AOC Two

    The Sunday next before Advent The Collect. S TIR  up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen .                You may have considered my title above to be premature, but that would depend on your perspective. ADVENT is the beginning of the year on the Church Calendar. Advent means ‘Coming, or Arrival!’ It is the first season on the Church calendar which is a time for Preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Advent Season comprises the four Sundays preceding Christmas and a time of spiritual and reverent preparation. The Collect for the Season extols our meditation, prayerful expectations, and fervent anticipation of the Promise that was fulfilled at the first advent of Christ, and contemplates the Promise of His second Advent in great power and glory.               The ‘Sunday next before Advent’ is actually th

  H ERE  is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.  13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them .  (Revelation 14:12-13)    Do   We Need   Jesus   Today? Our blessed Lord Jesus is our Saviour. He reveals Himself to us by His example, His teaching, and finally by His death on the cross on which he died for the sins of the world. His deeds reveal his love for us, that He would "bear our sins upon the tree" that we might not have to bear them when we stand before the judgment seat of God the Father. His mercy and goodness are infinite.   One day as our Lord was teaching in the synagogue on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, a man with an evil spirit cried out to Him saying, "Let us alone; what have we   to do with Thee, thou Jesus of Nazaret

  T HEREFORE  the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.   (Isaiah 7:14)   B EHOLD , a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us .  (Matt 1:23)   Before God spoke in eons past, the world was mantled in a thick curtain of darkness which had shrouded it from the moment that it was made, from nothing, by the Voice of God. It was from this smothering darkness that God spoke Light into being, and it was so. The sphere of the earth was exposed to the light of first day, and Creation continued to its physical consummation by the executive hand of the Lord – the same Lord who not only made Heaven and earth, but you and me.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

     The Sunday next before Advent The Collect. S TIR  up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen .    W HEREFORE  I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.  7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  8  Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;  9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began  (2 Tim 1:6-9)   The Collect             A strong counsel for the Christian of any time of persecution, and of those who live, as we do, in a world of watered