Brian Lucas
It’s Christmas time! I love it! It is also known as the Advent season, a time of anticipating the birth of Christ (advent means “arrival”). The four weeks of Advent each have a theme that we see in the Bible as we look back, and then in our own lives now and looking forward: hope, peace, joy, and love.
Advent is a special time in our church. Three years ago, Pax Church held our first service on the first weekend of December, at a food bank in the Ranchos (the F.I.S.H. Ranchos Family Resource Center). We started with Advent, talking of hope in a Savior whom God’s people had been waiting for since the beginning, and our own hope in what God would do through our church. We spoke of love and a God who loves us so much that He sent His Son to live and die for us. We celebrated joyfully like the shepherds two thousand years ago who encountered an angel in their fields saying: “‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.’” (Luke 2:10-11, NIV) And we found peace as we remembered the promises given to the prophet Isaiah almost 700 years before the birth of Christ: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)
Pax means “peace” in Latin. We trust in the Prince of Peace: Jesus. We look back at those in the Bible who needed deliverance in a dark and broken world, and we recognize so much of ourselves and our world in them. We see their hope in God as we place our trust in Him today. We see hundreds of promises already fulfilled in Christ, and we find peace awaiting his continued deliverance today and beyond tomorrow.
Maybe this holiday isn’t the happiest time of year for you. Even so, I hope that you can look back on good times and be encouraged. I hope that you would look further back, to those in the Bible who lived through hard times. They found hope in remembering what God has done, which led to trusting in what He will do. May you find comfort and joy in the God who sent His son, whose birth we will celebrate again this December 25th. May you discover He is also called Immanuel (God with us), and that you are not alone. May you trust in Jesus, the Savior of the world, and find peace in Him.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13, NIV)
Brian Lucas is co-lead pastor of Pax Christian Church
