{"id":3596,"date":"2016-12-04T08:07:41","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T08:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/?p=3596"},"modified":"2016-12-04T08:38:08","modified_gmt":"2016-12-04T08:38:08","slug":"advent-are-we-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/?p=3596","title":{"rendered":"Advent:  Are we ready?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3608\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/?page_id=3599\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3608\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3608\" class=\"wp-image-3608 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/baubleImage3.png\" alt=\"bauble image 3\" width=\"225\" height=\"220\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3608\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">See more here&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Advent calling. Are you getting ready, what can you actually do to get ready, how much time do you need and will this have\u00a0the right effect?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My Advent reading this year is with Tom Wright, a great writer of commentaries and his <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2h1kuVR\"><em>Advent for Everyone: A Journey Thrugh Matthew<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So get ready for the adventure ahead, or are you already Advent ready!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Matthew 3:1-10 is the place to be!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/?page_id=3599\">Advent content available here<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>John was preaching in the Judean wilderness. By all accounts John was a wild character, clothes made from camel hair, eating locusts and honey and foretold by Isaiah that there would be a voice in the wilderness shouting in the desert.<\/p>\n<p>And he doesn&#8217;t let us down! As in Matthew 3:7 he says to the Pharisees approaching,\u00a0\u00a0who were full of pride and righteousness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018You brood of vipers, who warned you to escape from the coming wrath, you had better prove your repentance by bearing the right sort of fruit!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">But what about us?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">Can we take ourselves away from the glitter and spending for a little while, to reflect and prepare for Jesus coming into our world?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">\u00a0<\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">Advent is a wonderful time of year and it does \u00a0bring Jesus into many homes, through Nativities, cards, carols and the church services. We\u00a0can pass on that understanding of what Christmas is actually about. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">That wonderful togetherness and joyousness is a reflection of the joy that Jesus can bring into all our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">It isn&#8217;t a case that we have to stop enjoying the preparations, let\u2019s all have a great time and make as much festive Christmas preparations as we can, let\u2019s light up the churches, let\u2019s light up the world and let\u2019s light up our hearts with the knowledge that once again we find ourselves at this splendidly wonderful time of year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\"><em><strong>Rev&#8217;d Sue Martin<\/strong><\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/?attachment_id=3401\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3401\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3401\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/bauble-300x294.png\" alt=\"Baubles in Advent\" width=\"159\" height=\"156\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/bauble-300x294.png 300w, http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/bauble.png 305w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 159px) 100vw, 159px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Standard\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Advent calling. Are you getting ready, what can you actually do to get ready, how much time do you need and will this have\u00a0the right effect? My Advent reading this year is with Tom Wright, a great writer of commentaries and his Advent for Everyone: A Journey Thrugh Matthew. So get ready for the adventure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[136,30,16],"tags":[33,137,78,53,135],"class_list":["post-3596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-church-seasons","category-faith-goes-walkabout","tag-advent","tag-advent-for-everyone-a-journey-through-matthew","tag-faithgoeswalkabout","tag-gayton-group-of-parishes","tag-tom-wright"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithgoeswalkabout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}