Little could those shepherds abiding in the field have imagined that they would see Jesus, let alone be the first to witness God’s promise fulfilled. Like a pre-Christendom world, the world before Jesus’ death and resurrection, many have heard about Jesus, but perhaps don’t really know Jesus. A recent poll showed that over 53% of Americans have little Bible knowledge. When Jesus is seen in our lives, (homes, church, community, world) it makes an impact on others. In this season of Advent, as we once again anticipate the Word becoming flesh so He is seen among us, what insight and encouragement can we give to let Jesus be seen in our words and actions? That’s the challenge for us as we work together to proclaim the Gospel.

May these Advent Devotions be a blessing to you.
Glorious Now


I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.   Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

“Glorious now, we press toward glory, And our lives our hopes confess” (LSB 578:3b)

Our hopes, our faith, our confidence in God’s Word and promises: these are what we pray our lives will proclaim. To the believers of Galatia, St. Paul wrote: “And because you are sons [and daughters], God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Gal. 4:6, ESV). So we ask our dear heavenly Father to supply us with grace, so that our lives will proclaim his good and gracious gifts and promises (forgiveness of sins, salvation, unselfish love, everlasting life…) And he will not ignore our prayers.

As he supplies rich grace, our patience, compassion, honesty, purity, and other-centeredness declare most loudly that we trust in a Savior who loved us enough to put on a servant’s form; suffer humiliation, torture, and death by crucifixion; be abandoned by his Father so we could be reconciled to the same; and defeat death by rising never to die again, promising us resurrection to immortality—or transformation to immortality if we are among those still breathing in our clay homes when he comes again. As Paul so eloquently put it (inspiration by the Holy Spirit surely helped!): “He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (1 Tim. 3:16, ESV).

God bless you richly as you recall with wonder and joy the baby of Bethlehem and Nazareth, “God in flesh made manifest”; and as you look ahead by faith to his second Advent when he comes to take us home for good. In Jesus’ name, Amen.


Rev. Frank Kinast, Pastor
Messiah Lutheran Church, Valdosta, GA