December 20th
O Key of David, and Scepter of the house of Israel; that opens and no man shuts; and shuts and no man opens: come to bring out the prisoner from the prison, and those that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death.
On that day I will call for my servant… and he will be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah. I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; what he opens, no one can close; what he closes, no one can open.
Isaiah 22:20-22 (HCSB)
Write to the angel of the church in Philadelphia:
“The Holy One, the True One, the One who has the key of David, who opens and no one will close, and closes and no one opens says: I know your works. Because you have limited strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name, look, I have placed before you an open door that no one is able to close. Take note! I will make those from the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews and are not, but are lying — note this — I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I have loved you. Because you have kept My command to endure, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is going to come over the whole world to test those who live on the earth. I am coming quickly. Hold on to what you have, so that no one takes your crown. The victor: I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God, and he will never go out again. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God — the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God — and My new name.
“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Revelation 3:7-13 (HCSB)
Oops, more from Isaiah (I did warn you), but since we did the worst church from Revelation, so I thought we could do the nice one now. It being Christmas and all.
I’m actually enjoying this though. Yesterday I asked C how many Christmases she was actually going to have -because, by my count, she’s already had the four Friendsmases, the weekend gathering, and presumably something will actually happen on Christmas Eve and Day- and she looks at me with a completely straight face and goes ‘As many as I can [obviously]’
Here is Red Mountain Music’s version of Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus on Youtube and Spotify.
…and here is an image of a comparatively young globular cluster, NGC 362, from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic.
Here’s this year’s calendar, if anyone’s interested.
Mum's devotional 