The XM ChallengeThird Advent Sunday – The XM Challenge https://www.rickbergen.net Help Plant 1,000 Churches Fri, 07 Nov 2025 23:01:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 169531157 Third Advent Sunday https://www.rickbergen.net/?p=318 https://www.rickbergen.net/?p=318#respond Sun, 11 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000 Rick Bergen http://www.rickbergen.net/2011/12/11/third-advent-sunday/
We prepare this week by feeling the joy.  We move through this week feeling a part of the waiting world that rejoices because our longing has prepared us to believe the reign of God is close at hand.  And so we consciously ask:

Prepare our hearts
and remove the sadness
that hinders us from feeling
the joy and hope
which his presence
will bestow.

Each morning this week, in that brief moment we are becoming accustomed to, we want to light a third inner candle.  Three candles, going from expectation, to longing, to joy.  They represent our inner preparation, or inner perspective.  In this world of “conflict and division,” “greed and lust for power,” we begin each day this week with a sense of liberating joy.  Perhaps we can pause, breathe deeply and say,

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

I copied this reflection on “joy” for this week’s meditation from Online Ministries .

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Here are three more of our set of nine 2011 Christmas paintings. RGB

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