Christmas Light For Dark Days—part 1 Series

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Display as music team leaves stage

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8.30 am---REDISCOVER CHRISTMAS VIDEO CLIP—will play automatically when you click on slide (Play this video loop after music team has been seated and Pastor rises from seat).

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WELCOME, ATTENDANCE PAD

Today’s CHRISTMAS CHEER

Church Bulletin Bloopers

 Ushers will eat latecomers.

 The guest soloist sang "I Will Not Pass This Way Again," giving much pleasure to the congregation.

 Sermon this morning: Jesus Walks on the Water. Sermon tonight: Searching for Jesus.

 The patient is having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Don’s sermons.

 A letter to the men’s fellowship reads: "All members are requested to bring their wives and one other covered dish to the annual banquet."

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This is the 2nd Sunday of Advent—this is the time of the year that we are getting ready for the coming of Jesus Christ.

So now it’s time to get ready for today’s good news for the Advent season as we go to prayer.

PRAYER

God of prophets: in the wilderness of Jordan you sent a messenger to

prepare our hearts for the coming of Your Son - the one who brings true

peace into our world and into our lives. Help us to hear the good news,

to repent, and so be ready to welcome our Savior and to enter into the

kingdom he brings....

Help us dear God to accept and to unwrap the gifts you give us;

especially O God we ask you to help us accept the gift of peace.

Help us to acknowledge our deep and abiding need for you

and to confess that only you can help us find what we are looking for.

That only you can help us repair our broken relationships

That only you can lead us to the peace you want us to have,

Help us walk toward the light.

Loving God as we have prayed for ourselves, so we pray for others. Many

are in despair through physical hardship, seeking relief from their

burdens, and hope in the midst of their cares. Others have minds and souls

filled with hatred, lives shackled by prejudices and the terrible

obsessions that lead to war and to that which is worse. Come to them with

the help that they desperately need. Come to them with the gift of healing

and the gift of seeking, come to them with the gift of loving and the gift

of having found.

Your church in all the world, also needs saving from everything that

threatens its mission. O Lord, where it is persecuted, keep it faithful.

Where it persecutes, rebuke it. Where it is seduced by affluence, shake

it. Where it is self-satisfied, unsettle it. Where it is weak, poor, and

meek, bless it with your joy, peace and strength.

Father, we give you thanks for your peace, for gift to us and for how you

have promised it to the whole world. This day we know some of that peace

within our own experience: we know what it is to be made whole, what it is

to walk through the wilderness and then to enter the promised land, we know

what it is to depend on you - and to find that you do not fail. We hold

before you now those who are upon our hearts - some who need

the peace we have prayed for today, some who need a healing touch, some who

need comforting, and some who celebrate your goodness toward them hear

our prayers, O God for: BIDDING PRAYER

Thank you Lord for your many gifts. Keep alive in us the spirit of seeking

•that we may also have the spirit of having found. We ask it in the name

of the one who taught us to pray for your kingdom to come and for your will

to be done, Christ Jesus your Son and our Savior. Amen..

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8.30 am--BETHLEHEM STAR VIDEO LOOP—will play automatically when you click on slide

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John 12:46 (LB) "Jesus said, I have come as a Light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer wander in darkness."

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the lights. It seems that Christmas lights up the world. The first lights go up in November or October in some cases, when the stores begin to put up their lights -- those who want to get a head start on the buying season. Then next the city lights go up. Then neighborhood lights start going up. All the lights go up on my neighborhood block. Then I put up my lights—if you’re lucky.

December 21st is the winter solstice, which is the longest night of the year and the shortest time of daylight in the year. It’s interesting when we’re in the darkest part of the year, Christmas pierces the darkness with light.