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Do we need Jesus Christ in 2016? This appears to be the easiest question in the world for a Christian. “Christ” is, after all, embedded in our name. The no-brainer answer is: “Yes, of course, we need Jesus!” In fact, the whole point of Advent is that we are waiting for Christ to come more fully into our lives and the life of the world.
But it is one thing to say that we want to have Jesus more fully in our lives, and another thing to actually have room for Him. There have been many mean motives attributed to the first century innkeeper in Bethlehem, but the truth is that we have not the faintest idea why he did not accept Jesus. Or rather, we know only this one bare fact: “there was no room.”
Our lives can be so filled to overflowing that there is simply no more room for more of Christ’s life and work in our lives. No matter how earnestly you try, you cannot fill a bucket with more than it can hold. So if our lives are full—maybe not full in a way that is satisfying to God or even to us, but full nevertheless—we simply have no room for anything or Anyone else.
The Psalms let us listen in on people who have come to a point in their lives when they are not full of themselves, or sated by the things of this world. King David in Psalm 5 pleads, “Hear my cry for help, my King and my God.” He is not running through a list of non-negotiable demands and calling it prayer, nor is he resting content with a life distant from and undirected by God.
Instead, David’s heart is broken, and he turns in anguish to the one true King who can hear him and help him. David knows he needs more of God, because he is convinced that only God can do what David desperately needs done. So he cries out in Psalm 6, “Save me because of your unfailing love.” A millennium later, the unfailing love of God will be shown most fully in the coming of Jesus, whose very name means “God saves.”
"Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring."
Todd Lake
Vice President, Spiritual Development
But it is one thing to say that we want to have Jesus more fully in our lives, and another thing to actually have room for Him. There have been many mean motives attributed to the first century innkeeper in Bethlehem, but the truth is that we have not the faintest idea why he did not accept Jesus. Or rather, we know only this one bare fact: “there was no room.”
Our lives can be so filled to overflowing that there is simply no more room for more of Christ’s life and work in our lives. No matter how earnestly you try, you cannot fill a bucket with more than it can hold. So if our lives are full—maybe not full in a way that is satisfying to God or even to us, but full nevertheless—we simply have no room for anything or Anyone else.
The Psalms let us listen in on people who have come to a point in their lives when they are not full of themselves, or sated by the things of this world. King David in Psalm 5 pleads, “Hear my cry for help, my King and my God.” He is not running through a list of non-negotiable demands and calling it prayer, nor is he resting content with a life distant from and undirected by God.
Instead, David’s heart is broken, and he turns in anguish to the one true King who can hear him and help him. David knows he needs more of God, because he is convinced that only God can do what David desperately needs done. So he cries out in Psalm 6, “Save me because of your unfailing love.” A millennium later, the unfailing love of God will be shown most fully in the coming of Jesus, whose very name means “God saves.”
"Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring."
Todd Lake
Vice President, Spiritual Development
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This Advent Guide comes from students, faculty, and staff at Belmont University. Advent is that season of waiting that carefully and purposefully helps us to realign our priorities and to glimpse, anew, our place before God. Our humble hope is this guide helps people focus more fully on Jesus Christ through the Advent season.
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