Good Evening.  I was waiting to write this post because I was hoping to have good news about Knoch Football team's victory over Montour in the WPIAL Championship today, but as you may have heard, the game didn't go that way.  Knoch took it on the chin today to the tune of 42-14.  While the Knights had a great season, we all wish they could have completed the run of destiny with a victory today. 

The post's title is "Preparing for Christmas."  It's that time of year again.  In the world of traditional Christianity tomorrow marks the beginning of "Advent," the season of preparing for Jesus' coming.  The preparation is both a time to remember Jesus' coming to the world as an infant 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, AND a time to look forward to Jesus' return to judge the world and establish His eternal reign.  Tomorrow at worship we'll start our Christmas series "The ABC's of Christmas!"  I hope you'll be there as we talk about angels.  (A is for Angel, B is for Bethlehem, C is for Child, D is for Dreams and Destinies, E is for EVERYONE, and F is for Fullness---These are the A,B,C's of Christmas that we'll be looking into during the Christmas season.)  Angels played a significant role in the first Christmas as well as in the pre-Christmas declarations of Jesus' coming to the world! 

The world seems to be infatuated with angels these days, and with good cause: they are God's primary messengers, and some of them serve to guard and watch over us.  As you prepare for this Christmas season, I hope you'll invest the time each Sunday to join us in worship and to check out the blog each day as we focus on a Scripture relating to the letter of the week.  While tomorrow's primary Scripture deals with the Angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she was to become the mother of Jesus, I want to focus on a familiar angelic message as  I close this post.  It comes from Luke 2:10b:  “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. Luke 2:10b (NLT)  The news at Heinz Field wasn't so good today, but the news from the angels was good 2,000 years ago and it's still great news today!  God sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to the world to rescue us from sin and death.  That isn't just good news--it's GREAT news!  How will you prepare to celebrate that Good News in this amazing season in 2011?

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending Jesus to save us from our sins!  Thank You for sending angels to prepare the way, and to announce the amazing news!  Fill us with the Holy Spirit that we may live through this season in such a way that You are glorified and many people turn to You.  This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.