Holidays are an intentional time of gathering. Families travel from far away, kids come home for winter break, and grandparents break out a plethora of decorations and sugar cookies. When all of my family sits sprawled in the living room, passing out presents and filling the air with laughter, my heart expands with love as I savor the faces of my favorite people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The warmth of coming together with friends and family brings a familiarity that\u2019s been formed in us to recognize, because God, who created all life, longs to bring us home to Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout the Old Testament, God continually called to His people, the Israelites, as they forgot Him and went their own way. Their sin broke God\u2019s heart, and they often became tangled in their own webs of self-centeredness and pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But God never once abandoned them. Through the prophets, who challenged the Israelites and foretold their captivity, God also gave them hope and a reminder of His covenant. He kept His promise: a Messiah who would save His people from their sins and establish an everlasting reign. He would come to free the captives, heal the brokenhearted, and bring beauty from ashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Advent, we celebrate God sending Jesus to earth to become human while fully retaining His deity. He empathized with us, grew up under the law, and then fulfilled the law through His death and resurrection. Humanity at last had the long-awaited One who would set them free. Through Jesus, we are grafted into God\u2019s family, inheriting all the spiritual blessings found in Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Becoming God\u2019s child is available to everyone now, and it\u2019s evident He longs to gather up His people. He makes Himself known through creation, through His Word, and through us with the message of His Son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Advent, how can you celebrate the gift of Immanuel, God with us? Could you spread holiday cheer to a family member who could use a little extra? How about paying for the person behind you in the coffee line waiting to order their cocoa? A little Christmas kindness can go a long way when looking into the heart of the people around us who just might be in need of the hope in Christ you have to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Jesus, God came through on His promise to deliver us. We rejoice and we wait, recognizing that Jesus has come while looking toward the day when He will come again to usher all of us fully and forever into the kingdom of His Father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Holidays are an intentional time of gathering. Families travel from far away, kids come home for winter break, and grandparents break out a plethora of decorations and sugar cookies. When all of my family sits sprawled in the living room, passing out presents and filling the air with laughter, my heart expands with love as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":72670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72991],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"HE WILL GATHER HIS PEOPLE<\/b>
\r\nby Sarah Freymuth<\/i>
\r\n
Holidays are an intentional time of gathering. Families travel from far away, kids come home for winter break, and grandparents break out a plethora of decorations and sugar cookies. When all of my family sits sprawled in the living room, passing out presents and filling the air with laughter, my heart expands with love as I savor the faces of my favorite people.<\/p>
\r\n
The warmth of coming together with friends and family brings a familiarity that\u2019s been formed in us to recognize, because God, who created all life, longs to bring us home to Him.<\/p>
\r\n
Throughout the Old Testament, God continually called to His people, the Israelites, as they forgot Him and went their own way. Their sin broke God\u2019s heart, and they often became tangled in their own webs of self-centeredness and pride.<\/p>
\r\n
But God never once abandoned them. Through the prophets, who challenged the Israelites and foretold their captivity, God also gave them hope and a reminder of His covenant. He kept His promise: a Messiah who would save His people from their sins and establish an everlasting reign. He would come to free the captives, heal the brokenhearted, and bring beauty from ashes.<\/p>
\r\n
This Advent, we celebrate God sending Jesus to earth to become human while fully retaining His deity. He empathized with us, grew up under the law, and then fulfilled the law through His death and resurrection. Humanity at last had the long-awaited One who would set them free. Through Jesus, we are grafted into God\u2019s family, inheriting all the spiritual blessings found in Christ.<\/p>
\r\n
Becoming God\u2019s child is available to everyone now, and it\u2019s evident He longs to gather up His people. He makes Himself known through creation, through His Word, and through us with the message of His Son.<\/p>
\r\n
This Advent, how can you celebrate the gift of Immanuel, God with us? Could you spread holiday cheer to a family member who could use a little extra? How about paying for the person behind you in the coffee line waiting to order their cocoa? A little Christmas kindness can go a long way when looking into the heart of the people around us who just might be in need of the hope in Christ you have to offer.<\/p>
\r\n
In Jesus, God came through on His promise to deliver us. We rejoice and we wait, recognizing that Jesus has come while looking toward the day when He will come again to usher all of us fully and forever into the kingdom of His Father.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"13","scripture":"Jeremiah 29:4-14, Isaiah 61:1-5, Matthew 23:37-39, Ephesians 2:17-19","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}