December 19, 2021
Upcoming Events and Notices
You can find the order of worship and songs here
Please join us as we read another collection of great books for the year 2021. You can find the list here.
January 6 (Thursday 7PM): Please join us as we study Revelation. Please read Revelation 15:4–16:21 and chapter 13 of "Let's Study Revelation" by Derek Thomas. Zoom Meeting ID: 892 2062 3448
Thank you for your continued support of Grace Fallbrook (PCA). Your loving support makes the proclamation of the gospel and the building up of the saints possible. Please continue to mail in your gifts and offerings to our church treasurer, Bruce Summers. In addition, our church website now features online giving. Please visit the church website and click on "Give" which you will find in the upper left corner of our church's website. When you click on "Give Online Now" button on that page, you will be directed to the PCA Foundation where you can give towards Grace Fallbrook (PCA).
Before We Worship
Our Advent meditations have so far focused on Hope, Peace, and Joy. This week we celebrate Christ's advent by focusing on the gift of God's Love.
Our first Scripture reading is from Exodus 34:1–10. God had delivered Israel out of Egypt, and brought them to Mount Sinai. There the LORD ratified his covenant with Israel with the Ten Commandments, which were the terms of the covenant between the LORD and Israel. However, while Moses was communing with the LORD, Israel was bowing down to the golden calf. When Moses returned from meeting with the LORD, he "threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain." This indicated the covenant between the LORD and Israel was broken because of Israel's idolatry. And because of this, Israel's future was bleak. How can it not be? They had made the Creator of the universe and the Holy God who cannot abide sin their enemy.
But in Exodus 34 the LORD invites Moses back up to Mount Sinai, and declares these words to him: "The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…"" Israel's idolatry should have put an end to God's favor. But God responded to Israel's sinful rebellion with love. His love was what saved a sinful people doomed to face judgment.
Indeed, in time God's Love became a human baby. The birth of Jesus Christ brings to the sinful and fallen mankind the love that overcomes all sin. That is why when we celebrate Christ's Advent, we celebrate God's love.
What, then, is our response to God's love for us? John 13:34–35 tells us. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
We can speak eloquently about the beauty of love without every loving anyone in particular. For to love someone as God has loved us in Christ is to love in a costly way. It means to love someone who is not lovable. It means to do good to someone who has not done us any good, or perhaps, who has done us ill. Do you love as God has loved you?
Thus we repent. And believe. May we not merely love the idea of love. But may we love the people that God has placed around us. Do not seek to go to far away places to love some strangers you have not met. Love instead the people that are near you today. For this is how we celebrate Christ's Advent.