2nd Sunday of Advent
1.       Share a way that Jesus, as the Word, communicated with you last week — through Scripture, through His Spirit, through another of His children, or through His beauty.
I have been participating in a Bible Study Fellowship group in their 9-month study of Revelation. There are about 6-10 of us meeting via Zoom every week. We were in Chapter 6 last week and talked about the Lamb being the only One worthy to open the scroll held “by the right hand of him who sat on the throne”. And the leaders and living creatures sang a song of praise and worship to the Lamb! Amazing truth by which to live my earthly life. He is worthy of my praise, and I can live a worshipful life here on earth. I do not have to wait to get to Heaven to do that! 
 
One of the older ladies in our group said that she is not afraid of dying because she wants to see Jesus face to face and give Him all the praise for what He has done for her!

1. Share a way that Jesus, as the Word, communicated with you last week — through Scripture, through His Spirit, through another of His children, or through His beauty.
 
One morning I woke up thinking about Jesus and how if He hadn’t gone to the cross that there would have been no alternative for me. I would just go to hell instead. The face of a “devil” was in my dream. Ick.
 
Also, our church had a Christmas program that was presented on Saturday night. The kids and I sang. There was a comedic skit where two angels (adults), on a cloud contemplated a new assignment that included the “Almighty” going to the “people planet.” They imagine how it would be and how they would be involved. There were to be “special ops, and such.” When the angels “see” that He actually is born as a “baby people” (!), one of them says repeatedly, “How perfect, genuine,” or something like that. It made me think about how perfect it really was. 
 

What name does John use for Jesus? What does this tell us about who Jesus is and why He came? The Word
3. Eugene Peterson paraphrases “the Word became flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood…” What insight does this give you into why Jesus came?   That He came to be part part of and share life with me, to be in contact with each other. 
Blaise Pascal stressed the importance of reaching the heart – -making others want to know if Jesus is real. I think that is what John is doing here, endeavoring to express the excitement and wonder of knowing Jesus.
4. When I was doing a trial run of my talk for 5 of you on zoom, I was stressing that a real Christian has a relationship with Jesus. Bing and Laura gave me some good pointers and I’ve decided to compare it with my falling in love with Steve — how I’d wake up in the morning knowing something was different, and then I remembered it was Steve in my life — and I would see him, hear him, touch him – -and I was so excited. How does this compare to John’s feeling about the “Word” in 1 John 1:1-4? In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.   It’s directing me to where life is found in Him and life in Him becomes a light for me.
5. Realizing that evangelism is a group effort, and you don’t have to say everything, what are some things you might say, from your own personal experience, that might make people want to know if Jesus is who He claims to be?  I’m not good at this.  I’m taking Bsf Revelation study which tells what lies ahead for believers and unbelievers so I need to do better.   Sometimes just asking the question How’s it going will lead to conversation and prayer but I’m not directly hitting the mark of letting people know if Jesus is who He  claims to be.
6. Listen or read Keller through his illustration of how you can’t really know a person until you’ve spoken to him. Stop after he says “you reveal yourself through your word.” What did you learn from this opening of his message? You can know about someone but not really know them until you have had the opportunity to talk to them.  In Jesus, the Word, we get the entire picture of who God is. His grace and His truth are on display to help us understand the depth of God’s heart for His Created.
 

Monday: Express the Excitement
Though Keller has the whole prologue read (John 1:1-14) he concentrates on just one verse: John 1:14.
1.       What name does John use for Jesus? What does this tell us about who Jesus is and why He came?
John referred to Jesus as “The Word”. Jesus is from the beginning and He is God. He came so we can see his glory, full of grace and truth.
2.      Eugene Peterson paraphrases “the Word became flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood…” What insight does this give you into why Jesus came?
Jesus wants me to know Him as somebody who has lived life here on earth, who has rubbed shoulders with me and women like me, and who understands all that I have been through.
Blaise Pascal stressed the importance of reaching the heart – -making others want to know if Jesus is real. I think that is what John is doing here, endeavoring to express the excitement and wonder of knowing Jesus.
3.       When I was doing a trial run of my talk for 5 of you on zoom, I was stressing that a real Christian has a relationship with Jesus. Bing and Laura gave me some good pointers and I’ve decided to compare it with my falling in love with Steve — how I’d wake up in the morning knowing something was different, and then I remembered it was Steve in my life — and I would see him, hear him, touch him – -and I was so excited. How does this compare to John’s feeling about the “Word” in 1 John 1:1-4?
I like your illustration here of your love for Steve in comparison to John’s feelings about the “Word”. One can almost “hear” the excitement in John’s voice (much like yours when you talk about Steve). If he were here and talking to me about Jesus, I would be very excited to meet the “Word”. He is the Creator, the One who gives life and is the light. Who wouldn’t want to meet such a man?
4.      Realizing that evangelism is a group effort, and you don’t have to say everything, what are some things you might say, from your own personal experience, that might make people want to know if Jesus is who He claims to be?
I would say, “I did not realize that the things of this world have been my master, lord, and savior for many years. I was serving my job, my family, and my ministry, etc. When I finally committed myself to Jesus as my Lord and Savior, my perspective changed. When He is Lord of my life, all these other things became tools by which to serve Him, Him, and Him alone.
5.       Listen or read Keller through his illustration of how you can’t really know a person until you’ve spoken to him. Stop after he says “you reveal yourself through your word.” What did you learn from this opening of his message?
I can’t know somebody unless I have spoken to them in person. Their speech would reveal themselves to me.
I have a pen pal who I have never met. Although we have exchanged letters through the years, I still don’t know them because I have not heard them speak to me in person.
I also have a friend who after meeting my daughter said that she now knows my daughter in a way far better than when we were just praying for her. Although she thought she had a good idea of who my daughter was, her knowledge of her was kind of vague until she met my daughter and talked to her for the first time!

1. Share a way that Jesus, as the Word, communicated with you last week — through Scripture, through His Spirit, through another of His children, or through His beauty.
 Darcy was out of town and her dear friend, Anna-Lisa took me to the Ladies Night in little Wakefield. All the stores were decorated and filled with the lights of Christmas. We had a lovely dinner and spent a long time talking about God. Anna-Lisa has the kindest heart and sees only good in others. She said she believed in the spirits and that she was always surrounded by angels, and she believes in a powerful being/creator ~ She said that she was never raised to know God and she did not know the right language to express it.  I so see Jesus in this sweet friend and I told her that. I am praying that she will be open to learning more about Him. She said she loves talking about it, so I am praying for the right words and the right time. It is beautiful to watch Jesus draw His children to Him. How I pray that He will be very present when we visit.  Darcy has been inspired to listen to the whole Bible on an app, as she drives to work each day. We have had many deep conversations. God is working. Advent is a beautiful Season.
 

Tuesday: Clarify Who Jesus Is (And pray for me tonight! 🙂 )
I’m going to be sharing Debbie’s confusion when she studied John 1. She said, “So you are telling me Jesus was born at Christmas yet He created the world? My head hurts!” The Lord brought her out of the painful birth canal in time, but she shared the belief that so many have, that Jesus was just a great moral teacher.
7. How does John 1:14 clarify who Jesus really is? Find everything you can.
 
—Jesus was the Word of God. He was from God. He revealed Who God was in his very own person  and was God’s voice to us. God was speaking through him. 
He became fully human and lived as a man among mankind. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness revealing Gods unfailing love and faithfulness to mankind. He showed his glory and revealed God’s glory as his one and only Son. John the writer of the Gospel along with Peter and James actually saw Him in his glorified state of being on the Mount of Transfiguration. 
 
 
8. Are you familiar with C. S. Lewis’s argument that Jesus could not have been a great moral teacher and make the claims he did? It’s the famous: “Liar, Lunatic, or Lord” message. Can you share it here?
 
—As I looked up and reread C. S. Lewis’s comments I found it called a trilemma which is an apologetic argument traditionally used to argue for the divinity of Jesus. It was interesting to me that Lewis was not the first to use this form of argument but it has actually been used in various forms by others throughout church history. But Lewis popularized it when he used it on his BBC radio talk show and later it was published in his book “Mere Christianity”. That is where  I first read it. Some critics have argued against this form of apologetic argument but I found it to make a lot of sense when truly examined in light of the scriptures especially in an honest examination of the gospels. 
As Lewis said at the end of his argument “Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”
I agree with him. I do too. 
 
 
 
9. Read or listen through the top of page 4 or the sentence “This where you know this is true, looking at him because He’s the Word of God.”
A. What stands out to you from this and why?
 
-The fact that Jesus in and of himself is our watertight argument for Christianity. Everything hinges on the Person of Jesus Christ.  
 
 
B. Why does Keller say a watertight argument is not possible? What do we have instead?
 
—He said something to the effect that God has not given a watertight argument to prove that Christianity is true. 
—Instead He has given us a watertight person. Jesus is the compelling truth of Christianity. 
 
—I was awake in the night and prayed for you Dee and will continue to through out today trusting God to have his hand on you and the Christmas Tea tonight.  

Wednesday: The Word Made Killable
I love this portion of Keller’s message for it truly shows the love of Christ. I am going to begin my talk with my testimony (pray I have energy and say it fast — like Paige — for I don’t have loads of time!). I want them to know that just as God heard our cries and came down for us, He heard each of our individual cries and came down for us, individually. I am going to share how empty and repetitive my life felt using some verses from Ecclesiastes such as “What has been done will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun.”
 
10. Share a time, either before salvation or after, when you are quite sure God heard your desperate cries and came running.
 
—As I think back over many years of knowing God and having Jesus as my Savior since my childhood there are a number of times I called out and was desperate for him to hear my cries and answer.  There were times in my marriage and times n my parenting that were painful.  The most recent experience was last March when I stood by my daughter-in-law’s lifeless body on the ground after her accident and cried out aloud to God for help. As I knelt down and took her hand I knew God wad present with me but I had no idea that he was in that moment of time doing a powerful work in her heart, mind and body in a powerful interaction between them when I only saw her in an unconscious state. I look back and don’t just see Him as coming running but He was there in an instant. Paul David Tripp refers to God as sometimes using violent grace in our lives. That was a day of violent grace in each of our lives. Then He applied his rescuing grace. Praise feels inadequate for what He did. 
 
 
11. Read or listen to Keller through his x-ray technician story and share what his point was.
 
—The x-ray technician had never been on the table to experience the extreme discomfort of the procedure when suffering from something until he had kidney stones and was put in the position of being x-rayed himself. Then he completely understood the experience because he himself lived it and it changed his perspective completely by giving him an absolute understanding from then on for his patients. 
So in a like manner when Jesus came down and became human and lived in the flesh he fully experienced everything that humanity has ever experienced and he fully understands. That makes Him the perfect counselor in whatever our trial and need is. He has been there too. 

 
14. What thoughts do you have on the above? Do you think you could show this to a teenager to start a conversation? (The bench press was a bit confusing, but I think he was showing that he wanted to press that many pounds, but that didn’t make it true.) I have a friend who was close to me in high school. She brought me to church with her family. Mine didn’t go. She introduced me to Young Life. We parted ways for college. She was in my wedding and then I didn’t see her for probably 15 years. Her comment to me when I asked how her spiritual life was shocked me. She said, “Yeah, I just never could believe all that.” I shared how I didn’t think I could get through the hard things in life without the belief in eternity, but she had no change of heart. I would love to hear what my teens think of this. 
15. Read or listen to the rest of Keller and share what stands out. “It takes a madman to see royalty in a prostitute.” Our faith helps us see the world in a different light. We have hope where others see none. We can be calm, when others are afraid. Our peace is because of the one who is Peace. Lord, help us to be more like the madman every day. 

12. Might you use the above graph as a tool with others? Have you ever tried to explain the difference between religion and the gospel with another? If so, share.
I plan to use it with my boss, as she has described me as being religious before and I want to correct her gently. I am going to put a shrunk down version of it in a nice Christmas card and explain it somehow. I’m still working on how I can explain it without making her feel bad though. 
 

16. What is your take-a-way and why?
“And even if you feel like Aldanza did, that you’re gutter grime, He can come into your life and treat you like royalty because you are both a sinner and a king or queen in Him, and He can change you into His likeness.”
Right now I need a real transformation. I have been caught up in my own comforts and pleasures and haven’t been turning to Him as I should. I almost said that I haven’t been pursuing Him as I should, but I realized that I don’t have to pursue Him because He isn’t running away from me. I just need to turn back toward Him and He’s there.

I just listened to the hymn that Chris had mentioned. I had never heard it before, but it hit me right where I’m at.