robbed or deprived, though various storms and tempests should arise, and though we should be weighed down by every kind of afflictions. However weak and feeble we may be, still we ought to be glad and joyful; for the ground of our joy does not lie in numbers, or wealth, or outward splendor, but in spiritual happiness, which we obtain through the word of Christ.”

Please consider how the Lord’s Table serves to remind us of these truths and nourishes our joy and gladness in them being true. Please join me in praying that the Holy Spirit, through worship, would stir us to greater joy and gladness in the sure hope of Jesus’s redemption and reign. Also join me in praying that the Spirit would draw those to worship who struggle with the opening questions and, as a result, be able to enjoy union with Christ.

In Christ,
Cameron