{"id":8448,"date":"2003-12-09T22:27:52","date_gmt":"2003-12-10T03:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=8448"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:28:11","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:28:11","slug":"3393","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2003\/12\/09\/3393\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent Devotion: Waiting God’s Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO, IL (December 9, 2003)\u00a0 – Covenant Communications receives more than\u00a0 250 church newsletters each month and occasionally publishes devotional\u00a0 material from those newsletters at www.covchurch.org. This one, called\u00a0 “Waiting God’s Way,” comes from Don Johnson, pastor of Salem Covenant\u00a0 Church, New Brighton, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

I have been fascinated with the concept of “sacred space” every since my\u00a0 sabbatical leave during the summer of 2000. That concept, the nature of\u00a0 what is sacred – and what is not – has not left me alone.<\/p>\n
In an increasingly secularized culture, where a smaller and smaller\u00a0 percentage of the population participates regularly in church, I am\u00a0 concerned about the loss of the sense of the sacred; the sense of the\u00a0 holy. I recently searched the Internet, looking up the word “sacred\u00a0 space,” and found a wide variety of interesting and strange approaches\u00a0 to the holy.<\/p>\n
The hunger for the holy, however, remains deeply planted in our hearts.\u00a0 Throughout the Psalms we are reminded that we are made to be receptive\u00a0 to and aware of God. We hunger and thirst for God. We ache for God’s\u00a0 spirit. We rest in the comfort of God’s presence and word.<\/p>\n
One discovery I made is that space is less important to God than time.\u00a0 Many religions have declared certain places to be inherently “holy;”\u00a0 Mecca, Jerusalem, the Ganges River, Mount Fuji to name a few. These are\u00a0 places where true believers think God is more present than in normal,\u00a0 everyday places.<\/p>\n
The God of the Bible, while making himself present at various places, is\u00a0 not confined to one place more than another. Jesus, in talking with the\u00a0 woman at the well (John 4:1-26), taught that God, being spirit, is\u00a0 worshiped anywhere. What God redeems – and makes holy –\u00a0 is time. God\u00a0 transforms our time into his time. God takes our short spans of frantic\u00a0 life and sets them within the promise of eternity. God transforms\u00a0 hurried lives into peaceful and gentle lives by redeeming our time.<\/p>\n
There is no time of year where the Christian world and the secular world\u00a0 collide more than during the Christmas season. Everything seems to speed up and all of our resources\u00a0 become stretched beyond their comfort margins. We spend too much, eat\u00a0 too much, go out too much, and travel too much. We find ourselves in\u00a0 almost constant motion – but Advent is all about waiting and\u00a0 anticipating the coming of Christ as an infant back then and as redeemer\u00a0 now. Each week will be a discovery of a prophetic promise for which\u00a0 Israel was told to wait; for which we are also told to wait.<\/p>\n
Grace and peace as you wait.<\/p>\n
Prepare to\u00a0 Meet Your God<\/a><\/div>\n
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Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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CHICAGO, IL (December 9, 2003)\u00a0 – Covenant Communications receives more than\u00a0 250 church newsletters each month and occasionally publishes devotional\u00a0 material from those newsletters at www.covchurch.org. This one, called\u00a0 “Waiting God’s Way,” comes from Don Johnson, pastor of Salem Covenant\u00a0 Church, New Brighton, Minnesota. Report This Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAdvent Devotion: Waiting God's Way - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2003\/12\/09\/3393\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent Devotion: Waiting God's Way - Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CHICAGO, IL (December 9, 2003)\u00a0 – Covenant Communications receives more than\u00a0 250 church newsletters each month and occasionally publishes devotional\u00a0 material from those newsletters at www.covchurch.org. 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