Many times in the past, we have seen people predicting that the end of time was coming...  And obviously we are still here! And it tends to discredit the whole idea to honest believers...Making them leery and passive when they hear yet another person saying the same thing...But these instances in the past, have been because people saw one or two major events which seemed related to the End Time Scenario in their time...And they would try to build the Events spoken of in Scriptures around the events happening...And just because one portion of the many events and scenarios of Biblical Prophecy seems to be occurring...The rest of those many and detailed prophecies cannot be ignored or changed to fit the Times...

What are some things that we know could happen to us in life, yet we always think it will happens to someone else...  Then, BAM?!
 

1. Car wrecks
2. September 11th
3. Dougie on night he woke me hemorrhaging...
4. My father when he passed away while I walked out of room...
5. Bella, just a couple of weeks ago in ski accident!

 
And in that, "Oh-my-gosh!" moment, everything changes instantly...You are in a totally different circumstance than you were moments ago...And there is no going back now! Well, not meaning to sound morbid, but how many people in this room are going to die someday?  Duhh...  All. And do you realize that just as easily and quickly as some have had an unexpected event or accident...  Some of us will leave this earth?  In an instant, that thing we thought would never come, IS HERE! And everything has changed...  And there is no going back!

Last week we took a good look at who we are in Christ! Not in the eyes of the world... Not in the eyes of parents, friends, spouses, or even in our own eyes...But in Christ! And we found that many, even MOST of us... Have been held in a prison of false Self-Identity for much of our lives! Not seeing ourselves as we should...Therefore, not seeing and loving others as we should...And especially, not feeling worthy or accepted to be close to Christ as we should!

In our Candlelight Service, we discussed how the most important thing about knowing Christ is not really just whether we know of Him at all, but whether we have opened ourselves to Him in the most intimate of ways; whether we have invited Him in to truly know us in the most surrendered and committed way, some people avoid or push Christ away and reject all that He did for us because we cannot accept that we are the type of person that Jesus would ever want to be near; to share a life with.

In our Advent this year, we have considered how the Nativity may have looked from a number of different perspectives...
 
Black- To represent the world that completely missed His coming because they were living in the darkness of their sins...
 
Gold- To represent the Angels of Heaven, who knew Him best...
In their amazement and intrigue over how much He sacrificed for us...
 
Red- To represent Satan himself, as he saw the coming of a Warrior King...
Who would grow to be the One that would topple his reign and take this world back from his authority...
 
Now we light the Purple Candle... To represent Majesty... Kingship!