This last week of Advent is the week of Love! Awake! Awake, Tziyon!Clothe yourself with your strength!Dress in your splendid garments,Yerushalayim, the holy city!For the uncircumcised and the uncleanwill enter you no more.Shake off the dust! Arise!Be enthroned, Yerushalayim!Loosen the chains on your neck,captive daughter of Tziyon!For thus says Adonai:“You were sold for nothing,and you will …
Untriumphantly: Love Came Down
This last week of Advent is the week of Love! In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.All things came to be through him, and without him nothing made had being.In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.The light shines …
Untriumphantly: No One Wants Bought Love
This last week of Advent is the week of Love! “All you who are thirsty, come to the water!You without money, come, buy, and eat!Yes, come! Buy wine and milkwithout money — it’s free!Why spend money for what isn’t food,your wages for what doesn’t satisfy?Listen carefully to me, and you will eat well,you will enjoy …
Untriumphantly: The Joy of Good News
This third week of Advent is the week of Joy! Without delay, Miryam set out and hurried to the town in the hill country of Y’hudah where Z’kharyah lived, entered his house and greeted Elisheva. When Elisheva heard Miryam’s greeting, the baby in her womb stirred. Elisheva was filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and spoke up in a loud …
Untriumphantly: Deeper Than Happy
This third week of Advent is the week of Joy! But a branch will emerge from the trunk of Yishai,a shoot will grow from his roots.The Spirit of Adonai will rest on him,the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,the Spirit of counsel and power,the Spirit of knowledge and fearing Adonai —he will be inspired by fearing Adonai.He will not judge by …
Untriumphantly: Peace on Earth Begins at Home
This second week of Advent is the week of Peace! I may speak in the tongues of men, even angels;but if I lack love, I have become merelyblaring brass or a cymbal clanging.I may have the gift of prophecy,I may fathom all mysteries, know all things,have all faith — enough to move mountains;but if I …
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Untriumphantly: A New Beginning
This second week of Advent is the week of Peace! You have enlarged the nationand increased their joy;they rejoice in your presenceas if rejoicing at harvest time,the way men rejoicewhen dividing up the spoil.For the yoke that weighed them down,the bar across their shoulders,and their driver’s goadyou have broken as on the day of Midyan[’s …
Untriumphantly: Against Busyness
This second week of Advent is the week of Peace! It was at that time that Yeshua said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you concealed these things from the sophisticated and educated and revealed them to ordinary folks. Yes, Father, I thank you that it pleased you to do this.“My Father …
Untriumphantly: Let’s Be Glad!
This first week of Advent is the week of Hope! In the countryside nearby were some shepherds spending the night in the fields, guarding their flocks, when an angel of Adonai appeared to them, and the Sh’khinah of Adonai shone around them. They were terrified; but the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, because I am here announcing to you Good News …
Incarnation: Advent Week Four Devotion
He is almost here! Each week, we have lit a candle. We lit the candle of expectation, the candle of preparation, and the candle of celebration! This week, we light our fourth candle, the candle of Incarnation. What is Incarnation? It is the Son of God becoming flesh. The Christian message is not one of …
Notes From the Parsonage 