12: God in the Neighborhood

Guest: Brian Delamont

• “Jesus’s arrival is the announcement of God’s offer of transformation for you and for me.  That’s why it’s announced as Good News to all humanity by angels.”
• ”This is the great thing about God’s plan - it’s always been to be with us.”
• John 1:14
• “Being ‘with’ is what Advent draws out in our hearts. We are longing and waiting for what will come, and this is what Christmas can bring us if we actually engage with why it even exists.”
• G.T. and the Halo Express
• “He’s primarily coming to be with us, and being with Him literally changes everything.”
• “As His children, He gives His glory to us in order to move into new neighborhoods in His name.”
• “It’s more than Jesus coming as a baby, but Jesus coming to be with us and those who don’t yet know Him. When Jesus moves into the neighborhood, He comes to be.”
• “When we choose to come to Him, to come to the One who created all of this, who formed me just because He loved me and wants me to be with Him, in that moment I come and I bow to the child in a manger. He gives me this invitation to ‘be’ because He is. He is totally sufficient, and He places that sufficiency on me as His child, whom He invites to come and be with Him, to be all that He intends for me to be and become. This is the transformation that Christmas calls me to.”
• “You can show love and care for the people around you that goes way beyond just being nice, checking the box on your to-do list.  It’s your way of being that’s transformative.”
• “Jesus gives us the opportunity to be with Him, to be in this peaceful place even in the midst of whatever may be going on in our lives that’s not peaceful right now.  God has taken this amazing action to come and be with us, and because of that, we get this opportunity to then take Him with us, take the presence of Christ with us to be with others.”

• Keane: Sending postcards to friends
• Heather: This podcast! 
• Brian: Eggnog in coffee