Just testing the technology for #adventbookclub
and hoping it works this time!
#adventbookclub
•November 29, 2013 • 1 CommentThis weeks posts have been introductions to the themes of Advent.
#adventbookclub proper starts on Sunday, 1st December.
The book we are reading is Beginnings and Endings by Maggi Dawn, published by BRF. (There is a pdf version available too.)
Everyone is invited to read Maggi’s thoughts each day, and then the conversation begins.
There will be daily posts here and on the Facebook page – not all of them by me. Hopefully a conversation will also be happening on Twitter, and we will do our best to produce a Storify roundup.
If anyone else is going to be blogging on Beginnings and Ending, please do add a link on the page, on Twitter with #adventbookclub, or comment here. The more the merrier 🙂
Or if you want to comment, ask a question or just join in the discussion, that’s great too.
Whatever works for you, please do join in. Hopefully we can get an ongoing conversation going that will enrich our reading and our Advent.
Thanks to everyone who has expressed an interest so far; and the team of willing helpers, without whom #adventbookclub wouldn’t be happening; and especially to Maggi for writing the book 🙂
I Will Help You #adventbookclub
•November 28, 2013 • Leave a CommentIsaiah 41:8-20 (CEV)
The Lord’s Chosen Servant
8 Israel, you are my servant.
I chose you,
the family
of my friend Abraham.
9 From far across the earth 
I brought you here and said,
“You are my chosen servant.
I haven’t forgotten you.”
10 Don’t be afraid. I am with you.
Don’t tremble with fear.
I am your God.
I will make you strong,
as I protect you with my arm
and give you victories.
11 Everyone who hates you
will be terribly disgraced;
those who attack
will vanish into thin air.
12 You will look around
for those brutal enemies,
but you won’t find them
because they will be gone.
13 I am the Lord your God.
I am holding your hand,
so don’t be afraid.
I am here to help you.
14 People of Israel, don’t worry,
though others may say,
“Israel is only a worm!”
I am the holy God of Israel,
who saves and protects you.
15 I will let you be like a log
covered with sharp spikes.
You will grind and crush
every mountain and hill
until they turn to dust.
16 A strong wind will scatter them
in all directions.
Then you will celebrate
and praise me, your Lord,
the holy God of Israel.
The Lord Helps the Poor
17 When the poor and needy
are dying of thirst
and cannot find water,
I, the Lord God of Israel,
will come to their rescue.
I won’t forget them.
18 I will make rivers flow
on mountain peaks.
I will send streams
to fill the valleys.
Dry and barren land
will flow with springs
and become a lake.
19 I will fill the desert
with all kinds of trees—
cedars, acacias, and myrtles;
olive and cypress trees;
fir trees and pines.
20 Everyone will see this
and know that I,
the holy Lord God of Israel,
created it all.
However dry the deserts, however far away, however frightened – God has not forgotten us, protects us, holds us and is here to help us.
The new life brought by fresh water will come, barren lands will be refreshed, deserts will be filled again with life. God will come to help us.
God’s promises through his servant, the one who comes.
Pam's Perambulation 