Home Alone Part 2
Booby Trap: a trap for the unwary or unsuspecting.
The biggest booby trap most of us face at Christmas is
Expectations set us up for
Truth: Some of life’s greatest moments are the ones we
God’s Christmas Invitation: Shift from the
Wonder: rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience.
“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town
in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.
The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly
favored! The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what
kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have
found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call Him
Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give
Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His
kingdom will never end.’ ‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’
The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth
your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to
conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.’ ‘I am the Lord’s
servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’” —- Luke 1:26-38
1. Replace
with
.
. “We WAIT for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for
Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.” —– Titus 2:13-14
2.
the
.
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown
hospitality to angels without knowing it.” —- Hebrews 13:2
3.
up to
.
Nostalgia: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or
place with happy personal associations; the state of being HOMESICK.
Nostalgia: morbid longing to return to one’s home or native country, severe homesickness
considered as a DISEASE.
The biggest booby trap you and I face this Christmas is
past Christmases.
“Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such
questions.” —- Ecclesiastes 7:10
“This is what the Lord says—He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty
waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they
lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: ‘Forget the former things;
do not DWELL on the past. See, I am doing a NEW thing! Now it springs up; do you not
PERCEIVE it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland,.’” —- Isaiah 43:16-19