400 Years of Silence

The Old Testament ends with the book of Malachi. The last verse of Malachi 4:5-6....

"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." (NIV)

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he shall turn and reconcile the hearts of the [estranged] fathers to the [ungodly] children, and the hearts of the [rebellious] children to [the piety of] their fathers [a reconciliation produced by repentance of the ungodly], lest I come and smite the land with a curse and a ban of utter destruction." (Amplified)

Malachi reveals how the people of God offered blemished sacrifices, dishonored God, violated the covenant with Levi, broke committments with God. Zechariah offers more insight in Zechariah 7:11-13 about the people of God who didn't pay attention, wouldn't listen, turned their backs and harden their hearts.

Finally God stop listening for 400 long years. All around were Gentile, Roman and Greek religions with multiple gods. The one true God was silent. There is complete silence between the Old and New Testament.

In the fullness of time, God spoke again .....

Why a Blog

I've been a lifelong Lutheran. I was raised in a Christian home and have been an active member of a Lutheran Church for my entire life. However in the last 8 or 9 years my desire to learn more about what I believe and to live out my faith more deliberately has increased dramatically. I've been wanting to write my story of how faith has impacted my life. A blog seems like a good place to start.

Advent is a perfect time to start writing down my thoughts. As a Lutheran, Advent is a season in the church year that is celebrated in a multitude of ways. I'm reading through a devotional called Preparing My Heart for Advent by Ann Marie Stewart. You are supposed to start on November 1, but I'm only 3 weeks late!

I love Advent. It brings back memories of being a child with our homemade Advent wreath that had evergreen boughs. The evergreen boughs came from the Christmas trees that were cut at our Christmas Tree Farm in Ada, MI many years ago. Sometimes we did devotions and sometimes we didn't...that's the reality of big family. We had an Advent calendar on the refrigerator with little windows. There was always a large Advent Wreath at church with the pink and purple candles.

But what is Advent? Advent is the four weeks before Christmas. It's a time to prepare our hearts for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

http://www.adventdevotions.net/