Advent 2025

 4 minutes, 5 minutes, 6 minutes, and 8 minutes. 

The Advent episodes got longer each week. 
But I promise you the Christmas Day episode will be the shortest of them all.

Key Word:  LOVE
Carols:  Oh Come All Ye Faithful and Oh Come All You Unfaithful.
Verses:  Luke 2:15 - 18 and other verses.
Big Idea:  God is LOVE. We love others because he first loved us.

I want to read part of an OUR DAILY BREAD article on the song "O Come, All Ye Faithful" and then share some additional thoughts related to the article, the song, and the word LOVE.

We are challenged to recognize the lengths to which Christ went to save us.  He travelled the longest distance possible (from holy heaven to sinful earth), bending low to lift us up from the mud of sin.  He stooped down to make us great (Psalm 18:35 - You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great.).  C.S. Lewis wrote so aptly, "The Son of God became a Son of Man that sons of men might become sons of God."  This is at the heart of our Christmas celebration.

The quote references the great distance Christ went to save us. 

I think of another great distance he went from

a baby wrapped in cloths lying in a manger

to an accused criminal wrapped in torn flesh because of the brutal beating he received, hanging from a cross, to a confirmed dead body wrapped in burial cloths and laid in a borrowed tomb.

Thank God Jesus did not stay in the manger.

Thank God, Jesus did not stay on the cross.

Thank God, Jesus did not stay in the grave.

Thank God, Jesus rose from the dead, victorious over sin and death.

Here is the thing, often, at Christmas time, the sentiment is whether you are good enough this year for the gifts you are about to receive.

Romans 5:8 tells us

"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

John 3:16 tells us

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 3:16 tells us

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

The reality of Christmas is that we are not good enough for the gift of eternal life. 

Carol:  Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful -youtu.be/b0YgwO_HMn4?si=8zCSfAbkOeIaBoao and Oh, Come All You Unfaithful youtu.be/C-QHbpYjuIg?si=SLhB70ZEq5jJo_IT

The other.three Advent episodes of Trinity LIfe.