Harbor’s elders are challenging the church to read through the entire Bible in a year (Old Testament once, New Testament twice). This is a big commitment, and it comes with some dangers:

• Duty. Any kind of disciplined action can quickly turn into a dry, lifeless duty,“having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).You’ll be tempted to start seeing the Bible as a burden, rather than a joy.
• Pride. When you’re able to successfully make it through Leviticus and Numbers, you’ll feel pretty good about yourself. You’ll be tempted to look down on all the slackers who couldn’t do it.
• Self-righteousness. Anytime you achieve some spiritual accomplishment, it’s easy to think God owes you something for it. You’ll be tempted to expect greater reward from God, rather than seeing his reward in what he reveals through your disciplined study of his word.
• Carelessness. When there is so much Scripture to cover each day, you’ll be tempted to mindlessly skim over incredibly rich passages. While a superficial understanding of some passages is all you’ll be able to get in order to gain a wider vision for God’s story, you’ll also be tempted to view God’s word lightly.

It’s our prayer that each person at Harbor Church would understand the grand narrative of the gospel: God’s plan to glorify himself by saving sinful people like us from his deserving judgment, through the grace of Jesus Christ. We need to know God’s story so we can know where we fit into it, and the only way to understand it is to see it from beginning to end—from creation in Genesis to final redemption in Revelation.

Over the course of the next year, we’ll be reading through the entire Old Testament, and the New Testament and Psalms twice. This is a huge step for people like us who are over-scheduled with activities, over-reliant on zoned- out “me-time,” and under-experienced in making big commitments. If you find this too fast a pace, then read the first two passages listed for each day in the first year, and the last two passages in the second year. You’ll then read the entire New Testament and half of the Old each year.

Theologian and pastor D.A. Carson built on M’Cheyne’s foundation by writing short devotionals based on each day’s readings.Those devotionals are now published as a daily blog, which you can access at the link below. You can subscribe to the daily devotionals by email, if you’d like to automatically receive them in your inbox each morning. This can be an excellent reminder and aid to your own self-discipline.

The prayer of Harbor’s elders is that you would be encouraged and strengthened over the year ahead. “Open our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things out of your law, oh Lord!” (Psalm 119:18)

2012 Bible Reading Plan (pdf)

D.A. Carson’s Devotional Blog

… a little different from the way my theology professor said it:

Christmas has become a women’s holiday. They plan parties and Secret Santa exchanges. They hang decorations and ornaments. They bake cookies and fill stockings.

Compare that to a man’s holiday, like the Fourth of July. We throw piles of meat on blazing grills. We light off ridiculous amounts of fireworks. We… well, actually, that’s all we do. But what more do you need?

At Christmastime, many men feel irrelevant. Useless. They dutifully follow their wives around from activity to activity, carrying cookies and presents and honey-baked hams from place to place. They fake knowing smiles as people open gifts from them, even though they have no idea what’s inside.

The feminization of Christmas has even had the effect of crowding out one of the heroes of Christmas: Joseph. In our minds, his role in the story is basically the accidental sidekick. The third wheel to Mary and her miraculous child. In all the Christmas reenactments we watch, Joseph’s only job is to follow his wife around from place to place, just like the rest of us idiots.

But in the gospels, it’s clear that Joseph was much more active than that. His role as a compassionate spiritual leader during the first Christmas is something every man should imitate through God’s grace, every Christmas to come.

Joseph acted with holiness and compassion

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. (Matthew 1:18-19)

When Mary is “found to be with child,” she’s probably four months pregnant. Matthew tells us this child is from the Holy Spirit, but Joseph doesn’t know that’s how it happened. All he knows is that he hasn’t touched this girl, but somehow she’s gotten herself knocked up.

Matthew says Joseph is “just,” which means obedient to the Law of Moses. And according to the Law, his betrothal to Mary is legally null and void as a result of her adultery. Joseph wants to obey the Law, so he needs to divorce her.

He has the legal right to go public with his anger. To accuse her in front of the elders of the city. He even has the option given in Deuteronomy 22 of having her stoned to death. He’s righteous and just.

But he’s also compassionate. He’s unwilling to put her to shame, unlike what most men did in that culture. You would bring your wife to a public court, charge her with adultery, and shred her reputation in order to preserve your own. But that’s not what Joseph wants to do. The law allowed for a private divorce before two witnesses, so that’s probably what Joseph’s planning. Even though he thinks Mary has violated him and his trust, he still has compassion for her, so he wants to spare her unnecessary shame. He is sacrificially loving.

Men, we will be tempted to grumble and complain during Christmastime. My wife calls it my “bah-humbug” attitude. I call it sinful selfishness. Like Joseph, let’s strive for righteous compassion. Let’s look for ways to humbly serve our families, churches, and friends as we display the holiness of Christ. Wrap more presents. Do more cooking and cleaning, and less football watching. Volunteer for nursery duty at church this Sunday.

Joseph acted with confident faith

When Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. (Matthew 2:19-21)

When Joseph fled to Egypt with his family from the murderous King Herod, that was an act of faith. But it required even more confidence in God to go back home.

Israel was still a hostile place, as Joseph discovered later when he learned that Herod’s son was still on the throne in Judea. Joseph had to trust God that they would be safe. He had to have faith that they would have food and shelter along the way. He had to have confidence that once they got there, he could find work and provide for his family.

In our affluent culture, we don’t need to trust God for a whole lot. There aren’t many of us who’ve ever had to wonder if we would have food to eat the next day. There aren’t many of us who’ve had to move overseas, with no idea how we would survive once we got there.

But there’s another way to display confident faith. My father taught me to trust God by never using his credit card. If he wanted to buy something, like a new TV, he would wait until God had provided the money rather than going down to the store and whipping out the plastic.

Men, every Christmas we are tempted to appease the materialistic expectations of our culture by giving gifts that are way beyond our means. Instead, let’s display confidence in God’s provision. It’s not too late to return some of the outlandish gifts you’ve already bought, and replace them with something simpler and more meaningful.

Joseph acted with strong leadership

At the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:21-24)

We’re going back in time here, to the week of Jesus’ birth. In Leviticus, it was commanded that every Jewish baby be brought to the temple on his 41st day to be presented to the Lord. This wasn’t the most convenient law in the Scriptures, and there were plenty of people in Israel at the time who ignored it. But Joseph was a spiritual leader. He led his family in worship and sacrifice, even when it wasn’t convenient.

It’s clear that fathers have a unique role to play in their families:

• “God appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them.” (Psalm 78)
• “He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.” (Malachi 4)
• “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6)

Men, we will have two options this Christmas: to be passive observers, or to be active spiritual leaders in our families. Let’s carve out time to read God’s word, worship, and pray with our kids. Let’s look for opportunities at Christmas gatherings to explain to our unsaved relatives and friends why Jesus came to this earth (read this post to learn how). Let’s lead our families, before and after the wrapping paper and bows are ripped apart, in thanking God for his goodness to us.

The holidays can be really depressing. At family Christmas gatherings, you might get subtle (or not-so-subtle) hints about the ways you’ve let your family down lately. On New Year’s Eve, you might look back over the last year and wonder why you’re not further ahead in your career, relationships, or holiness from where you were a year ago.

We generally find our identity in two ways: how we fit in with others and please others, or how we express ourselves individually and make personal advances. No matter which way we go, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment and confusion.

Jesus offers us a third option. In Matthew 16:24, he said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

He’s talking to all of us. Anyone who wants to come after him. Anyone who wants to follow him. Not just the twelve disciples. Not just spiritual leaders. Anyone. If you want to be a Christian, there are three conditions Jesus is giving you here:

1) Deny yourself
Some people hear this, and they think it means they need to try to deny every impulse and every desire they have. They need to discipline themselves to say no every time they want something. But that word deny could have another translation: disown. “If anyone would come after me, let him disown himself.”

What does it mean to disown someone, or disown something? To distance yourself from it. To disconnect yourself from it. Another way to say it would be, “Let him fall out of love with himself.” Because the more you love yourself, the less you’ll feel the need for a savior. The more impressed you are with yourself, the less you’ll need Jesus to do for you.

So what denying yourself really means is denying that you can keep living your life the way you’ve always lived it. It means denying that you’re doing OK. It means denying that you’ll be just fine in life without God’s grace.

2) Take up your cross
This means something different to most of us than it did to them. We live in a culture where people wear crosses around their necks. And taking up your cross could mean something different to every person.

When Jesus said it to the disciples, it would have meant only one thing to them: death. It would be like saying, “Take up your electric chair.” “Take up your lethal injection.” “Take up your hangman’s noose.” The disciples didn’t yet understand what Christ was going to do for them on the cross so they didn’t have any sentimental connections to the cross, like we do. All they knew is that you DIE on a cross. They probably also knew that 800 people had just been crucified a few years before in Caesarea Philippi, where they were standing now.

Taking up your cross means dying for Jesus. And Luke adds some clarification in his gospel. When he’s telling this same story in Luke 9, he says there was one more word Jesus added to this command. “Let him take up his cross … daily.”

Which means every day we’re going to die for Jesus. Every day we’re going to die to ourselves. You’re going to go through some kind of trial every day that will give you the opportunity to make a decision. You’ll have two options: “Am I going to live for myself? Or am I going to die to myself and live for Jesus?”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Jesus calls us, he bids us come and die.” For him, that was literally true. He was executed in a concentration camp, just a few weeks before the end of World War 2. For us, it’s something that has to happen every single day.

Paul said in Galatians 2 … “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

When I follow Jesus, that means the old Matt gets crucified! It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

This isn’t a loss of my personality – it’s a transformation of my personality to become what it was originally intended to be. It’s not that Matt disappears, it’s that Matt comes under the influence of the Holy Spirit so I’m not the distorted, selfish Matt I used to be. I’m the humble, faithful, generous Matt I was supposed to be.

Paul says this is the life I now live in the flesh. Which means this isn’t some psycho-mystical experience. This isn’t just for monks living in monasteries, spending 18 hours a day in prayer and meditation. Living in the flesh means we’re talking about living the same, earthly, everyday life I led before I knew Jesus.

It’s just that I live it by faith “in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Which is why Jesus gives the third condition…

3) Follow me
“Depend on me. Learn from me. Watch me. Imitate me.” That’s what being a disciple means: imitator. If your master was a martyr, that probably means you’ll experience something close to that too.

Jesus explains why in the next verse: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt 16:25).

The word “life” here is the Greek word “psuche” (or psyche). It’s the same word used in the next verse and translated as “soul”: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

Psuche is a tough word to translate, because it has so many different facets and shades of meaning to it. There’s no one English word that captures it all. One scholar has translated it, “Your true self.” What makes you who you are.

Isn’t that the question everybody wants to know? “Who AM I?”

You could read hundreds of self-help books, go to lots of motivational seminars, and make it through endless hours of therapy to answer that question. But Jesus says it’s simple.

“Disown yourself, let me crucify you and live in your place, and imitate me. You’ll find the you that you always wanted to be.”

Denver quarterback and outspoken Christian Tim Tebow has been making waves the last few weeks with some insane victories. Here’s what Bob Costas said about it:

Again today, Tebow did next to nothing until the waning moments, and then, down 10-0 with two minutes left, he throws a touchdown pass, and the Broncos tie it at the gun on a 59-yard field goal. And then win it in overtime on a 51-yarder. The combination of Denver’s continuing late heroics, and today, the Bears’ otherwise unexplainable errors, is enough to have some at least suspect divine intervention. Except that Tebow, whose sincere faith cannot be questioned, and should be respected, also has the good sense, and good grace, to make it clear he does not believe God takes a hand in the outcome of games.

Most of us are good with that. Otherwise, how to explain what happens when there are equal numbers of believers on either side? Or why so many of those same believers came up empty facing Sandy Koufax? Or hit the deck against Muhammad Ali? Or why the Almighty wouldn’t have better things to do?

Here’s how Owen Strachan responds:

God oversees and ordains all that comes to pass. This includes, as surprising as it may initially seem, football games. The outcome of every football game ever been played was planned by the all-wise, all-seeing mind of God. But this is not saying what some might think. God has also planned every haircut you’ve ever had, and every shopping trip you’ve ever taken. He is lord of football, and he is lord of produce. Nothing happens outside of his sovereign direction.

We err, though, if we equate his general superintendence of this world—the falling of sparrows, the numbering of hairs—with the special working of his kingdom. This is what Costas seems to be protesting, and in a much fuller sense than he understands. God has a special interest in promoting his gospel and building his church (John 3:16; Rom. 10; Eph. 1). This is not to say that he is uninterested in the ordinary things of the world, but rather to note that the mission of salvation begun after Adam’s fall holds preeminence for God and, by extension, for his followers.

We must also say that for Tebow, the way he plays football is necessarily a matter of God’s glory. In the same way that God gains glory through the work of a faithful accountant, a sacrificial, sleep-deprived mother, and a repentant cellist, God gains glory through righteous athletes who work hard in his name and seek to be a light in dark places. God directs the life and exploits of Tim Tebow, football hero. But he also directs Owen Strachan, Boyce College professor, or my friend Colin LeCroy, a Dallas lawyer, or my friend Emily Duffus, an Atlanta schoolteacher. Tebow may reach more people in his work, but we are all working for the glory of God, who directs and blesses our work so as to magnify his name.

Christmas can be a tense and busy time, with unending activities, relational obligations, and family conflicts. But anxiety can strike at any time. David Powlison offers six strategic steps to take in conquering it through Christ’s power:

Anxiety is a universal human experience, and you need to approach it with a plan. Notice this is not a formula. When Andy Reid coaches the Philadelphia Eagles, he doesn’t know a single thing that’s going to happen after the opening whistle. He doesn’t even know who’s going to kick off until they flip a coin. But he’s not unprepared. He goes in with a game plan, a basic orientation to the game ahead. I want to give you six things as a game plan for when you start to worry and obsess.

First, name the pressures. You always worry about something. What things tend to hook you? What do you tend to worry about? What “good reasons” do you have for anxiety? The very act of naming it is often very helpful. In the experience of anxiety, it seems like a million things. You’re juggling plates, round and round and round and round. But really, you’re juggling only six plates— or maybe obsessing on just one. It helps you to name the one thing or the six that keep recycling. Anxieties feel endless and infinite— but they’re finite and specific.

Second, identify how you express anxiety. Spot the signs. How does anxiety show up in your life? For some people it’s feelings of panic clutching their throat, or just a vague unease. What a huge step forward when you stand back and say, “Aha, a red light on the dashboard!” Rather than just indulging your worries, you can name them. For some people it’s repetitive, obsessive thoughts: “Oh, now that’s the fourth time I’ve repeated that scenario in my mind.” For some people the sign is anger. They get irritated, but when they work back, they realize, “I was fearful and worried about something.” For other people, worry shows up in their bodies (e.g., a tension headache) or in the cheap remedies that sin manufactures to make us feel better (e.g., gobbling ice cream, or an overpowering desire for a stiff drink). Spot the signs. How can those things become cues to you? “I’m losing it, I’m forgetting God, my flashlight is going dim.”

Third, ask yourself, Why am I anxious? Worry always has its inner logic. Anxious people are “you of little faith.” If I’ve forgotten God, who or what has edged Him out of my mind and started to rule in His place? Identify the hijacker. Anxious people have fallen into one of the subsets of “every form of greed.” What do I want, need, crave, expect, demand, lust after? Or, since we fear losing the things we crave getting, what do I fear either losing or never getting? Identify the specific lust of the flesh. Anxious people “eagerly seek” the gifts more than the Giver. They bank treasure in the wrong place. What is preoccupying me, so that I pursue it with all my heart? Identify the object of your affections.

Fourth, what better reason does Jesus give you not to worry? What were those promises we just talked about? Go back and pick one to take to heart. I listed sevenfor you, seven things Jesus guarantees about how God runs His universe. We highlighted the sixth, “Your father is God,” because it was the best of those better reasons. But they’re all good reasons. That’s why Jesus mentions every one. We’re pretty uncomplicated people. It’s tough to remember seven things at once, so pick one. For me, over the last month, the most helpful one has been, “If God feeds the crows, won’t He provide for you?” It makes me laugh even to think about it, and anxiety can’t coexist with hearty laughter! Those Crow Boys intercepted a lot of temptations to anxiety; they did me good. Grab one promise and work with it.

Fifth, go to your Father. Talk to Him. It’s not as though your Father doesn’t care about the things you worry about: your friends, your health, your money, your children, and so forth. Your Father knows what you need. You can go to Him with the things that concern you. Cast your cares on Him, because He cares for you. You’ll have to leave your worries with Him. They are always outside of your control! How will your kids turn out? Will you get Alzheimer’s? What will happen with the economy? Will you ever get married? Will there be an anthrax attack? Will your dad come to know the Lord? Will you have money for next month’s bills? You have good reasons to be concerned about such things, but you have better reasons to take them to Someone who loves you. Like that toddler whose mom trailed her, even the deep end of life is safe.

Finally, give. Do and say something constructive. Care for someone else. Give to meet human need. In the darkest hole, when the world is most confused, when there are barbarians in the streets, when life’s the toughest, there’s always the right thing to do. There’s always some way to give yourself away. The problem might seem overwhelming. You could worry, worry, worry, worry. But what you’re called to do is small, just a little itty-bitty thing. There’s always something to give yourself to, and some way to give. Jesus said more about this in Matthew 6, the parallel passage to ours: “Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day thereof.” Give yourself to today’s trouble. Be about the business of today. Leave tomorrow’s uncertainties to your Father.  (via)

If you’re a church leader at any level, join us January 6-7 (Friday afternoon and Saturday all day) for the Gospel Coach workshop led by Scott Thomas, president of the Acts 29 church planting network. The workshop is designed to give Christian leaders a practical system to develop and equip other leaders in the local church and to shepherd them to glorify God. While it is for leaders, it can be used to shepherd believers of all stages of their life, maturity, age, and gender.

The cost is only $15 per person when you register here.

In this post, Scott offers 30 reasons why every leader needs a coach. Here are ten of them:

1. Coaching helps to remind a leader of the Gospel
2. Coaching exposes a leader’s blind spots
3. Coaching models biblical community
4. Coaching improves a leader’s perspective and objectivity
5. Coaching sharpens a leader’s calling
6. Coaching helps a leader identify and fight arrogance
7. Shepherds need to be shepherded
8. Coaching sharpens a leader’s skills and abilities
9. Coaching provides a safe sounding board
10. Coaching protects family and marital health

Paul says, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17).

What he means is that the kingdom of God isn’t about rules and regulations, about what you should eat or drink or anything else. It’s about receiving righteousness, peace, and joy through the Holy Spirit.

All of those things are gifts. He’s saying the kingdom of God is like a stack of presents, wrapped up with nice big bows, waiting under the Christmas tree for us. And the degree to which we will experience the kingdom of God is the degree to which we have accepted those gifts and appreciated those gifts.

Paul makes the same point in another letter. He starts with this challenge:

Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place. (Eph 5:3-4)

Now, wait a minute. I know it seems like we’re still talking about rules and regulations: “Keep your pants on… keep your mind out of the gutter…  keep your mouth closed… keep your hands off of other people’s stuff.” But Paul’s going to take a left turn here. Look at what he says in the rest of the verse:

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. (Eph 5:4)

Let there be… thanksgiving!  That’s not at all what I was expecting him to say, the first time I read it.

I was expecting him to say “let there be holiness,” or “let there be purity.” But he’s going a lot deeper than that.

He’s saying the reason why we’re sexually immoral, and impure, and greedy, and filthy and silly and crude… is because we think we deserve certain things in life, and we don’t think God’s giving them to us.

We think we deserve sex, so we grab it on our own terms. We think we deserve comfortable lives, so we get greedy and grab stuff to make us happy.

We’re not thankful for the things God’s already given us. He’s the Father who loves to give good gifts, and if we were thankful for those gifts, we wouldn’t feel the need to grab more. Instead we’d say, “God’s given me everything I need… why would I turn my back on him for a few more trinkets and toys?”

Because there’s also the flip side in the very next verse:

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Eph 5:5)

He’s saying that the thing driving all those desires is idolatry, worshiping other things more than we worship God. We might treasure Christ a little bit, but we treasure something else more. We might believe in Jesus, but we serve something else to get our immediate desires fulfilled.

Here’s the thing: the Kingdom of God isn’t just about believing in Jesus. Every homeless drug addict I’ve met at Old Stadium Park believes in Jesus. Every guy I’ve sat down with in my office who’s struggling with a porn habit believes in Jesus. Every married couple I have in my living room, who are roommates but not lovers,who feel like God tricked them into marrying this person and cheated them out of a happy marriage… they all believe.

The problem is not that they don’t believe in Jesus, the problem is that they’re not thankful for the things Jesus has already given them. Things like righteousness, peace, and joy through the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s saying that unthankfulness is what leads us to idolatry, and idolaters have “no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”

Thankfulness is a life-or-death issue. This weekend, thank God loudly and boldly for what he gave you on the cross through Jesus Christ, and what he gives you every day through his Holy Spirit.

Jesus delivered a stinging rebuke to the Pharisees who tried to hide their rebellious and selfish hearts by covering them up with religious rituals: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:8-9).

He’s saying that worship is all about the heart. Too often we go through the motions with empty religious rituals while our hearts are somewhere far away.

So how do we overcome it? How do we bring our hearts back where they belong?

The heart is where we feel things, so the first step is to allow God to make us feel again. John Piper lists some of the feelings God gives us:

• “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
• “I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin”(Psalm 38:18).
• “As a hart longs for the flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1, 2).
• “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25, 26).
• “I will worship toward thy holy temple in the fear of thee” (Psalm 5:7).
• “Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him” (Psalm 33:8).
• “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, and bless his name!” (Psalm 100:4).
• “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart” (Psalm 32:11).
• “Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God” (Psalm 42:5).

And how do we start to feel those kinds of intense emotions? By seriously reflecting on the depths of our sin, the heights of God’s glory, and the greatness of God’s grace that bridges between them:

You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:1-10)

One of my few pet-peeves in life is when I see Christmas decorations going up too early. This year, I started seeing them in September. Retailers want to stretch out the Christmas season as long as possible, in hopes of selling as much as possible.

In reality, the “Christmas season” as we know it has only existed for about 150 years. Before that, Christians celebrated Advent, a time of fasting, penitence, and somber waiting for the coming of the redeemer.

I don’t think there’s any Scriptural reason for us to create artificial gloominess, since we know the Savior has come, and is coming back. But Advent can be a reminder of our eager anticipation for Christ to come for his bride.

Harbor will be celebrating Advent together each Sunday, starting Thanksgiving weekend. To help you and your family prepare, here is a weekly advent devotional guide developed by The Village Church. Here’s how they describe it:

The Advent Guide serves as an introduction to the Advent season in hope to awaken the angst of waiting, longing and yearning for Christ. The hope is to feel the ancient angst of Israel and allow that to inform our own anticipation. The guide consists of five weeks of devotionals with each week containing one personal devotional and one family devotional.

It will take the church from the longing of the Old Testament saints for the Messiah, to Christ’s first advent, to the longing that we now experience for His return. We will begin with God’s promises in general and move to the specific promise of a Messiah, the fulfillment of that promise in the coming of Jesus Christ, the promise of a second coming, and the longing of the Church as we wait for the eventual fulfillment of that promise.

Advent Guide (PDF)

When God forces us to take a break from our hectic lives and lie down in green pastures, he wants us to take advantage of the time he’s given us. We often feel the need to fill every spare moment with TV, Facebook, or iPhone games, but our Good Shepherd wants us to take time to be quiet and still. That’s what David says in Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.

The thing about sheep is that they won’t drink from rushing water. If they’re going to get hydration, they need a still, quiet pool to drink from.

And it’s the same with you and me, except for one difference: we think we can drink from a raging river, so we keep trying.

You go to to the mall to buy a pair of pants, and you’ve got to choose between regular fit, and classic fit, and loose fit… then you’ve got to choose between plain front and pleated front, and we haven’t even got to choose the color yet! You go home and flip on the TV, with your nice digital cable package. You settle in to watch a new show, but halfway through you start wondering… what’s on those other 999 channels? So you start flipping through, and find something you like, but then you start worrying again… am I missing something on ESPN? What about Discovery channel?

All of this decision-making is giving you a headache, so you go down to Longs to buy some aspirin. Only thing is, once you get there you have to decide if you want aspirin, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen? Name-brand or generic? 350 milligrams or 500? Caplets, capsules, or tablets? Coated or uncoated?

The world around is blasting us with a firehose of things to try, things to experience, things to choose, things that will make us better and happier. We  can try sipping from a firehose all day long, but most of the time we’ll still end up thirsty.

1000 years after David wrote this Psalm, Jesus used the same analogy of water when he met the Samaritan woman at the well. The woman was there looking for physical water, but Jesus told her:

Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. – John 4:13-14

We’re all looking for water. All of us have thirsty souls that have been sucked dry by the world around us.By the painful experiences we’ve had, by the pressure of trying to live up to our world’s definition of success, by the people who’ve deliberately hurt us. So the real question that Jesus is asking is… where are you drinking from?

Maybe you’re still trying to drink from the firehose. You’re trying to find contentment by buying more stuff. Trying to find security by pursuing unhealthy relationships. Trying to find self-worth by constantly working to top your last achievement. If so, you’re still going to be thirsty at the end of the day.

Which is why Jesus said in John 7, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”  That’s where the Good Shepherd wants to take you.