Wow. December is here. Colder weather is on the way. Snow. Christmas! It’s hard to believe, but true. Time marches on, and we are one day closer to the return of our Lord and Savior.

This Christmas season we will once again be using the advent wreath to facilitate our celebration. I’m hopefully going to be able to tailor the book of Ruth to the major themes of advent: hope, love, joy, and peace. The working sermon titles are:

“Hope for the Hopeless” (Ruth 1:1-2:1)
“Sacrificial Love in Action” (Ruth 2:2-3:13)
“The Joy that Comes from Knowing our Redeemer” (Ruth 3:13-4:17)
“God’s Plan for our Peace” (Ruth 4:17-4:22)

Speaking of Christmas, have you thought about your devotional plan for the New Year? I’m sorry to say that my plan broke down last year and Valerie and I ended up doing something different. This year, however, I’m trying to engineer a plan that is simple and straightforward, and I’m going to ask you if you’d like to join me in it. Are you familiar with the “Youversion” Bible app? It’s available for free, and they not only have Bible reading plans, but they also allow you to group together for those plans. That means each day after the reading I can include my thoughts on the meaning of the passage, and others can comment as well. I thought that going through the New Testament in a year would be a good place to start.

If you’d like to join me, please download the app, and then let me know that you want to participate and make sure that I have your mobile phone number. In late December you’ll get an invite from me. Click on the link and then choose to open it with the “plan” portion of the app. You should then be a part of the plan! Each day you open the app, go to the plan, read for that day, and then have the opportunity to go to the comments section. I also believe that your phone will notify you whenever someone has posted a comment (assuming that you haven’t turned off the notifications!). I’m hoping that this will work similarly on tablets and will post a generic invite to the church Facebook page (make sure you like the page ahead of time). I guess that I’d better send the invites out before the final Sunday, so that we can work on the tech together if you have a problem!

Looking forward to a great season and a Merry Christmas. Hope to see you in church!