The XM ChallengeFirst Advent – 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 First Advent https://www.rickbergen.net/?p=327 https://www.rickbergen.net/?p=327#comments Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:54:00 +0000 Rick Bergen http://www.rickbergen.net/2011/11/26/first-advent/ The four Advent Sundays are the start of the church calendar year for many churches. These are the four Sundays before Christmas day. This is a time of anticipating the celebration of God sending Jesus to be born a man and a time of anticipating the time when He will restore all things.
Here is a part of a written prayer for the First Advent Sunday which I copied from:
Lord God,
I sense your power, your might
and I stand in awe, painfully aware
of how poor and weak I am before you.
As I begin this Advent journey,
teach me to turn to you in my fear and sorrow.
I don’t want to keep making my heart hard against you
turning a deaf ear to your invitation.
Only you can help me to soften,
to be like the clay in your gentle potter’s hands.

We love painting our own Christmas cards. It is a Bergen family tradition…some Christmas carols, some cups of tea and painting. Here are the first two paintings in a set of 8 this year.

]]> https://www.rickbergen.net/?feed=rss2&p=327 1 327