"A gift from our community of faith to you. Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is devoted to preparing outstanding leaders for Christ’s church. One of the ways we nurture leaders is by building a loving community of faith and extending God’s grace to others. In this season of anticipation, we extend God’s grace to you and invite you to explore this book of Advent devotions. Through this collection, please join us as we prepare to receive God’s greatest gift—the birth of Jesus Christ."
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Advent Devotional for December 15
• Haggai 1:1-15
Have you ever bargained with God? When you desperately wanted something, have you made promises, hoping that God would strike a deal with you? This passage from Haggai tells the story of the human response to God’s goodness. For years the Judeans have been in Babylonian exile, but finally they are allowed back home. They get back to work quickly, building their homes, plowing fields, building up industries. But somehow, in the midst of this answered promise—a return home—they have forgotten to build God’s temple. Haggai’s job is to remind the Judeans that their lives won’t be fully blessed, their fields won’t be fully ripe, their tables will not have plenty, until they build a Temple for God.
For many in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the Caribbean, this year has become a year of unexpected exile—homes flooded, streets filled with rubble. As we help one another move forward into the future; rebuilding homes, dealing with trauma, imagining new futures; how do we keep God’s house in mind? When God lives no longer in a Temple, but in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, what does it mean to honor God, to worship God in our context?
Whenever we rebuild our lives, whether the need arises after a crisis or an opportunity, we have the chance to reflect deeply on how our lives live out God’s values. Is there time in our lives to pray? Is there space in the budget to give our wealth back to God or to others? Have we placed blessing others as a priority? Rebuilding can be more than functional, it can transform our lives.
lmighty God, who sustains us through every transition, grant us the discipline to think first always of you, so that we may bless others as you have blessed us. Amen.
Sarah Gaventa
Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Vocation
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
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