One Christian Dad

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Advent Day 2

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virgins

Advent: Day 2 

Scripture Reading:
Matthew 25:1-13

Devotional:

This is the parable of the 10 virgins.  A virgin is a girl.  Jesus tells us that in this parable that there are 5 wise girls and 5 foolish girls.  The candle represents the hope we have in our saviour.  In the old testament God promises a saviour, and that was the hope of God’s people long ago – that God would send a saviour to be the light in the darkness.  But Jesus, the light of the world, has already come and died for our sins.  Jesus has promised that he would return once again and this is the hope that we have today.

Q. Do most story’s start at the end or the beginning?

What a funny question!

Stories usually start at the beginning! But in this parable Jesus tells us about the end! He tells us that he will come back, but he doesn’t tell us when.   Usually in a story, the person who writes it does not want to give away the ending, because then we wouldn’t read the whole story. But in the story of Jesus, God wants us to know that he is in control over everything, even our salvation.  So He tells us the ending right away!

Q. Jesus tells us to stay awake.  Does that mean we shouldn’t ever go to sleep?

No.  That would be silly!  Jesus is telling us that we need to be ready for when he comes back.  We don’t know how, we don’t know when, but God wants us to know that someday Jesus will come back and we need to be ready. But we don’t need to worry because we know that God is in control.

This parable tells us that someday there will be a shout and the bridegroom will come back.

Q. Do you know who the bridegroom is?

The Bridegroom is Jesus.  God wants us to be like the wise girls and not the foolish girls.  We have to make sure that we are ready when he comes back for us.  And if he takes longer than we think he will, we have to make sure that we have enough oil in our lamps to last a long time.

Q. How do we do make sure we have enough oil?

We have to make sure that we love God by reading the bible and praying every day, and we have to make sure that we love others as well. Otherwise our oil will run out and God will call us foolish.

This is the beginning of the Christmas Season where we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  But God wants us to know the ending as well, that we will spend eternity with Him if we have faith.  Are we ready for Jesus to return? The candle light represents the hope we have in Jesus, that one day he will come back to lead us into the kingdom of God.

Sing: Hymn 37 “Hallelujah! Praised be the Son!” (video at end of post)

Capture

Prayer: Ask each person to say a short prayer today.  Dad or mom can finish praying after all the kids have prayed.

Ideas to add to your prayer:

  • Praise God for his goodness and mercy and for giving us a saviour and for telling us to be prepared for him to come back.
  • Confess that we are sinful, we will need help to stay awake and to keep enough oil so that we are ready for him to come back;
  • Ask God to shine the light of the hope of Jesus in the lives of those still living in darkness;
  • Ask God to strengthen our faith and help us show love to our neighbour at Christmas time.
  • Ask God to grant you and your children wisdom to keep your lamps burning

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