Advent Day One – Isaiah Chapter 9 Verses 1 – 7 (Out of darkness Light)
Isaiah Chapter 9 Verses 1 – 7 (NIV)
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
Opening Prayer
Lord, as we start our Advent journey, we pray that you will reveal to us new ideas and thoughts that will encourage and inspire us. We open ourselves to your Holy Spirit, asking that we will once again approach the stable in Bethlehem, filled with awe and wonder.
We pray that the fullness of your grace may be found in the readings we read and the thoughts that they inspire in us. Lord, bless us on our journey, as we once again prepare for your coming into the world. Amen
Reflection
My thoughts turned today to those alien encounter films where a beam of light bursts from the sky pinning a person in its’ blaze. In the films this is the start of an encounter.
A lifting away into a new “reality” – experiencing new things that we have never been aware of. Of course, in the movies this is usually the start of something unpleasant happening, though not always.
With God this is always a good path and that path leads to a good encounter. Our experience of God bursts into life as the light dawns in our lives.
Unfortunately, sometimes the light reveals a path that we do not really want to travel or a path that we are not sure of.
We are all familiar with our Sat Navs. Indeed on some occasions we are completely reliant upon them. I have not yet worked out how to update ours. As a result, we are, once in a while shown as driving through blank wastelands (fields really). The screen goes dark and the arrow, which shows where we are, travels on unconcernedly that it is not on a road, until the path once more lights up before us.
I suspect on occasion you also know, at least part of, your route better than the Sat. Nav. does. As we turn off the recommended route the Sat. Nav. starts to object with its’ helpful “re-calculating”.
I am struck by two thoughts as I write this. Firstly, that even when we are not sure where we are in our lives, God knows. He has a direction for us, even in the middle of the barren times of our lives. Secondly, that God never gives up on us. When we wander from the right path, no matter how far we wander, he offers us a route which is the right one to get us back on the right path to our destination.
As we begin our Advent journey to Bethlehem, we rely on the grace of God to guide our feet on that path, to once again meet our Saviour at his place of birth.
A time for your own reflection
Read the passage again and spend a little time thinking of how the passage speaks to you. The wonder of scripture is that there is always something new to discover and each passage speaks to us in our own need and circumstances.
Only if you feel you want to – share your thoughts with someone. God inspires our thoughts and you never know, the person you share with may be waiting to hear what you have to say.
Song
I know some folk think A.I. is a dangerous thing and potentially damaging to composers and artists.
However, I write words fairly easily but each tune that I write either takes hours, over several weeks, to create or hours searching for a suitable public domain folk tune to use. For this series of reflections I am hoping to write a song for each day. I will be using an A.I. generation site for the music. Time permitting I will sing the vocal but when it defeats me I will use the voice of the AI singer. It would be impossible for me to write both words and tunes in the time available to me. I hope you will forgive me for that.
Here is the first song –
“Out of darkness Light”
Words: Chris Hancock
Inspiration: Isaiah 9 v 1-7
Music: Generated on Suno.com
Vocals: Chris
[Chorus]
Send your light again to guide us,
Chase the darkness from our hearts,
Turn our lives to face the future,
Make this road our journeys’ start.
[Verse 1]
When our path seems in the desert,
There’s no light to show our way,
The future unclear, before us,
In this dark time Lord we pray.
Lead us to the stable,
where we have been before,
To see our precious Saviour,
To worship him once more.
Lead us to the stable,
where we have been before,
To see our precious Saviour,
To worship him once more.
[Chorus]
Send your light again to guide us,
Chase the darkness from our hearts,
Turn our lives to face the future,
Make this road our journeys’ start.
[Verse 2]
Light will drive out the darkness,
Peace will conquer war,
We who walked in darkness,
Will walk your path once more.
What was wrong no longer matters,
Fears and failings left behind,
Will we hold tight to our anger,
Or embrace the Lord of light.
[Chorus]
Send your light again to guide us,
Chase the darkness from our hearts,
Turn our lives to face the future,
Make this road our journeys’ start.
[Verse 3]
Light will drive out the darkness,
Peace will conquer war,
We who walked in darkness,
Will walk your path once more.
What was wrong no longer matters,
Fears and failings left behind,
Will we hold tight to our anger,
Or embrace the Lord of light.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for the light you send into our lives.
As we travel on our Advent journey may our eyes be once more opened to the wonder of your birth. Help us to see that, though we may be in darkness, you are always with us.
Remind us, that we are truly forgiven and can travel with you, on this our journey to the stable. That you are with us in every twist and turn in our lives.
Help us to see the things you have done in each of our lives, inspire us to share the wonder of these things with those around us. So that those walking in darkness can see your great light reflected in our lives.
We pray that this Advent road truly be our Journeys’ start. Amen.
Copyrights
Reflections and Prayers
By Chris Hancock
Songs
Words of the songs are by Chris Hancock
Music generated on Suno.com
If you are a user of the free tier of the Service then, you covenant and agree that you will only use Outputs generated from Submissions made by you through the Service solely for your lawful, internal, personal and non-commercial purposes, provided that you give attribution credit to Suno in each case.
Bible Readings
Bible readings are from the New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Images
Images where used are from pixabay.com and free for commercial use no attribution required.
