Collect: Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Your only-begotten Son, that by His coming we may be enabled to serve You with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Greetings in the Name of Christ Jesus our Lord!
A Christian's service, a Christian's love and purity always begins and is brought about by Christ. When Christ comes with love and mercy and forgiveness, we are made into a new creation by Him, and as His new creation we end up showing forth love and purity, even over and against the desires of our sinful flesh.
We can never emphasize the fact that Christ Jesus is responsible for our Good Works and purity enough. Why? Because your old sinful flesh will want to shift credit and praise from Christ onto yourself. Because Satan does not want you recieving Christ, but rather with dull and indifferent hearts to turn away from Christ and simply assume that you yourself on your own apart from Christ will be... good... pure enough... a decent sort of person.
Dissipation and cares and drunkeness - these all can wear us down, and if we are not focused upon Christ, we can be deluded into placing our confidence in ourselves, on our own strength and power, and Christ is forgotten. Thus, our prayer remains that God stirs us up - that His Word of Law comes and shakes us out of our selfish complacency, and then that Christ comes with healing and power and glory and strength - and that we be filled with His love, that we be made ready to face this day, that we be made to have strength to stand on the day when He comes again.
Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith!
Have a great week in and from Christ!
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