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(Is.2:1-5;\xa0\xa0 Ps.122:1-9;\xa0\xa0 Rm.13:11-14;\xa0\xa0 Mt.24:37-44) \xa0 \u201cCome, let us climb the Lord\u2019s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may instruct us in His ways, and we may walk in His paths.\u201d \xa0 \u201cBeat [your] swords into plowshares.\u201d\xa0 \u201cThrow off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.\u201d\xa0 \u201cIt is the hour now for you to awake from sleep,\u201d and to \u201cstay awake!\xa0 For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.\u201d\xa0 And even now He calls you to \u201cgo up to the house of the Lord\u201d and \u201cpray for the peace of Jerusalem.\u201d Advent has come, and so we are reminded of the Lord\u2019s coming and our need to be prepared.\xa0 He will not come in vain, and will not accept any vanity into His kingdom.\xa0 His is a kingdom of light into which no darkness enters.\xa0 His is a place of peace where \u201crivalry and jealousy\u201d and all \u201cthe desires of the flesh\u201d find no provision. If in the days of Noah they were blind to the time of their visitation, and so \u201cthe flood came and carried them away,\u201d how can it be the same with us, who have the first coming of Christ in the manger and on the cross to stir us to wakefulness?\xa0 If we live now as in the days of Sodom, how much greater will be our punishment?\xa0 If we allow our house to be \u201cbroken into\u201d though we have His voice calling to our hearts, what could make us think that He will take us with Him when He comes again? It is indeed time to wake from the sleep of sin and \u201cstream toward\u2026 the Lord\u2019s mountain.\u201d\xa0 There we shall rejoice in His grace as His \u201crelatives and friends\u201d; there we shall find the light of His teaching.\xa0 \u201cFor from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem,\u201d and it shall fill the earth with holiness. The Lord has been born in our midst.\xa0 The Word has been made flesh and walked among us.\xa0 Now we are called to become like Him, to walk in His ways of peace.\xa0 And so when He returns at the end of time, we will be prepared to \u201cset foot within [the] gates\u201d of His kingdom. \xa0 Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. \xa0 Music: "Can We Go Together?" from Bearing the Birth Pangs, tenth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. \xa0 ******* O LORD, let us walk in the light of your Son until He comes. YHWH, let us go up to your House, where we shall find our peace, where we shall find the instruction we need to leave behind all deeds of darkness and enter into your holy light.\xa0 When your Son returns for us, let us be awake and ready to welcome Him, and He will welcome us into your kingdom. O LORD, let all the nations come to your holy mountain, to the place of wisdom and peace, that all weapons of destruction might be themselves destroyed and war might be no more.\xa0 Let not any nation raise the sword against another, and let no man fall again into sin.\xa0 Let us be trained for peace, not war; purity, not lust. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that it shall extend to the ends of the earth.\xa0 In this time let it come and dispel all rivalry and jealousy, all the works of the flesh.\xa0 Your Spirit reign upon us, O LORD; let your Son come to carry us to you.