Here is a great article from Dr. Timothy Paul Jones, a professor of Family Ministry at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, on why the season of Advent is still important for the church today.  Young evangelicals often disregard traditions and right off liturgy as what the church did in the past.  However, as you see in this article, the season of Advent is a disciplined season of waiting that turns into a sweet time of celebration — the celebration of our King’s birth.

Celebrating the Waiting: Why Advent Still Matters

Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, Novemeber 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

-William Bradford

Ye Governor of Ye Colony

Another year has come and gone. As we look back on the year 2010, surely each of us, if asked, would have things to share concerning our year—things both exciting and dreadfully sad. Perhaps some of you have received your driver’s license, and for the first time you have experienced what it feels like to drive by yourself. Maybe some of you have “tied the knot” and have gotten married this year. Perhaps you and your spouse have birthed or adopted your first child—you’re parents! Some of you—like me—have graduated from school and have earned your degree. Maybe you have started your first full-time job, purchased your first car, or bought your first home. [...]

Kacie Fredrickson had the ring by October — a stunning, white-gold number that dazzles on her finger.

She had the fiance, a perfect gentleman named Ben Mills. All she needed was the wedding, and she had six leisurely months to plan it.

But in the midst of the dress shopping, the venue scouting, the bridesmaid-choosing, a bomb dropped. Fredrickson’s beloved soon-to-be father-in-law, Nevada City resident Jim Mills, had only a few weeks to live.

Jim Mills’ skyrocketing cancer count was a surprise — the 68-year-old had been battling a rare blood and bone marrow cancer for more than a year, but doctors had predicted he could live another two years, even if he stopped chemotherapy.

“It was hard, initially, because we still had hope for his recovery,” Ben Mills said. “That made it more real that he was going in the other direction.”

[...]

It’s that time of year again when gobs and gobs of money are spent appeasing and pacifying the wants and wishes of small children (and 40-something-year-old kids) across the globe. On December the 25^th millions of men, women, boys, and girls throughout the world will receive their yearly injection of that oh-so intoxicating drug called materialism. While I’m all for giving gifts—and receiving them—I would like for us to at least give thought to the sorts of gifts that we are giving to our loved ones this year. [...]

Christmas Season Means:

1. The Egg Trinity – Egg Nog, Egg Nog Latte, and Deviled Eggs

2. Resisting to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” 82 times with my family.

3. Secretly loving Mariah Carey and N’Sync Christmas albums.

4. Family TIME!

5. And of course, buying Christmas gifts for my loved ones.

One major thing occurred in my life from last year’s Christmas shopping on December 23^rd. [...]

Do you ever cringe at the sight of a homeless man standing alongside the road holding his usual cardboard sign? Do you swap lanes as you approach a traffic light, so that your vehicle won’t have to come to a stop next to him? Do you intentionally and casually glance the other way, hoping not to make eye contact with him, as though you really don’t even notice him? While giving the man on the side of the road our money might not be the most efficient way to help the homeless, I would venture to guess that most of us never think about homeless people at all unless we are confronted by their cardboard signs as we turn off the interstate.

As this video shows, several people in my church have taken it upon themselves to lead a ministry to the homeless people of Louisville. I have had the personal opportunity to take part in the outreach only once, but it was a life changing experience to say the least. Unless you take time to talk with and listen to these people (yes, they really are people), you might not ever come to know their stories and how they have ended up the way they are. Most of them have made one or two life-changing decisions in their past, forcing them to live on the streets without shelter. It’s a sobering thought to consider that we are potentially only one or two choices away from being in their same situation. This should humble us and lead us to recognize that it is only by God’s grace that our basic needs are met.

This Christmas and even in the upcoming year, I hope you will take time to think about someone besides yourself and your family. What can you do to show Christ’s love and compassion to the hurting, the needy, the poor, the starving, the diseased, and the homeless who live all around you? Will you do anything? Does the whole idea of serving these people make you feel uncomfortable? Rest assured that they know all too well what it feels like to be uncomfortable. They are, in fact, no strangers at all to discomfort. They know what it feels like to attempt sleep in the midst of a snow storm, to eat a meal during a thunderstorm, or to hide from the burning sun during the scorching heat of summer. They know full well what it feels like to spend Christmas alone, without anyone except their fellow homeless buddies to walk through their loneliness with them. We who live in our comfortable homes, we who never miss a meal, we whose closets are overflowing with clothes, we who sleep in thousand dollar beds need to wake up to the needs that surround us. What will you do to help? Will you help anyone beside yourself? Or, will you turn your mind’s eye away from the man on the side of the street who cries out to you for help with his cardboard sign?

Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, Novemeber 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

-William Bradford

Ye Governor of Ye Colony

Today is the one day on a calendar specifically set aside for the remembrance of those who have served in the American armed forces. I encourage you to do just that. Take a few minutes out of the hustle and bustle of normal life in order to meditate on the blessings we enjoy as American citizens.

This website is maintained and directed by guys who have earned degrees from a religious institution completely unfettered by the government. This is a result of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Before our country was birthed through the blood of British ex-patriots, the colonists in the Americas were ruled by a government who dictated the religion of its people. Young Christians should look to the examples of Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley, and Hugh Latimer to better appreciate the joy of a government kept separate from religion.

Our freedom is a result of those who have fought and died for the cause of our freedom. Today, let us not fall into the trap of glorifying our leisure instead of the people who made it a reality. Meditate on the blessing God provided for you through the sacrifice of others, and thank God for his unmerited grace in your life.

Easter’s hopping around the corner (yes, pun intended)! Are you ready for it?

That’s the type of question that isn’t raised much around Easter. “Are you ready for it,” what does that even mean? Honestly, this weekend isn’t that big of a deal. I know tons of college students who will wake up like it’s a normal Sunday morning (or afternoon if you’re in the college spirit).

So, why the heck do I think it’s a big deal?

Putting all theological doctrines aside about the importance of Jesus’ resurrection for our salvation (not that they aren’t important, just not the point of this post)….. a guy freaking raised from the dead and never returned!!

When people celebrate Easter, do we really reckon on the fact that Jesus was lifeless one moment and full of life the next. Or do we come to this Sunday thinking it’s just another day to pay our respects to Jesus.

The majority of people in America speak of Jesus being alive seemingly anthropomorphically. It’s like giving Jesus hands and feet and a presence now a days is just to communicate how He spiritually gets us through a tough emotion. Kanye West’s song, “Jesus Walks” is a good example. Jesus is more or less of a cosmic force that is a divine therapist. The odd thing is that seems to be, in broadstroke, the driving ethos of our generation. And that’s crap.

Let’s celebrate the risen King who is actively reigning over cancer, hurricanes, elections, governments, who will win the Final Four, healthcare, and earthquakes for the salvation and judgment of this world. When we truly celebrate a risen Lord, our generation will shake; and the irrelevant jesus we have created will fade away.

Revelation 5:5 (HCSB) Then one of the elders said to me, “Stop crying. Look! The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has been victorious so that He may open the scroll and its seven seals.”