Immanuel: Practicing the PResence of the With-Us God
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We have a With-Us God. It is core to God’s very nature to draw near, to make known, to be present. And that is key to Advent as well. It is not just that God became human 2000 years ago with the birth of Jesus. That same God is still the With-Us God. And it is our opportunity always to tune into Immanuel, the Loving Presence of God near, made known, present with us now.
This Advent, we will learn and practice FOUR methods of prayer that can help us move from Immanuel as a strange word or pleasant idea to a lived experience. |
"Immanuel: Treasuring Christ" -- December 24, 2024 (Romans 6:5, Hebrews 2:14-15, 17-18, John 1:1-5)
"Light does not have to crush or conquer darkness. Light merely IS. Its very presence and nature inherently undoes darkness. Light is ITSELF and darkness cannot overcome it because Light is something—energy and movement. Darkness is merely a concept we use to describe our experience when light isn’t present, when reality is hidden from us. Immanuel simply is Presence."
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"Immanuel: Sanctified Imagination" -- December 22, 2024 (Luke 1:46-55)
"A sanctified imagination is imagining what is possible from the vantage point of the manger, the Table, the cross, and the empty tomb."
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"Immanuel: Examination" -- December 15, 2024 (Mark 1:1-8, 14-16)
"As scary as both inner and outer reality can be…reality is the only place we will find God, the only place where Immanuel is born. As John the Baptist prophetically prepares the way for people to encounter and receive Christ, so examination allows the Spirit to speak what is true to our souls so that Immanuel, when he comes, can have unimpeded access to our hearts."
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December 8, 2024 - "Immanuel: Centering Prayer" (John 1:1-16)
"The image we have is of this swirling expression of Divine Wisdom-Love that is building and weaving creation together, infusing itself throughout all things…to this Wisdom-Love conceived in Mary, expressed in the living flesh-and-blood human presence of Jesus...It's a movement from the cosmic to the local. And this, in a sense, is the movement of prayer as well."
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December 1, 2024 - "Immanuel: Scripture Meditation" (Matthew 1:17-23)
"Immanuel is an encounter with God, encounter with unvarnished reality, encounter with a choice: whether we will trust our own methods for salvation or whether we will entrust ourselves to God’s."
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