This wonderful Advent season post was sent to us and we thought it was quite worthy. It is by our friend, Pastor Schuldheisz, Associate Pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Huntington Beach, California, and we are re-posting it here with his permission.

Enjoy! We pray you are having a wonderful Advent season and are preparing to spend time with family and friends as we eagerly look forward to the arrival of our Savior this month.

Every year at Redeemer the LWML ladies (Lutheran Women’s Missionary League) host an Advent by candlelight. I’ve been honored to join them and share a devotion along with the tea and table fellowship. Here’s the devotion from last night…along with something completely different at the end! Enjoy. And a Merry Advent to you all.

Advent is a peculiar season with a peculiar name. Thankfully, the word itself gives us the answer: Advent, from the Latin adventus, meaning to come, or appear. And knowing this simple definition helps us sort out the blessed peculiarity once we ask ourselves the Lutheran question, “What does this mean?” Who or what comes in Advent? Why do we celebrate this season? During this peculiar season, Christians must learn, not to be ambidextrous, but Advent-idextrous (Yes, I just made that up. If you’re in the Scripps national spelling bee the definition means to hold three teachings of Jesus in tension at one time; Language of origin – Latin and general Schuldheisz silliness). For Advent is somewhat like a triangle. Jesus’ Advent is three-fold: He came. He comes. He will come again.

Now we all know about Jesus’ first coming in human flesh, the God-man, the boy who lived come to die. But there’s more. That’s God’s way of doing things; there’s always more: more life, more forgiveness, more than you can ever ask for. The greatest joy in Advent is our hope of Christ’s coming in glory, precisely because He came in the flesh. We await this coming with hopeful and joyful, pregnant expectation. It’s like a mother in her 8th month of pregnancy. Baby’s coming soon. Can’t wait! So much to prepare. Readiness. Eager expectation. Holy fear. That’s Advent. Therefore we can be confident in Jesus’ second coming because of His first coming in the flesh. He came. He will come again.

And yet Jesus is not done Adventing Himself among us. As we joyfully celebrate His first coming in Bethlehem and as we await His second coming in glory. He comes now – not as a Child in a manger – but as a crucified and risen Savior. Jesus advents Himself in His Word of truth. Jesus advents Himself in the water of Baptism, washing us in His death and resurrection. Jesus advents Himself in the absolution, announcing peace on earth and good will towards sinful men. Jesus advents Himself in the Lord’s Supper, feeding us with the same body and blood that once lay in a manger, born of Mary. That’s Jesus’ three-fold Advent. Now, I’m not suggesting you twist your Advent wreath into a triangle – although that might be an interesting concept – but we do well to keep the three advents alive during this season.

Just like St. Bernard, a monk from the middle ages once said, “In the first coming, Christ comes in the flesh and in weakness; in the second, He comes in Spirit and power; in the third, He comes in glory and majesty; and the second coming is the means whereby we pass from the first to the third.”

So with that in mind…enjoy a new twist on an old favorite: Twas the Night Before Christmas…Advent style!

Twas the very first Advent when all through the earth,
All creation was groaning for life and new birth.
Though sin, death and darkness had caused such great fear,
There’s hope that a Savior soon will appear.

It starts with old Zach surrounded by holy smoke,
When right through the cloud of incense he spoke:
Mighty Gabriel came and promised a son,
John the forerunner of this Promised One.

Meanwhile in Nazareth of Galilee,
There dwelt a Virgin, favored and holy,
To whom the Lord sent the angel Gabriel,
Announcing a Savior from sin, death and hell.

When out of her mouth there arose such a wonder,
“I’m but a Virgin, how can this be, I ponder?”
“Do not be afraid,” was the angel’s word,
“For nothing is impossible for the Lord.”

In the months leading up to that first Christmas Day,
Joe’s fiance was pregnant – wait; what did you say?!
Unwilling to let his betrothed suffer shame,
He vowed not to let Mary take his last name.

While Joseph was nestled all snug in his bed,
The Angel Gabriel appeared over head:
“Do not fear to take Mary as your dear wife.
The Holy Spirit conceived this Child’s own life.

You shall call His name, Jesus, that Child within.
For He is the Savior from death, hell and sin.”
Isaiah foretold this great Immanuel:
His name means, “God with his people shall dwell.”

As the time of His birth drew closer at hand,
A census was ordered throughout the land.
“Man, woman and child: Go back where you’re from.”
So it’s off on the donkey to Bethlehem home.

In comfort the Emperor lay down his head,
While a Virgin and husband search for a bed.
No room was found but a manger lowly,
Jesus’ first Advent was humble yet holy.

When out in the fields there arose such a clatter.
The shepherd awoke to see what was the matter.
A myriad of heavenly hosts didst appear,
“I bring you good news of great joy, do not fear.”

“A Savior’s born yonder in Bethlehem town,
You’ll find Him swaddled, with hay for a crown,
Glory to God and on earth, He brings peace.”
This Child has come, your sin to release.

Away from the hillside they flew with great haste:
“We must find this Child, not a moment to waste.”
When, what to their wondering eyes should appear,
But a God-man, and Savior whose birth gives great cheer.

So the shepherds went forth with great joy and praising,
On mountains! On hillsides! Their voices were raising,
“Behold Zion’s watchmen on top of the wall!
The Savior is born, now tell all! Tell all!”

And that is the story of Christ’s first Advent-tide.
Yet still with His people He deigns to reside,
His Advent brings forgiveness in body and blood,
Through water and word in a Baptismal flood.

By His life and death He gives us new birth,
A blessed exchange, His death for our mirth.
But ’tis not the end of Christ’s Advent story,
Still we await His Advent in glory.

This Advent-tide let your wreath flicker with cheer,
In hopes that Christ’s second Advent soon will be here.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come quickly, we pray.
We yearn for the dawn of that great Sabbath Day.

When not in a manger as in days long ago,
But a radiant Lamb, His glory to show.
When trumpets will herald our crucified King,
And the heavens with loud hosannas will ring.

He will spring to the earth, give His angels a whistle:
“Away sin and death and curse of the thistle.”
With rejoicing we’ll bow as He comes into sight.
A merry Advent to all, and to all a good night.

Also, a special thanks to Mark Beutow for the “emperor” line and Sean Daenzer for the shock and awe of Joe.

P.S. I found a triangle Advent wreath! (Ed. – It has been included at the top of this post.)

Posted with permission. Taken from Pastor Schuldheisz’ blog.

Regretfully, I’ve never been as avid a reader as I now wish I’d been, and I think I should have been. Reading has always taken me more effort than most, it seems.

I don’t know how many people out there are like me, but I suspect there are many around my age range (late thirties, early forties). People like me grew up surrounded by the computer revolution, starting with TV and quickly moving to video games and a flood of gorgeous movies – which also were suddenly available at home with the advent of the VHS tape.

It was the beginning of a constant barrage of visual and audible media. But it was only a contributing factor to my lack of desire in reading and in books. There were a lot of other parts which summed up to the total struggle I had in gaining any desire to read.

But every once in a while something in the new techologies which are now part of our daily lives rises above the din to make it possible for people like me to play catch up a little bit and hopefully make it a bit easier to fall in love with something as I never did.

I’m sure many of you have heard of, or use regularly, iTunes U, made available through Apple. I’ve been delving in to it over time to see what gems might be lying around in there. If you haven’t heard of it, it is a resource of growing and inestimable value. It is a place where you can find educational resources – typically audio ones – which you can use to study in your off time. And best of all… FOR FREE!

And what do I mean by “off time”? How many hours to you spend commuting to and from work? How many hours do you spend doing other things like working out or doing chores around the house or running errands? How many things do you do during the day where you’ve found that you have time to turn on your MP3 listening device and use it to fill the time?

This is where iTunes U really shines. In particular, I ran across a resource that I now understand many others know about, but I’m pretty certain many others don’t. It is simply a glorious example of what is available in the iTunes U catalog.

The University of South Florida (USF) has made available a program called “Lit2Go”. What is it? Classic literature made available directly online to read in your browser, but also in PDF (for printing) and MP3 format. Have you ever wanted to read (for the first time, or second, or whatever Nth time it may be for you) stories like:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (or Tom Sawyer)
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• Alice in Wonderland
• Treasure Island
• Wuthering Heights
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Peter Pan
• Oliver Twist
• The Last of the Mohicans
• Hamlet
• Dracula
• David Copperfield

…and many more. Unbelievable! Because you can simply download the MP3s for free and listen to them in your off time. Just put them on your iPod or MP3 listening device and you’re off and running. Or you can drop them into iTunes and burn audio CDs for your car.

Anyway, this is a free resource, and we gain nothing by sharing it. But you could gain much. Don’t miss out on this. You have no reason not to. You certainly can’t beat the price.

You can visit Lit2Go directly at the USF website, or visit it through iTunes (search for Lit2Go in iTunes and go to the University of South Florida link to find the Lit2Go link).

There’s much more to be had at iTunes U. If you find any other worthy resources there, be sure to post them in the comments here for others.

We’ve been hammering away at this and it appears that we’ve got the problems ironed out. I would invite you to place an order with your credit card in our store if you’ve been waiting to hear more on this before doing so.

I would like to ask your help, though. If you do receive a decline message on your order, before giving up, please double-check your billing and credit card information. The only ways we’re seeing declines come in right now is due to incorrect billing or credit card information of some kind, like the expiration date, etc.

If you’re absolutely positive that your billing and credit card information is 100% correct and you still get a decline message, please contact us immediately. We’re watching our transactions very carefully right now, so we will likely know about it before you contact us, but we’ll look into it for you nonetheless.

Thanks again for your patience!