Today's team journal was written by our Conference Coordinator, Melanie Newhouse.

As a little girl, I remember my mama centering the wooden holder on our table, fixing the plastic holly wreath, and securing the candles in their places.  During dinner, I watched, transfixed, when she lit the candles. The flames flickered; melting, and dribbling wax danced before my eyes.  

Advent traditions have existed for centuries as a way to prepare the believer’s heart to celebrate the coming Savior, God Incarnate.  Advent is a word, with Latin roots, meaning ‘arrival’ or ‘coming.’ However, it was translated from its Greek counterpart, parousia, which the Outline of Biblical Usage defines this way:

1. presence, 2. the coming, arrival, advent; and 2a. the future visible return from heaven of Jesus, to raise the dead, hold the last judgment, and set up formally and gloriously the kingdom of God.  

This is a season to stop and reflect upon our Holy God sending His only, perfect Son to seek and save the lost, to set captives free, and to be our righteous Redeemer.

This Greek word is seen many places in the scriptures in reference to Christ’s Second Coming (Matthew. 24:3, 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 5:23; James 5:7; 2 Peter 3:4; 1 John 2:28).  Early believers used the four weeks before Christmas not only to celebrate Christ’s first coming to mark redemption for mankind, but His Second Coming to restore His Kingdom for eternity.  This is a season to stop and reflect upon our Holy God sending His only, perfect Son to seek and save the lost, to set captives free, and to be our righteous Redeemer. Through the years, our family has followed scripture reading plans, read devotionals and storybooks, decorated Jesse Trees, sang Christmas carols, all in efforts to focus on the reason for the season -- the coming Messiah, Jesus, Immanuel, God with us.

Recently, I was reflecting on how He announced His coming.  After His glorious baptism and His testing in the wilderness, we hear about the early start of Jesus’ ministry in the synagogues.  In Luke 4, we see Jesus, coming to His hometown, using a tradition to announce His good news:

16 And [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth…

With the reading of this prophecy, found now in Isaiah 61, Jesus was announcing His arrival.  Simply speaking, this word left His audience in awe. Can you imagine sitting in that synagogue, hearing the original Author proclaim the fulfillment of the scriptures -- that the One they were waiting for was standing in the flesh before them?  Imagine how your eyes would be transfixed upon Him, marveling at the grace on His lips as He spoke this word with authority and certainty. What an awe-inducing moment it would have been! Unlike the majority of us today, the first century Israelites sitting in the synagogue would have known the rest of this passage from the prophet Isaiah.  Jesus was telling them, this is indeed the year of the Lord’s favor. I have come! I have come to give you a “beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit” (Is 61:3-4).  I have come so you “may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified” (Isaiah 61:5). How beautiful is this announcement of His Coming!

When we study the prophets, we often not only see prophecy related to the coming Messiah who will dwell with man on Earth, but we see prophecy related to the future day of the Lord, His Second Coming when He will judge and reign over His Kingdom perfectly.  Isaiah 61 is no different. It concludes with the voice of the Messiah proclaiming: 

10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

This talk of the Bride and  Bridegroom is a beautiful metaphor, which points to His glorious Second Coming.  The apostle John, whose book of Revelation overflows with exquisite imagery, also compares Jesus to a bridegroom  and the people of God as His bride. He describes his vision of the second coming of our Savior this way:

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."... 9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, "Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." (Rev 21:1-4, 9)

What a glorious day this will be!  Oh, sisters, during this Advent season, let us not only celebrate that Christ came, let us wait with great eagerness for His Second Coming.

Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.
Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne.

-- Charles Wesley, 1744

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Melanie Newhouse has called Christ her Redeemer since attending summer camp when she was 17. Shortly after, she began dating the man she calls her husband and best friend. They have had the joy of raising four boys together and, as a family, moved to Ohio from their beloved Michigan six and a half years ago. One of her favorite Scriptures is Psalm 119:169-176:
“Let my cry come before you, O Lord; give me understanding according to your word! Let my plea come before you; deliver me according to your word. My lips will pour forth praise, for you teach me your statutes.
My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right. Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. Let my soul live and praise you, and let your rules help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.”

Imagine with me you’re a woman living in ancient Israel. There’s a famine happening, because there’s a war happening. Your Syrian neighbors to the north have been battling against your home country and trying to invade your city. Food is scarce. You can’t remember the last time you’ve eaten. You’ve got at least one son, and your husband is likely out fighting in the war. You’ve got to figure out how to keep yourself alive. 

Nothing’s being harvested in the fields, and no new wine is being pressed. Prices for food are sky high. People have resorted to selling unclean animals, like donkeys, in parts for consumption. The thought of eating a donkey’s head would normally make you cringe, but right now, you’d eat anything.

You’re in agony. You’re hungry - deeply, desperately hungry like you’ve never been before. So hungry you consider doing things you never thought you’d do. 

In 2 Kings 6, we find one such woman. She and another unnamed woman are so desperate for food they make a pact to eat their sons - one that very night, and one the next day.

Things don’t turn out the way she planned, though. We meet her as she is crying out for help to Jehoram, the King of Israel:

“Now as the king of Israel (Jehoram) was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, ‘Help, my lord, O king!’ And he said, “If the Lord will not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?’ And the king asked her, ‘What is your trouble?’ She answered, ‘This woman said to me, “Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.” So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, “Give your son, that we may eat him.” But she has hidden her son.’ When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes..” (2 Kings 6:26-30)

What a devastating story. A family wrecked by war and famine, two desperate women, and a helpless king driven into continual mourning. The woman came to him looking for justice, but the golden era of wise and just Israeli kings had passed. The king entertained her question, but provided no solution. Her story broke him and pushed him over the edge. He was openly wrecked by the state of his nation.

The idea (and even more so, the reality) of cannibalism sends shivers down our spines. How could a mother even think of eating her son? How could the second mother in the story eat someone else’s child? We are so far removed from this kind of famine we cannot understand their level of hopelessness and hunger. 

I find that in times when I am overwhelmed, confused, shocked, or even disgusted by God’s Word, I need to search the Bible for more. I need a fuller picture. I need context. When I encountered this passage, I wondered, “What else does God say about this?” 

I found an answer in Leviticus 26:27-29:

“But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.”

Woah. 

When God gave His people the law, He clearly laid out His responses to their actions. If the people obeyed the law, they would experience God’s blessing. If they turned away from Him in rebellion, they would experience His punishment. Along with famine, disease, war, and destruction, cannibalism is mentioned in the long list of curses for disobeying God’s law (Lev. 26 and Deut. 28:53-57.) 

God was not surprised to see those two unnamed women make their grievous deal. He warned His people about it hundreds of years before. He spoke of cannibalism explicitly through the prophet Jeremiah and the writer of Lamentations (Jer. 19:9, Lam. 2:20, 4:10.) He even said that ears of all who heard about these things would tingle (Jer. 19:3.) The cannibalism in this story was the result of Israel’s collective rejection of God.

It’s not that these women were horrible, cold, vicious, or unfeeling. In fact, God said “the most tender and refined woman” would succumb to distress and resort to eating her child under the curse (Deut. 28:56.) Lamentations says “the hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children” (Lam. 4:10.) These weren’t careless mothers. 

He’s our daily bread, our sustenance, satisfying every desperate craving and depraved thought…the source of our hope and turns our mourning into dancing.

Israel, as a nation, made a covenant with God to walk in His ways. They promised to follow His plan for a flourishing life (the law,) and in return, He promised never to leave them or forsake them. But, they broke the covenant over and over, and as a result, they bore the consequences over and over. The woman in our story, along with the rest of God’s people, collectively bore the curse for deserting the one true God. Breaking relationship with God has serious consequences, both then and now.

We don’t hear anything more in the passage about what happened to the woman. We know her life was broken and her community was suffering. We know she endured great loss. We also know the Lord brought miraculous economic recovery to Samaria the very next day through the words of Elisha (2 Kings 7.) So maybe she was able to eat again, and maybe her husband came back from war, but my guess is that if she lived, she lived under guilt and shame for her actions toward her son - the guilt and shame of the curse. 

But unlike the woman, who could only look forward to a coming Messiah, we have a Savior, a Snake Crusher - Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He became a curse for us and redeemed us from the law (Gal. 3:13.) He kept our side of the covenant perfectly. He was rejected by God the Father, that we might be accepted and blessed. He gave us His Spirit, who helps us to listen to and walk with God. He’s our daily bread, our sustenance, satisfying every desperate craving and depraved thought. He is the source of our hope and turns our mourning into dancing (Ps. 30:11.) 

May we live with an awareness of our Great God and all of His blessings. May we dance at the thought of the lifted curse! May we believe with faith that Jesus is coming again to make all of the wrong things right and the sad things untrue. May we leave strange passages of Scripture like this one with hope, believing that Jesus has or will redeem it all.

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Meditations on Mark 7:24-30 and Matthew 15:21-28.

I remember studying about this Syrophoenician/Caananite woman during the Mark summer study. This is one of those stories I always glimpsed through but never really understood. Is Jesus really calling her a dog? This is a little more than unsettling. And she is agreeing with Him? I kind of want to defend her. 

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian Sythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Colossians 3:11

If ever there was a case for the metanarrative, this is it. I don’t believe we can understand this story without first understanding the Old Testament’s stories of a chosen people (the Israelites) and the good news of the Gospel and what that means for Gentiles like the Syrophoenician woman (and myself and probably you too.) It is also a case for context, because upon further study, we find that Jesus was in Tyre and Sidon, a primarily Gentile region. As Jesus was a Jew, He was pursuing Gentiles by taking His ministry and influence into their territory. Although the word dog is unsettling to us, Jesus’ actions show a clear pursuit to those previously considered “unchosen.” His character is consistent. He is the Good Shepherd going after the stray sheep.

In my ESV Study Bible, it gives interpretation for each part of this conversation between Jesus and the woman. It says the bread represents Jesus’ message, the children are the Jews, and the dogs are the Gentiles. God chose a people for Himself. This started with Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 15) who later made up the nation and people of Israel. When Christ came, He grafted the Gentiles into the same promises He gave to the Israelites (Colossians 3:11, Ephesians 2:11-22, Galatians 3:28.) We were adopted into the family of God. So now, we are not the dogs waiting for the crumbs. We can feast on the Bread of Life Himself, seated at the table as part of the family of God! 

In this account in both Matthew and Mark, we have a woman in desperation. She is pleading for deliverance from a demon for her daughter. After this curious conversation between the woman and Jesus, He graciously grants her what she is asking. This story, although only six and seven odd verses respectively in each gospel, is a huge foreshadowing of a much greater deliverance, one open to all people. 

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28

Jesus came not just for the Jew but for the Gentile. Additionally, in a male dominant culture, this is yet another account of Jesus caring about women and showing that His grace, healing, and relationship is not only for men, but for women as well. 

There was hope for the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter when there seemed like there was no hope.

There is hope for all of us.

I invite you to meditate on the above mentioned passages in Ephesians, Colossians, and Galatians with me today. I pray we have the faith and humility to see our rightful place and also see how Jesus traded us our rightful place for His. May we never get over the beauty of that truth. We have a new identity, a new birthright, a new family. We who were once far off have now been brought near. Ah, the nearness of Christ! When we accept this new reality, I believe evil will flee from us just as it did from the household of this humble woman.

See yourself in the place of the Syrophoenician woman. We have much in common with her. I am also a Gentile and in great need. Jesus pursued me, meeting me where I was at, to bring me His deliverance. He saw me begging for scraps and called me into a great feast. 

If you feel like you are undeserving of God’s grace, well that is true. I don’t say that to put you down. I’m here with you. One of my favorite lyrics from Relient K is “the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair.” It is humbling, but without Jesus, we don’t have a seat at the table. However with Jesus, we are coheirs with Christ! What a miracle!

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,1 but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into la holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:11-22

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Jillian Vincent loves Jesus. She's a wife, a mother of boys, and a Dayton enthusiast. Jillian currently is a stay at home mama and spends nap times writing and discipling other women. She would (almost) die for an avocado, a cup of coffee made by her husband, a novel that makes her cry, and a bouquet of sunflowers.

What do you think of when you hear the word “confidence?” For me, I imagine a beautiful lady nailing a public speech with perfectly quaffed hair and a killer outfit being met with a standing ovation. Or, I imagine a ballerina bending and jumping in a tiny thigh-gap-exposing-tutu in front of a large live audience. Confidence to me has always been tied to looking good, performing well, and being adored by others.

As I read through 1 John, I see John writing about confidence, and WITH confidence, as He addresses his letter to God’s children. This confidence that John describes and exudes has nothing to do with the confidence that I’ve summed up in my own brain. It is not simply something we can muster up out of our own willpower, but it is gifted to us by our good Father. And it is not for our own glorification, but that of His. If I could sum up 1 John, it would be: God loved us and made Himself known to us through His Son Jesus, who saved us from our sins. Now, that breeds true confidence, and oodles of it.

God loved us and made Himself known to us through His Son Jesus, who saved us from our sins. Now, that breeds true confidence, and oodles of it.

John insists that we are God’s children. And in that station, we are born into an identity of confidence. Why? Because when you are secure in your position with God as your Father, not much scares you, whether in life or death.

He specifically writes about confidence four times in his first letter, starting in 2:28 where he writes, “And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink in shame at His coming.” This refers to when Jesus comes again, but the statement also encourages us to approach Him now. No longer do we have the stain of sin to separate us from our Father, as Jesus took that upon Himself. In order to have confidence in Christ, we can not be strangers with Him, so John encourages us to embrace our position as His child, with every intimacy that this relationship affords.

This intimacy will remove your past and present shame stemming from sin. The next time John specifically mentions confidence is in 3:21 when he writes, “Beloved if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” When you are a child of God, you will hate your sin. The Holy Spirit will expose your sin to you and begin to change you. No longer will you live in condemnation (Romans 8:1), but you will have confidence to ask God to keep doing the good work of sanctification in you. You will see you are not as you should be, but praise God for this! You have hope that the Holy Spirit is making you like Jesus, and you are confident He will finish that good work in you. As Paul writes in Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

We can also have confidence to approach Him boldly in prayer and know that He will hear us when we do. John writes in 1 John 5:14 “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.”

Not only can you be confident for the past, that you are forgiven, and for the present, that He is making you like Christ, but for the future as well. In 1 John 4:17, John writes “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world.” We are confident that when Jesus comes again, our Judge will find us blameless because when God sees us He sees Jesus. We can have confidence that Jesus and His salvation for us remains the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

John doesn’t just tell, he shows. He explicitly mentions confidence these four times, but in total, the book of 1 John says “know” 33 times. John is giving an account of what he knows for sure, and all because of WHO he knows for sure. John knows Jesus. And we know Jesus. Because of this knowledge, we can be confident….

In the love of the Father (1 John 3:1)
In His promises of eternal life (1 John 2:25)
In His truth (1 John 3:18-19)
In His testimony (1 John 5:6-12)
In the Holy Spirit’s teaching and in His anointing (1 John 2:27)
To practice righteousness (1 John 3:10)
To love the family of God, even if it requires sacrifice from us (1 John 3:16-18)
When we experience hatred from the world (1 John 3:13-15)
When we encounter antichrists (1 John 2:18-24)
That His victory is our victory (1 John 5:4)

There are probably several more confidences I have yet to discover from this rich book, but this I know: I am walking taller today than I am before I studied this book. Why? Because I am God’s child, and because I know Jesus.

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Jillian Vincent loves Jesus. She's a wife, mother of two boys and a Dayton enthusiast. Jillian currently is a stay at home mama and spends nap times writing and discipling other women. She would (almost) die for an avocado, a cup of coffee made by her husband, a novel that makes her cry, and a bouquet of sunflowers.