2023 Advent Devotional: Week 4

Oh, behold, my Savior has come!

And my soul will tell of His praise

For He Who is strong has come to the weak

And, at last, He will reign as our King of Peace!

Have you ever waited for the sun to rise and warm the day? 

Have you ever waited in a dark room for the light to be restored?

Have you ever waited in a quiet place for good news? 

We all have waited in some way feeling forgotten or too little to be remembered. It may be exactly how the people felt before Jesus’ birth. Has God forgotten to send the Messiah? Will He actually bring all that He has promised? Feeling too little also seems to be how Mary saw herself. Yet from her “humble estate,” she remembers who God is. 

Luke 1:46-49 says, “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.’” 

Mary continues in her song to proclaim the great things that the Lord has done. Scattering the proud; bringing down the mighty; exalting the humble; filling the hungry; showing his strength (Luke 1:51-53). But all of this can be summed up in that God will level and straighten all things for His glory. Mary acknowledges and proclaims that only the Lord is great enough to do this work. It is the Lord who is mighty and holy.

As we celebrate Christmas Day, we know that God did keep His promise to send the Messiah. He did fulfill all that the prophets said He would. He showed His greatness and mightiness, His mercy and kindness. Today and every day may we hold fast to who God is from even our own humble estates, and remember that “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” (Isaiah 9:2)

— Kimber Callen

2023 Advent Devotional: Week 3

O come Thou Dayspring come and cheer

Our spirits by Thine advent here

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night

And death’s dark shadows put to flight

Rejoice, rejoice Emmanual

Shall come to thee O Israel

The days of winter bring cold and darkness, and with those cold, dark days seems to come a feeling of heaviness and loneliness. Like the creation around us, we tend to retreat in the cold and the dark. One such creature is the wood frog. Wood frogs quite literally retreat into a dark layer of leaves on the ground and then freeze during the winter. Their bodies sense the coming cold and then produce a sort of antifreeze so that everything in them can freeze and stop except for the space within their cells. Then one, warm spring day the wood frog begins to thaw and live again. But it takes trusting and knowing the light and warmth of spring will come again for the wood frog to “live” during the cold and dark winter. 

Luke 1:78-79 says, “because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Maybe physically you feel the weight of the winter darkness. Maybe emotionally you feel the weight of loneliness and sorrow. Maybe spiritually you feel the weight of darkness and aloneness. Whatever kind of dark place you find yourself in this advent, remember the words prophesied by Zechariah about your Redeemer: “the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” 

Just like the wood frog will not wake and be silent, we also ought to rejoice that the Light has come to our darkness. Not only has He come, but He put death’s dark shadows to flight! Rejoice, rejoice! 

— Kimber Callen

2023 Advent Devotional: Week 2

1 . Hear the cry from Bethlehem, O children come 

Son of God now born to men, O children come

Bring your troubles, bring your fears, Bring the needs that draw you near, 

Find the hope of all the years – O children come! O children come! 

3. Where the Father's grace has walked, O children come 

Where you see the hurt and lost, O children come 

Show the mercy shown to you, Gifts of kindness to renew, 

Love from hearts sincere and true – O children come! O children come!

2. Peace on earth goodwill to men, O children come 

Righteous rule that will not end, O children come 

Lay down all your bitterness,  Turn from sin's toil and distress, 

Find His grace and perfect rest – O children come! O children come! 

The Gettys, who wrote this song, have a strong desire for their music to not only sound good but to also communicate biblical truth we need. In this song, “O children come” may seem like an odd repetitive line, but repeating it implies there’s something we ought to remember about ourselves and about our Savior. 

Matthew 19:13-15 says, “Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’ And he laid his hands on them and went away.” 

We easily acknowledge that we have sin, fears, troubles, and needs, but how often do we go to Christ with these struggles? Our sinful nature wires us to turn to anyone and anything before turning to Christ for help. So we need our hearts and minds to be rewired to come to Him; we need to sing to our soul: O children come! Come with your troubles. Come with your fears. Come with your bitterness. Come and experience the grace, kindness, and rest that Jesus has ready for you! 

Use this song to rewire your heart and mind to seek Christ with all that you have. Let it be a reminder to bring your sin, fears, troubles, needs, and then be met with “the hope of all the years,” and “His grace and perfect rest!”  Your loving, gracious Savior says to come to Him. Bring all that you have, and be known by Him. “O children, come!”

— Kimber Callen

2023 Advent Devotional: Week 1

Come, thou long expected Jesus,

born to set thy people free;

from our fears and sins release us,

let us find our rest in thee.

Israel's strength and consolation,

hope of all the earth thou art;

dear desire of every nation,

joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver,

Born a child, and yet a King,

Born to reign in us forever,

Now thy gracious kingdom bring.

By thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone;

By thine all-sufficient merit

Raise us to thy glorious throne

Much of the time we spend Christmas remembering that Jesus came to Earth. So why would we sing a song that begins with us imploring Jesus to come? This hymn so evidently captures the reality that we live in: the already and the not yet. Already, Jesus has come to Earth living as fully god and fully man. He became a part of His creation and took on sin and death. We now live enjoying the blessings of Jesus’ work. However, we still live longing for the day that Jesus returns. 

While this song has a calm and gentle melody, the petition we sing in this song is far from calm. “From our fears and sins release us”; “hope of all the earth”; “now thy gracious kingdom bring”; “rule in all our hearts.” These are not mundane requests. These are passionate longings from people who know their only hope is that God will come and deliver them. 

Exodus 2:23-25 says, “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” 

The people of Israel clearly had a deep desire for their suffering to be relieved, and while we don’t live in the same time as the Israelites, the longings we experience are still deep. As we sing this song throughout this advent season, let us remember that our God hears us, sees us, knows us, and one day He will come to “Raise us to thy glorious throne!”

— Kimber Callen