The third of Pastor Cana’s 2024 Advent series, comes to us from Luke 2:1-5, where Mary travels with Joseph to his ancestral city of Bethlehem for government registration, just in time for Jesus’ birth on a not-so-silent night. God draws close to us amidst the noisy, busy journey of our human lives. Can you feel His presence?

The second of Pastor Cana’s 2024 Advent series, comes to us from Luke 1:39-45, where Mary in her early pregnancy with Jesus visits her cousin Elizabeth, whose own unborn child leaps for joy. God creates a welcoming home for Mary and for all of us. Do you feel God’s welcome? Let us also create a welcoming home for others.

The first of Pastor Cana’s 2024 Advent series, presented by Jennie Straight, comes to us from Luke 1:5-23, where the angel Gabriel appears to Zachariah in the sanctuary of God to tell him that his wife Elizabeth will bear a son, despite her advanced age. God offers us sanctuary in His presence, where we can focus on Him and be attended to by Him. Take time to notice your place of sanctuary and seek to focus on God.

Pastor Cana reads into Luke 17:11-19, where He meets ten lepers that He sends to the priests, but they are healed along the way. However, only the Samaritan returns to praise God’s glory and thanked Jesus. For us, Christ restores us from our uncleanliness, separation, and exile, so our response should emulate the Samaritan’s: praise amidst our gratitude.

In 1 Samuel 15:10-11 and 24-28, Saul, the king that God anointed to lead the Israelites, loses the Spirit of God for ignoring God’s commands. Saul was the perfect king by every nation’s standard, doing what kings should do, but as Pastor Cana explains, God’s favor isn’t measured by expectations, declarations, or previous presence, but by obedience to God’s Spirit. We are free from being “good Christians”! Instead, attentiveness to God’s Spirit will guide us to live our faith.

The final fruit of the Spirit that Pastor Cana presents is the fruit of self-control, as described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, where his athletic metaphors apply to spiritual discipline. Prioritizing the Good News of God over ourselves teaches us self-control for our Christian witness.

We look at Revelation 7:9-17 with Pastor Cana to find that the author describes the saints that gather in God’s throne room outside of time to worship Him. God draws, unites, and shepherds all the saints together, so we rejoice by remembering the saints of past, present, and future.

John 1:1-14 gives us a poem/song reflecting on Jesus’ significance of His coming. Pastor Cana shows us in the scripture that Jesus, not the Bible, is the Word of God. With this information, we can look at all scripture texts through the interpretive lens of the Word of God.

When we look into Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 with Pastor Cana, we are left with the wisdom that God’s good gifts, the simple things, help us be freed to enjoy our lives without worrying about their impact and weight. We can give our lives less weight and make them instead more meaningful.

The author of Revelations 5 shares a vision for the Seven Churches of Asia. As Pastor Cana explains, for Revelation, God’s conquering and victory are about sacrifice, not slaughter. We are urged to worship a sacrificed Lamb as sacrificed people.