Behold What Manner of Love

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God...1 John 3:1

Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us.
Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us.
That we should be called the sons of God.
That we should be called the sons of God.

The Joy of the Lord

Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10

The joy of the Lord is my strength, the joy of the Lord is my strength.
The joy of the Lord is my strength, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

He heals the broken hearted and they cry no more, He heals the broken hearted and they cry no more.
He heals the broken hearted and they cry no more, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

He gives me living water and I thirst no more, He gives me living water and I thirst no more.
He gives me living water and I thirst no more, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Fishers of Men

And [Jesus] said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19

I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men.
I will make you fishers of men if you follow me,
If you follow me, if you follow me,
I will make you fishers of men if you follow me.

Blessed Be the Name

Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! Psalm 113:2

Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord!
Glory to the name, glory to the name, glory to the name of the Lord!
Glory to the name, glory to the name, glory to the name of the Lord!

Advent Week Four: Jesus's Arrival Displays God's Glory

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:13-14
Have you ever seen something so great or so amazing or so beautiful that you just couldn’t find words good enough to explain what you were seeing? People will try to describe the grandeur of a snow-capped mountain, or the splendor of a sunset over a tropical beach, or the magnificence of the Grand Canyon. The biblical writers certainly had this problem when they were writing about God. What word is good enough to describe God in his holiness, power, love, and mercy? Fortunately, the Holy Spirit gave those writers the perfect word—glory. One Bible teacher says that glory means “perfect splendor, the display of one or more of God’s attributes.” Another teacher writes that to say God is glorious means that “nothing is more important or greater than He, and no one deserves more honor.”
We’ve been looking in these Advent lessons at the good things we receive because of Jesus’s arrival. We’ve seen how we are blessed with hope, peace, and joy. So you might wonder, how is God’s glory a good thing for His people? One answer to that question is found in a story about Moses. In Exodus 32, Moses was having a rough time; everything was going wrong. The people he was leading had promised to obey God, yet they broke their promise by worshiping a golden calf, and Moses understood that they deserved to be wiped out, destroyed. All his hard work of facing Pharaoh, leading thousands and thousands of people out of Egypt, seeing to it that they had food and water, and solving all their problems—it would all be for nothing. What could help Moses get through this rough time? Moses prays in Exodus 33:18, “Please show me your glory.” When everything was falling apart for Moses, he asked for just a glimpse of God’s glory! Moses understood that he was made for God’s glory, that nothing could be better for him than to know God in His glorious perfections.
The apostle John understood this too, and he tells us that one of the great things about Jesus’s arrival is that in Jesus we see God’s glory. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Moses got just a tiny glimpse of God’s glory, but in Jesus, God’s people know God in a much better way. The better we know God, the more we can live lives that please Him and to help others to know Him, too. We can glorify Him, which is what we were made to do!
The Old Testament often uses a shining cloud to represent God’s glory, like the cloud that covered Mt. Sinai when Moses received the Ten Commandments or the one that filled Solomon’s temple when it was dedicated. In Luke, the same glorious brightness surrounded the shepherds when the angels came to proclaim God’s glory and announce Jesus’s birth. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus talks about bright, shining clouds—the ones that will accompany His second advent, “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory” (13:26). This Christmas, let’s thank God for showing us his glory in sending Jesus, let’s live lives that point to His glorious perfections, and let’s look forward to seeing Jesus in clouds of glory when He comes again!

Object Lesson: Glory

You'll Need:

·       costume jewelry or something gold

·       a scented candle,

·       and a tube of lotion or perfume

Arrange something gold or costume jewelry, a scented candle, and a tube of lotion underneath the Christmas tree.

Gifts of Adoration:

In this object lesson we will be recalling God’s glory revealed through Jesus and giving him praise. Offer gifts to Jesus with your family to remember who Jesus is and why God sent his son to live and die for his people. Give praise and glory Him!
1. Read Matthew 2:2. “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
Say: The wise men gave baby Jesus gold to show that he is a king.
Find something fancy like a gold-colored picture frame or a fashionable piece of costume jewelry and place it under your Christmas tree as you take turns naming things you love about Jesus. How is Jesus King over our world and over our lives?
2. Read Revelation 5:8. “And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
Say: The wise men presented baby Jesus with frankincense, a spice used when people worshiped God.
Set an unlit candle or another fragrant item under your tree, and take turns offering prayers as a gift of praise and adoration to Jesus.
3. Read John 19:39-40. “Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds[b] in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.”
Say: The wise men brought myrrh, an ointment people put on bodies that were going to be buried.
Set out lotion or perfume as you thank Jesus for dying for your sins and reconciling us to our heavenly Father. Give praise to Him and look forward together to that day when we will all be together singing praise to Jesus in the presence of His glory!

(https://childrensministry.com/the-12-ideas-of-advent/)

Advent Hymn

Week #4 – Jesus’s Arrival Brings Glory – “Of the Father's Love Begotten”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utpZAIycWFU

“Of the Father's Love Begotten”

Like last week’s hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” today’s hymn comes from a very old poem. This one was written more than 1500 years ago to help Christians understand the idea that Jesus is the Divine Son of God. Some false teachers in the church were teaching that Jesus was not God, rather that He was created by God the Father and was not quite God Himself. To correct this false teaching, leaders came up with the Nicene Creed which taught that Jesus, the Son of God, was “begotten, not made.” In other words, Jesus is of the same substance as the Father; He’s not made of “other stuff.”

This teaching is part of the doctrine of the Trinity which tells us that there is only one God, but that God exists in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person is distinct and yet each is fully God. It’s not an easy idea to understand, but it’s clearly taught in the Bible, so we have the Holy Spirit’s help to believe it and apply it to our understanding of God. The last verse of this hymn speaks directly of the Trinity and how praise belongs “Christ, to thee, with God the Father, and, O Holy Ghost, to thee.”

When we sing “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” we affirm our faith in the Trinity, and we deny any teaching that says that Jesus is not fully divine. We proclaim the glory of the gospel message that the Son of God became man to bear the punishment that no mere man could bear for us, and to rise again to give us new life in Him. “Let no tongue on earth be silent,” but let us praise him “evermore and evermore!”