GPBC Blog

By Jenny Ready--

I grew up in a household where the coming of Christmas meant that my mom would pull out endless boxes and our house would transform into a winter wonderland. We had a tree so fully decorated that not one branch was bare. Our mantle was this majestic icicle theme. There was a tiny Christmas village that looked like it should have been a photo scene in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. There was garland strung around banisters and mantles. Kitchen towels, bathroom towels, and tissue box covers shouted Christmas themes! Don't get me started on how many lights were hung inside and outside. Our house was completely "other than" what it used to be on November 30. As a child, I loved witnessing the transformation, and our house felt magical, inviting, and invigorating.

Though my decorating capacity is more toned down than my mom's, we still experience that warm and exciting feeling within our own family when we pull out all the boxes, still smile and laugh as we hang the adorable decorations that were made when the boys were in preschool and kindergarten, and still revel in how our house becomes that "other than" place where we experience our beloved advent season.

As you decorate your homes this year, notice what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you about the transformation that has happened to the interiors of your heart, similar to the transformation you experience to the interiors (and exteriors) of your home.

Here are a few scriptures to meditate upon as you decorate. May this be a rich time for you and your family as you celebrate all that God has done, and is doing, in each of you. Share them with each other and give thanks for the ways He's "decorating" our stony, barren hearts and transforming them into something breath-taking.

• And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV)
• I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. John 12:46 (NIV)
• For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. Isaiah 44:3-4 (ESV)
• Therefore, if any man (woman) be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are becoming new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
• The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)
• And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

Those who are in Christ are distinguished from unbelievers in that they have been gifted with the Holy Spirit, enabling them to bear fruit. Their works demonstrate the transformation that is at work in their hearts.

May all the "decorating" and transformation that the Lord is doing in each of your hearts bring Him so much glory during this advent season. HE IS WORTHY!!!!