Carolinsblog

We, as Jesus‘ bride, actually live constantly and uninterruptedly in an Advent season… because we are waiting for Jesus to come again. 

We await him with the confidence and joy that a bride has when she is waiting for her beloved – for her wedding.

„Jesus is coming soon!“ is often said, but when I hear this phrase I wonder again and again whether the people who say this are really looking forward to their Lord… because it may be easy to say this and we, as Christians, are almost used to being reminded of the return of Christ, but is there really deep, lasting joy in us in this thought…?

Why do we rejoice or why do we feel fear at this thought?

I think the decisive factor for „rejoicing“ or „being anxious“ is the attitude, conviction, even the knowledge we have about Jesus.

Do we think about our mistakes, our sins, our offenses, everything that has gone wrong in our lives when we think about the return of Jesus…? Are we therefore afraid that he will come „too soon“ so that we won’t be able to prove ourselves to him sufficiently? Or are we afraid because we are not sure whether we really belong to the bride? Is that it? …then let me tell you: Jesus is different than you think. Jesus is different than you have come to know him. Jesus is more than you expect him to be.

Jesus, the beginner and perfecter of our faith (by the way: HE starts faith in you & will bring you to the goal – that is his promise, that is why he is beginner & perfecter), does not lie, is the light of the world and loves his bride… as a bridegroom would love his bride.

Jesus looks forward to us, his children, as a bridegroom would look forward to the wedding with his bride. But it is not only the wedding that makes him happy, but rather the becoming one with his bride, the perfect becoming one. Jesus will have fellowship with us in heaven and he is looking forward to that… and so are we. It is the perfect joy and fulfillment of dwelling with Jesus and being with him where he is. We are looking forward to that.

Yet we know only too well how little we deserve this and how unworthy we are before him. We are aware of how sinful we are and how quickly we can and do fall into sin. For this reason, we „groan inwardly as we wait for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies“ (Romans 8:23).

We live in and by grace every day. We are told to „come confidently before the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help“ – whenever we want to run into His arms (Hebrews 4:16). When we sin, we realize for ourselves how much it hurts to have grieved the Holy Spirit and harmed ourselves… we realize how we hate sin to the depths of our being, yet we still sin and find ourselves in Romans 7. There Paul says exactly that and shows how a Christian lives, what state a Christian is in from time to time… we need grace. The longer we live in Christ, the more we see our sinfulness and, in contrast, the purity and holiness of God… our unworthiness and his immeasurable love for us, which we never deserved.

We are told to come confidently to the throne of grace because it is a promise that he will be gracious to us….

We have a hope that will not disappoint us because we have a compassionate High Priest – Jesus – who continually intercedes & speaks for us before the throne of God.

Hope, in a hopeless world…

Faith, in a faith-rejecting world…

Love, in a loveless world….

Truth, in a truth-poor world…

Grace, in an ungracious world…

JESUS

I would like to summarize for you very briefly what I think & have to say about Christmas…

We look forward to celebrating the birth of God, through Jesus, into our world

We await Jesus, who will return as the bridegroom to take us – his beloved – to himself

Christmas means peace, joy and love… because love itself became man

Christmas means a beginning where it seems hopeless and love where everything is drowned in hate

We look forward to Jesus because we are sure of his love and know that one day we will be with him for eternity

You can’t be thankful and unhappy at the same time… thankful to our Lord that HE gave his life for us and much more than that, intercedes for us now before the throne of God?

Grateful to the grace, mercy and love that Jesus shows us unworthy, finite people and expresses in the most diverse ways

Thank you Lord!

I wish you a wonderful Christmas!

Your Carolin