David:     Short answer, Karen. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word advent?

Karen:     I think of the word coming.

David:     Okay.

Intro:      Welcome to the Before We Go Podcast featuring Dr. David Mains and his wife, noted author Karen Mains. Here’s David and Karen Mains.

David:     More short answers, okay? As people in their 80s, I’m 87, you’re almost 81. What are some words that come to mind when you hear the term advent or Christmas?

Karen:     Well, I know that advent in liturgical churches is the period before Christmas when you’re supposed to actually do some soul examinations, some self-examination, and prepare yourself in that way to be ready to celebrate the coming of Christ or Christmas day with a pure heart. Well, that’s pretty much what advent in practice is supposed to be in those churches. Did you want a short answer?

David:     Let’s work at short answers. What’s positive and what’s negative about advent, okay? For example, I think music is very positive. Advent season, the music is glorious.

Karen:     Yeah, it begins to focus on Christmas carols, et cetera.

David:     I think of a fireplace.

Karen:     Oh, yeah. That’s lovely.

David:     Been gathering wood all through the year, and now we’re ready to have some glorious fires. We already had one.

Karen:     We’ve had a couple trees go down. We have easements on either side of our property, and so our son Joel has taken the time to segment them and then split them, and so we’re going to have great fires.

David:     Yep, okay. We’re getting into long answers again. Food?

Karen:     Okay, I’m just going to say yum, yum.

David:     You’re doing better as far as keeping it short. Let’s talk about negative things about advent, okay? It’s becoming more expensive. Says the old timer who runs out of money much faster at the time of the advent because there are more members of the family, and it seems like it’s all becoming more and more commercial in some ways. That’s unfortunate. Hectic, does that seem fair to you when you talk about advent?

Karen:     Well, I think not the advent season, but using the advent season to prepare materially for Christmas, buying gifts, putting up lots of decorations, table settings, all of that sort of stuff that happens.

David:     I think a negative regarding advent is separation of family. It’s such a big country, and it’s very hard to get everyone together like we used to.

Karen:     It really is hard, isn’t it? Getting our schedules together in calendars and travel. I mean, we have a son who’s coming in on Christmas Day from the West Coast, which will be wonderful to see him, but that was the least expensive way to come, was to come on that day, so we’ll just readjust, but it is complicated.

David:     I’ll tell you something that’s changed, Karen. I used to hope there would be a white Christmas. There would be snow now. I think not a whole lot of snow, and especially I don’t want ice out in the front. You know that slippery outfall, break my neck, one of these days.

Karen:     Yeah, right. Yeah, we do have a different perspective.

David:     Secular, that’s a word that I would say has become more and more characteristic of our country.

Karen:     The secularization, not just of the holidays or the holy holidays, but all of culture seems to be becoming much more secularized.

David:     Okay, what I want to do is to try something new. I’m going to write what I’m saying in a sentence, but it’s not going to be for others. It’s just going to be for me. Because I’m trying something out, and if it works any year from now, we’ll be able to say, “This was very helpful to us.” Here’s the sentence. Focusing on Christ’s second coming as well as his first coming could help give perspective to the way I celebrate Christmas this year.

Karen:     Oh, say it again.

David:     Focusing on Christ’s second coming as well as his first coming could help give perspective to the way I celebrate Christmas this year.

Karen:     Oh, that’s interesting. So, Advent, the period weeks before Christmas, you’re saying you’re not only going to just try and prepare yourself for Christmas, but for the thoughts of his second coming. Oh, interesting.

David:     Advent is about his first coming, but also his second coming. But usually the first coming gets all the emphasis. So, this year, I’m going to concentrate on what difference will it make. If I make it a point to focus my attention on the second coming as well.

And in order to do that, I’d like to actually read some scriptures about the second coming. And if you want to start, you can or you want me to start, I can. Either way.

Karen:     It doesn’t matter. I have this portion from Acts.

David:     Okay. The writer’s going to be Luke, the beloved physician. He’s not one of the apostles, but you don’t care. And I think Luke wrote more of the New Testament than any of the other authors because he wrote the Gospel of Luke and then he also wrote Acts. That’s a big hunk of scripture there. So, one way, I’m not sure that’s true, but it seems like it to me.

Karen:     So, this scripture starts with “After Jesus said this, he was taken up before the very eyes and the cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said. ‘Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into a heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’” So, that’s the second coming of Christ that they’re referring to in this passage. Wow.

David:     That’s the advent. That’s part of the advent season. Here’s writings from John the apostle and I’m reading from his revelation. This in chapter 19.

“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Karen:     Wow.

David:     That’s breathtaking, isn’t it? That’s not like the gentle Jesus meek and mild in the manger and Bethlehem. This is again about Jesus, but it’s a second coming.

Karen:     Yeah. Oh, my goodness.

David:     Do you have another passage?

Karen:     You do have one.

David:     Who’s the writer this time?

Karen:     I think it’s Paul, Second Thessalonians, right?

“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered unto him.” So that would be the second coming.

David:     Yes, of course.

Karen:     “We ask you brothers not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy report or letter supposed to have come from us saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed. The man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped. So that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” Wow. That’s a real foretelling, isn’t it?

David:     Yeah, it is. And there’s also a verse that talks about Jesus’ role in that one, too. You need to go a little bit further down that.

Karen:     Oh, I got it. Okay.

“Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroyed by the splendor of his coming.”

Makes you just long for that. I mean, we think of so much evil that’s in our world. Yeah. And to have that destroyed by this righteous one will eventually be overall.

David:     Just opening up, for me scriptures related to the second advent, or the second coming of Jesus. I have one more, and this is a different writer once again. This is Matthew.

“At that time, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take oil with them. The wise, however, took oil and jars along with their lamps, and the bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, the cry rang out, ‘Here comes the bridegroom. Come out to meet him.’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed the lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil. Our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied. ‘There may not be enough for both of us. And you, instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were gone on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later, the others also came. ‘Sir, sir,’ they said, ‘Open the door for us.’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’ Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” And again, that’s the second advent, the second coming of our Lord. Just giving perspective as to how important all this is.

Karen:     You know, this is an interesting thought, David. I’ve always thought of the advent season. Once I was introduced to it, it wasn’t a part of my Baptist church background, it was a time to get ready for Christmas. A time of self-examination, of preparation. But to think of it as also a means by which we ready ourselves for the second coming of Christ, I think, is profound.

David:     Especially as we’ve become quite elderly now in our lives, and we’ve gone through many Christmases when your focus, and rightly so, is on the birth of the Christ child. But this is another appearing, or another advent, coming of Jesus.

Karen:     Yeah, I think it gives it a much deeper scope. So, I hope you will remind me to practice that as we get more into the busyness of this.

David:     I need reminders for myself. So, the answer is “Yes, I will do my very best to help both of us.” But I said, “Lord, I desperately need some help, because I can’t figure out how to put this into something that will be the continual reminder for me.” I thought I could get a scepter and make a crown, but that’d be a lot of work. I don’t know how to do it.

Karen:     Well, we always have an advent wreath that I put on the coffee table in front of the fireplace, and it has four candles for each of the advent weeks. But I think you’re right. I think that can become kind of a formality too. But what’s seeking for something that gets us into the deep meaning of it. So, what have you come up with? What are your ideas?

David:     I didn’t come up with anything, but a friend did. I said to the Lord, “I cannot figure out how to make this something that continually comes back to my mind.” Another pastor, he’s a phenomenal minister, author, drove into the driveway and I went out and said, “Hi, Tim, you got five minutes. I need some help.”

Karen:     He was here, obviously, so he could give you five minutes.

David:     But he was at his house slippers. He was a little bit grumbling, but I said, “Thank you.” I said, “Okay, it’s 24 after. At half past, you can leave, but here’s what I’m struggling with. I’m trying to get a symbol that would open up this whole thing for me.” He said, “I got one for you.” He said, “In Europe, the ruling monarchs, if they’re Christian, at the top of the crown, not the outside part that you usually see, but the part that goes over the crown of your head.” He said, “At the top of that, all those crowns, if they’re Christian by nation, then there is a blue sapphire at the top of that.” And he said, “What that reminds those monarchs of is that they are under heaven. They will have to give an accounting…” and so on, which is pretty neat, isn’t it? And so, I thought to myself, “How in the world do I find a sapphire?” So, I put that out of my mind, but I thought, you know what? I could get a Christmas tree ornament that’s blue. In fact, I could probably buy a box of a few of them, and I’ll put those around the house.

Karen:     Oh, that’s a lovely idea.

David:     Well, good for you because I thought I’m going to have two problems. Your decorating is much better than mine, and how those Christmas balls are going to fit. Now you’ve already said that’s a good idea.

Karen:     Oh, it’ll make them work. No, that’s wonderful.

David:     Now I got another problem. I have two cats in the house that love to play with balls of all kinds.

Karen:     This is a harder problem for you to solve.

David:     I got it partially solved. I’m going to put one of those Christmas blue balls in the car.  Because I can’t get those cats to ever go in the car. They fight that like everything. But if I miss it in the house, I’ll get it when I go in the car.

Karen:     Oh, that’s lovely.

David:     And I’ll say, this is the reminder that I wanted, that the advent is more than just the babe, as wonderful as that is in his innocence and in his need for help. He can’t make it on his own at that time in his life. I’m going to have that reminder always with me, and I will bring along with that this reminder of the king who came first as an infant will also come as an adult. And he will be the reigning Lord, the conqueror of all that. I’m going to say that sentence once again, focusing on Christ’s second coming as well as his first coming could help give perspective to the way I celebrate Christmas this year.

In fact, now I’m sure it will. It will be the way you and I celebrate Christmas this year, and we’ll help each other as we just talk about it.

Karen:     Okay, sounds great.

David:     But then we’re going to see how that works. It’s going to work. I know it’s going to work. I feel very positive about it. It’s an interesting season. I think we’ll make it even more so. It’s so easy to go through the seasons one after another, then kind of forget the incredible, best story in the entire history of the world. Never been a new story like it, and it hasn’t ended yet. It’s going to end with this incredible return of the King at all of his majesty and power. Isn’t that something?

Karen:     It’s wonderful.

Outgo:     You’ve been listening to the Before We Go Podcast. And if you would like to write to us, please send us an email at the following address,  hosts@beforewego.show. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please remember to rate, review, and share on whatever platform you listen. This podcast is copyright 2023 by Mainstay Ministries, Post Office Box 30, Wheaton, Illinois 60187.