CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – This Sunday churches will light the love candle on the fourth Sunday of advent.
You can’t have Christmas without the poor. Jesus is born to an otherwise unremarkable teenage girl. Her intended husband was a working-class man, a carpenter. The Christ child’s birth was revealed to the low people, a group of shepherds, working the night shift in the hills nearby.
Imagine how that scene would have unfolded today. There’s no room at the Motel 6. Maybe the young travelers could take shelter in the parking ramp across the street. They might have started a fire in a trash can for warmth. Would the child have been covered with old newspaper or thrown out cardboard? And an angel appeared to the nighttime cleaning crew working in the office building nearby. Come and see for yourself. God is setting things in motion on this very night.
“For God so loved the world
That he gave his only begotten Son.
That whoever believes in Him shall not die
But shall have eternal life.”
There is no more beautiful expression of God’s love for you and me than John 3:16. Jesus, God on Earth, goes to the cross for our sins. Satan, while tempting Him, told him we are not worth it. That the weight of our sin is too great to carry. And the great deceiver is right. I am filthy with sin. So are you. And God sends his son to die for me?
I wouldn’t ask my children to die in my place. Not a family member. Not even a friend or a neighbor. And the Almighty himself sends his Son – his beloved – to cleanse me?
Consider the Methodist hymn:
“What kind of love is this;
That gives itself for me?
I’m the guilty one;
Yet I go free?
God sets that unimaginable forgiveness into motion at Christmastime. There is no greater love.
The Gospel TLC in Weston is a one-of-its-kind transitional living home for men who are trying to turn away from addiction. For Christmas, would you become a regular monthly donor? If so, I have a link here.
The Gospel TLC also has day-to-day needs, like: milk, juices, crackers, granola bars, lettuce, egg noodles, taco seasoning, taco shells, bananas, canola oil and diswasher pods. Those items can be dropped off at their building near the hospital in Weston on Cross Pointe Boulevard.
Chris Conley
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