This is the pattern of the salvation. Suffering, then glory. It’s like that phrase from the Reformation city of Geneva, where John Calvin was.

It’s chiseled into the Reformation wall, and you’ll have to excuse my Latin:

post tenebras lux, “After darkness, light”.

For the Reformers, for us as a Reformed Church, this phrase about is hope after hardship. This is the joy of Reformed theology, a pastoral theology that is deeply grounded in the grit of suffering.

Anyone can welcome by having the right skillset, but welcoming actually gets real when the Lord has us welcome those who have hurt us. This is what is before us in Genesis 45 – 47.

A lot of heartaches in this life that are hard to treat are those of fractures in families, ruptures in relationships. The kind of heartaches that happen inside due to irreconcilable differences, or at their worst, unrepentant sin we show toward others.

Providence often works in that quiet querying, eerie silence. But the God who rules dreams, prisons, kings, and famines…
is the same God who rules your life.

Judah starts recovering his humanity in repentance and we see him mature to be more like the man he needs to be, like Jesus eventually.

"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace; behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face." ~ William Cowper

Providence through People with Problems (Genesis 37:1-11)

Rejecting God = Living a Lie (Psalm 14)

Worshipping in Abandonment and Despair (Psalm 13)

Where Do You Put Your Trust? (Psalm 11)

Contrast, Purity, and Trust (Psalm 12)

Peace in a Peaceless World (Psalm 46)

Treasure in Christ (Colossians 2:1-5)

“We all have spiritual leprosy. We all are spiritually paralysed by our sin. We all are sick, that’s why we need Christmas. I am praying, that you will look into life with Jesus this New Year, and that you will truly have a Happy New Year!”

Come and adore Him, who frees us from our sin.

Do you see how he nourishes you in the wilderness of waiting, this Christmas? It’s not by bread alone…nor by chicken, prawns or whatever you eat on December 25th.

It’s better, it nourishes you forever.

It’s feasting on being fed his word, in the gospel, that comes from the mouth of God, and is preached to your heart, entering your spiritual bloodstream, nourishing your soul.

When Satan tempts you to despair, when he accuses you day and night, what you need in these moments is to know what is so true and who is for you. Jesus Christ is.

God will nourish his church in this time of advent, in this time of waiting for the return of Christ. As we turn to the table of the Lord, we who believe in the Lord Jesus are going to be nourished by the gospel that sets the Christmas table of the church.

The trumpets of judgement are a big snooze alarm, waking up people who have not repented. An alarm 6 times over, before the 7^th and everything of this age is over. And so now is the time for the church to bring the gospel into a waking world. For being on this side of history won’t last forever, there is a new age to come where evil is over, and Christ will reign over all forever and ever.

Reforming Church, trust him today and take comfort in him for tomorrow – for it is only a little while longer. He is going to right all the wrongs. He is going to bring justice, nothing will stop that bolting horse. He has a plan, and he is planning on you being sealed in it.