Category: Advent 2023 – A Legacy of Faith

Advent 2023 – Day 3

Emily Chase December 3, 2023December 3, 2023 0

We are still at the beginning of a series of Advent devotionals on the theme of “A Legacy of Faith.” Thanks for returning to join us on the journey. Today we’ll look at the influence of fathers on our legacy.

Last year, for 24 days in Advent, we followed the story of my father meeting my mother and falling in love. Soon after they married, World War II broke out. Dad went to Europe as a chaplain with the US Army. Dad was a gentle man, and war was anything but gentle. I have been reading all the letters he sent home from the front, including his first-hand account of liberating the concentration camps. The scenes he described were horrific. Yet my father was also deeply distressed when the American GI’s raped local women and his fellow officers became intoxicated. Were they any better than the Germans?

Dad’s commander asked him to lead a memorial service for the US servicemen who had died en route to defeating Germany. After praying for the dead, Dad also prayed for the living:

Grant, O Lord, that we who live on may highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. We here dedicate ourselves anew to the divine cause of freedom and justice for which they fought. Inspired by their sacrifice, help us, O God, to rise to nobler living, to be obedient to Thy holy commandments, and to share in building a better America and a world of brotherly love and peace among all mankind. We ask it in Thy Holy Name. Amen. – John H. Parke, US Army chaplain

Many men came home from the war wounded physically and scarred emotionally. When my father returned, he rarely spoke of the events he had encountered, but his faith preserved his sanity and his hopes for mankind. Even more importantly, he passed that faith on to his children.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “Even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father. For I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you.” (1 Cor. 4:15)

Who fathered you in the gospel? Offer a word of thanksgiving for their ministry in your life.

Advent 2023 – Day 2

Emily Chase December 2, 2023December 2, 2023 0

Welcome back to the second of our series of devotionals titled “A Legacy of Faith.” We are looking at people who have impacted our life by teaching us to walk by faith. One group of people who can have a profound impact on us, for good or not, is grandparents.

Both my grandfathers were pastors, but my grandmothers were also women of faith. Nai Nai, my father’s mother, was always old from my point of view as a child. In my remembrance, she never played tennis or swam or even cooked, but all my cousins and I remember her being a cardshark. She was ever ready to drop what she was doing and play a game of canasta, cribbage or casino with her grandchildren. She encouraged us to play cards even before we learned to read. Nai Nai felt these games taught us valuable lessons like how to win and lose graciously. Nai Nai felt she was always a winner: When she won, she would be pleased with her luck. If her opponent won, she congratulated herself on having such smart grandchildren.

Yes, she felt games were character building.

My other deep impression of my grandmother was of her habit of reading her Bible for hours every day. As it says in Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man…whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.”

That habit too was character building.

Who taught you to appreciate God’s Word? Before you head out to face your day, thank God for that person. (And if you are a grandparent, how will you influence the lives of your grandchildren?)

Advent 2023 – A Legacy of Faith

Emily Chase November 30, 2023November 30, 2023 0

The Advent season is upon us and, as always, we have a new theme for these daily devotionals in December 2023: “A Legacy of Faith.”

This Fall, I have been teaching a series of Bible studies on what each ancestor of Jesus contributed to the Line of Christ. Those classes prompted me to remember the multitude of people who have influenced my own life. As a result, this year, our Advent season will focus on the faithful people who, from all walks, have touched our lives in important ways.

Some who have impacted me are people I never even met. Over 400 years ago, my ancestor Robert Cushman fled England in 1607 for the Netherlands in order to worship God freely. His wife and two of his children died in the Netherlands, bringing grief but not discouragement to Robert. Ten years later, he arranged passage for a host of colonists escaping persecution in England. Robert fell ill and was unable to join the initial voyage of the Mayflower in 1620, but his efforts on behalf of others demonstrated his active faith. He at last arrived in Plymouth in 1621 and delivered the very first sermon published in America. His faith has been passed down our family tree from generation to generation. My brother, Robert Cushman Parke, is the proud heir of our ancestor’s original prayer book.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us, “Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

As you prepare your heart for Christmas this year, I suggest you begin by thanking God for those ancestors whom you never knew but who passed on a living faith. If you aren’t aware of godly ancestors in your family tree, take time to read Hebrews 11 and thank God for the faithful people listed there.