ADVENT ~ Week 3

UNWRAPPING JESUS'

PRESENCE - PRESENTS

in ISAIAH 9:6

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder,     and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,  Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (ESV)

If you've been following along with me since Advent began 3 weeks ago, you'll realize that I am not doing them in the traditional order of Hope, Peace, Joy, Love (or whatever order you are familiar with as tradition), but I am doing these to coincide with the above verse in Isaiah 9:6, so this week I am presenting:

LOVE

with

EVERLASTING FATHER

{the preposition in between those two words could be many different ones} such as:

Love of the Everlasting Father

Love from the Everlasting Father

Love to the Everlasting Father

or just

LOVE (and no word) Everlasting Father

because

He defines LOVE

HE IS LOVE

God, our everlasting Father

is

LOVE

and

LOVE

is our

Everlasting Father*

... for some of us, this is contrary, or a conflict with our earthly father, who may not have represented our Everlasting Father, at all as love or loving or even fatherly and perhaps not even there, so we have no earthly comparison ... and/or he fails in comparison; then there are some of us, who have been blessed by loving, earthly fathers and it helps to understand better the love of our Everlasting Father. Truthfully, there is no reason to compare but not having that love might impair or (a)skew our perspective of Father ... and Love. 

When I look at the words in Isaiah, of our Father ... I focus mostly on the 'Ever' and the 'lasting' part as the best compound adjective to precede our Heavenly Father, who loves us all beyond inexplicable measures. 'Ever' means "at any time, at all times, always, increasingly and constantly" - now that most definitely describes our Heavenly Father, who is available to us ALWAYS ... and 'lasting' (without even looking this one up) means forever ... enduring or able to endure over a long period of time - that's our God! We put those two words together and see a Father that lasts forever, which is eternity ... HE is eternal!

So we can look forward to an eternity with an enduring love and a Father that is able to love forever. Now, this is our God! and the most beautiful part of this Christmas season from this Child born to us ... Immanuel, God with us ... truly aMazing! Isn't this why this following song, we can sing and sing over and over, or it comes to us, right when we need Him or this reminder the most? 

Casting Crowns {they were just in Mpls., MN for their Christmas tour}
For the previous weeks, we have been 
"UNWRAPPING
the Names of Jesus"
according to the Advent devotional book with that title
however, what I hope you really are doing is 
focusing on
JESUS
unwrapping
more of His Presence and
all HE truly is as we receive Him
as we prepare our hearts and lives for
MORE
LOVE
found in

... Good Shepherd (John 10:11) ... Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14) ... Son of Man (Mark 10:45); Son of God (Matthew 2:15); Son of David (Matthew 1:1); Son of the Highest (Luke 1:32) ... Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53:3) ... Lamb of God (John 1:29) Lamb (Revelation 13:8)

the
Great
I AM (John 8:58)
ABBA to Jesus and us
our
EVERLASTING
FATHER
of
LOVE
email 12/18/17 from Word Ministries - Prayers that Avail Much Everlasting Father, I thank You for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You for the marvelous changes in our lives – for transforming us into the image of Your dear Son. Almighty God, You have made us more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. I thank You that Your love abounds more and more in each of us as we fellowship this season with family and friends, in the name of Jesus. Amen. I Corinthians 15:57; Romans 8:37 for Family and Friends



*this is a link to a great article by Spurgeon on "His Name -- the Everlasting Father"