This Advent season begins early here at DHQ here in Wepasa. Our Thanksgiving service was held in New Kensington with our special guest Lt. Colonel Richard Dean. What a turnout for our service; over 300 in attendance. The previous week, we were asked to conduct the Thanksgiving service for the northern Corps at Erie. It was nice to play guitar with my good friend Major Walter, but it wasn’t so much fun driving home in a blizzard! Major Walter informs me, this is an everyday occurance in Erie!
From there the Mackneer express conducted the Sunday morning worship meeting on the second Sunday in Advent at the New Kensington Corps. Our good friends Captains Elvie and Colleen Carter are doing a great job at New Ken, and had a wonderful day planned for us.
While preparing for the morning message, “The Mighty God”, I came across these interesting comments from Isaiah 9 and El Gibbor.
“He is the Divine Warrior, or a Hero divine! He has superhuman prowess, not simply because the Spirit of the Almighty God rests upon him in anointing, but because the nature of essential deity resides within Him!’ Beacon Commentary
“El Gibbor” is really the essence of who the mighty God is. “El” means power strength and Power. “Gibbor” means the “Mighty God as a Warrior and champion.”
“The decisions of a king make or break a kingdom and a kingdom designed to be everlasting demands a wisdom like that of the everlasting God. In this case, like God because He is God, the Mighty God (El Gibbor) the title given to the Lord him self in Isaiah 10:21,22. Plainly Isaiah means us to take seriously the “El Gibbor” component of this name, as of Immanuel. ” Alex Motyer
To make sure I was pronoucing “El Gibbor” correctly I found this good hebrew website which actually pronounces the words for you. Check it out at: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/index.html
This week we finished up the Treasures for Children program for Allegheny County which my wife coordinates, with the help of our DHQ staff. With the help from the Women’s auxiliary, over 30,000 toys are collected and delivered to the Allegheny Corps. It’s not kettles, but it’s lots of hard work!
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!
