Spiritual Sounding Board – This is your place to gather and share in an open format.
by Kathi
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Today marks the second Sunday of Advent. These are some of the readings found in The Common Book of Prayer for year two. If you are looking for daily readings or devotions for the Advent season, Christian Resource Institute is a good place to start.
The other readings for today are:
Psalm 149, 150, 114, 115
Amos 6: 1-14
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Psalm 148
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights above Praise him,all his angels, praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heaven. He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the Lord.
II Thessalonians 1: 5-12
All this is evidence that God’s judgement is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among tall those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Luke 1: 57-68
When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.” They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and through the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.
His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David.”
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May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you;
may he guide you through the wilderness: protect you from the storm;
may he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders he has shown you;
may he bring you home rejoicing: once again into our doors.
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Feel free to join the discussion.
You can share your church struggles and concerns.
Let’s also use it as a time to encourage one another spiritually.
What have you found spiritually encouraging lately?
Do you have any special Bible verses to share, any YouTube songs that you have found uplifting?
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photo credit: Kathi – Onion domes on Christmas Cathedral, Suzdal, Russia
Spiritual Sounding Board 
Thank you for this. For those of us left without a church home and church family other than on-line, this is food in the wilderness.
Spiritually encouraging lately? I’m in a FB group of a church in Tennessee that has a large on-line listening audience. I download the weekly teachings and I find correct exegesis to be very encouraging.
May God bless you for your work that He has prepared in advance for you to do.
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Good morning Still Reforming and all my SSB brothers and sisters. I love that God has prepared a work in advance for me to do. Now that I am free from some many things that were keeping me oppressed, I finally feel like now God can take me and use me. It has been a long road. Still on it. I don’t expect to arrive until I reach glory.
Merry Christmas to all…..this is my church right here and I am so glad we are doing the advent readings. Oh how I miss being in a good church with other true believers.
The song by the Piano Guys lead me to their website and this:
http://thepianoguys.com/portfolio/silent-night-feat-placido-domingo/
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Thank you, Still Reforming and Overcomer for sharing. It’s great to see how God is still at work among the Body of Christ, even with those who don’t have a physical church building.
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The Soweto Gospel Choir singing at an NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert.
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Recalled this old song recently and found it on Youtube. I hope it blesses someone else this week. 🙂
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Kathi – how appropriate to put a song featuring a piano’s sounding board here at Spiritual Sounding Board. (That’s what the banner photo is – part of a piano’s sounding board.) Great songs!
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At first when I saw what they were doing I thought…blasphemy! I really had no idea that you could get the kinds of sounds out of a piano sounding board as they did.
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