We often look for God in the spectacular, but Advent reminds us that our extraordinary God

came in the ordinary, in flesh and blood, to dwell with us. This Advent reflect on the wonder

of the incarnation with Heaven Came Down, a new devotional by Dr. Michael Horton, published by

Solar Media. Over four weeks, published by Sola Media.

Over four weeks, it explores how the Almighty veiled himself and flesh, not to terrify us,

but to save us. Your support helps us bring the good news to more people. Consider requesting a copy

for your own Advent reflections, or has a gift for someone who needs hope this season.

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Gearing up for Thanksgiving this year, I've been reflecting on some of the Bible's teaching about

thankfulness with the help of Francis Schaefer's book, True Spirituality. I started reading the book a while back on a plane ride, and I remember just thinking, man, there's some really good stuff in here about the priority of thankfulness in the Christian life. If you didn't know, Schaefer was an American pastor and theologian who died in the 80s, and he was big into apologetics and engaging the broader world with the gospel.

But at one point he had a real crisis of faith.

He looked at all of the infighting and the lack of spiritual love among professing believers,

and he began to be disillusioned.

He told his wife, quote,

I feel really torn to pieces by the lack of reality,

the lack of seeing the results the Bible talks about,

which should be seen in the Lord's people. I'm not talking only about people I'm working with

in the movement, but I'm not satisfied with myself. It seems that the only honest thing to do

is to rethink, re-examine the whole matter of Christianity. Is it true? Almost like a,

like a season of deconstruction for him, sort of peeling back everything and then trying to

figure out again, you know, do I really believe these things? This is really working in my life.

So for months, Schaefer spent time in quiet and study, meditation, and eventually the

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