I received an email subscription that I thought fit into the Advent season, even though its writer is Rabbi Daniel Lapin. I copied the text of the devotion below (but left off the advertisements!).
[P.S. I can’t get the devotion to look formatted correctly here – if you can’t read it feel free to follow the link to it directly.]
But first our scripture and prayer…
1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (Isa. 60:1-3 NIV)
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (John 3:21 NIV)
Light of the World, You stepped down into darkness, drawing us to your grace, coaxing us to become your Children of Light. Thank you for this gift of grace given. In this season of preparation, help us to come to you in humility and honesty to reflect on our lives, confess our sin, and obtain your forgiveness. We want to be in the Light as You are in the Light and shine like the stars in the heaven. We want to be the face of Light in a word strangled by darkness, hopelessness, distraction, fear, greed, illness and death, cruelty, hunger, and so much more. Help your children in all places to be the face of Christ – the light of Christ – in a dark and dreary world. Hush the noise of strife in our world, and help us to hear the angels’ song and to sing with them: Glory to God in the Highest! Glory to God! Amen.
It Came Upon The Midnight Clear © Public Domain by Edmund Hamilton Sears | Richard Storrs WillisIt came upon the midnight clear
That glorious song of old
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold
Peace on the earth good will to men
From heaven’s all gracious King
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing
And ye beneath life’s crushing load
Whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow
Look now for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing
For lo the days are hastening on
By prophet bards foretold
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong
And man at war with man hears not
The love song which they bring
O hush the noise ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing
That glorious song of old
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold
Peace on the earth good will to men
From heaven’s all gracious King
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing
And ye beneath life’s crushing load
Whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow
Look now for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing
For lo the days are hastening on
By prophet bards foretold
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong
And man at war with man hears not
The love song which they bring
O hush the noise ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing
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Thought Tools by Rabbi Daniel Lapin
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Hey, Buddy, Got a Light?
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What three changes could you institute that would improve your life? Most people know exactly what they ought to do and what they ought to stop doing that would make their lives better. Which begs the question; why don’t
we just go ahead and do these things?
The answer is what I call “The Force of Darkness.” Understanding and learning to conquer this sinister force is so important that God introduces us to this primeval darkness and general chaos no later than the second verse of Genesis.
According to ancient Jewish wisdom this verse reveals a dark force built into the universe that attempts to combat progress towards improving our lives. This is why it is harder to diet, exercise, and grow thin, than it is to sit around, eat, and grow fat. This is why it is harder to save and invest than it is to spend and consume or to educate one’s self and improve one’s career rather than to seek entertainment. This is why self-discipline is harder than indulgence or why it is harder to build a marriage than it is to destroy one. In other words, keeping the flame burning is just plain hard. It is far easier to sit back and allow darkness to win.
If the problem is darkness, surely the antidote is light — which brings us to Chanukah, the festival of light.
Many mistakenly think that Chanukah is a post-Biblical rabbinical holiday. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, its roots lie in the Torah and within the prophecies of Hagai and Zecharia, centuries before the historic events.
Many mistakenly think that Chanukah exists because about 2,150 years ago the Hasmonean Maccabees won an extraordinary military victory over the Greeks and Jewish Hellenists. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, one of the reasons the loyal and faithful Jews were able to win the war was because it was fought on the days already prophetically preordained for light to defeat darkness.
Many mistakenly think that Chanukah is an annual holiday celebrated by playing silly games while eating oily potato latkes. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, just as ranchers must vaccinate their livestock each year to keep them healthy, Chanukah is an annual vaccination of light to keep ourselves healthy enough to dispel darkness.
On the first night of Chanukah we light one flame. We add a flame each successive night until we have a glorious extravaganza of light emanating from our menorah on the eighth night. Why don’t we increase the total light on this holiday by kindling eight flames every night?
Simple arithmetic reveals that lighting correctly requires a total of 36 flames. It is no coincidence that the word light appears 36 times in the Torah. It is also no coincidence that the first word in the Bible possessing the numerical value of 36 (each Hebrew letter is a number as well) is the Hebrew word AYEKA, meaning “Where are you?” which God asks Adam after his sin.
Needless to say, God knows where Adam is hiding. The question was not an attempt to discover Adam’s physical whereabouts but instead it was God admonishing Adam to reflect on his spiritual condition.
That word echoes down the ages as God asks each one of us every day, “Where are you?” The message of the 36 bright flames, increasing by one each night, is that you dispel darkness by achieving just a bit more today than you did yesterday. Remaining in one place is just a slower way of moving in the wrong direction. Staying the same is an illusion, not reality. That is simply the way God created the world.