Advent Week 1

Christians we have a great reason to hope! John 1:1 proclaims that, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:14 goes on to say, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word is Jesus, the living God! We know that everything Scripture tells us is true because it is not only from God, it is God, the Word.

When the prophet Isaiah foretold the birth of Christ, a new hope was born into the world; a hope that lives in us today. And after Jesus came in the flesh, He promised to return and take us to be with Him, giving us eternal hope that surpasses the condition of our life on earth.

Take a moment and talk about the things you want and the things for which you hopeas individuals and as a family. Many of them may be of temporary value, but some will have deep eternal longings as well. Now think and talk about the things you hope for this week, this Christmas season, the new year to come, your lifetime on earth and your next life in heaven. Now ponder in your heart what it will be like to see Jesus face-to-face in all His glory and splendor, and imagine what it will be like to go where He is. Talk about the hope and comfort we have as believers, and that someday Christ will take us home where sin and death have no place.

Your spiritual journey begins the moment you believe in this extraordinary hope, and lasts through all eternity. We invite you to open the Word and open your heart, and begin this day in a deeper relationship with the One and Only, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.




You may have noticed that during the Advent season, some churches display the color purple in their sanctuaries, and some display the color blue. And you may have even heard that the color purple is the color of royalty, but do you know why? Well, it all has to do with expensive snails!

Thousands of years ago, when Christ was living on the earth, the color purple was the most expensive dye to produceonly kings could afford such fashionable extravagance. In fact, one ounce of dye (the weight of just five nickels and one penny) cost much more than an entire pound of gold. Why was it so expensive? Believe it or not, the royal dye, called tekhelet in Hebrew, was squeezed from snailsa type of mollusk! The extracts were boiled down and mixed with other chemicals to make just the right color. It would take over 10,000 mollusks to make enough dye for just one toga or robe. The process was lost somewhere in the eighth century AD and people throughout history have spent years trying to recreate the dye because of the mystery over whether it was purple or blue.

In ancient documents, the color tekhelet is often described as violet, but other sources refer to it as the same color as the sky or sea, which would mean it was blue. Even today, scientists are analyzing biological, chemical and archaeological data to try and figure it out, but no one has been able to find an answer. Regardless of whether your church chooses to use purple or royal blue in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the meaning is the same. During Advent we prepare the way and honor Christ the Lord, the one true King, with the most royal color we can find.