From now on, on each Sunday throughout the month of December I will be posting the Advent scriptures we've read at my church and the theme of those Scriptures. Since this past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent (and my series didn't start until yesterday) I've posted them today with the intention to post future Advent passages on Sundays.
But first, what is Advent? This is a special season before Christmas where we take purposeful pauses and meditate on the glory of Christ's birth through specially selected Scripture passages. It's true, Jesus was not born in December (more likely, the spring), but we can still celebrate the incarnation with intention this season.
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary has an excellent daily Advent devotional you can sign up for or read here and I'd like to share their introduction as a way to introduce Advent:
Richard Lints:
But first, what is Advent? This is a special season before Christmas where we take purposeful pauses and meditate on the glory of Christ's birth through specially selected Scripture passages. It's true, Jesus was not born in December (more likely, the spring), but we can still celebrate the incarnation with intention this season.
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary has an excellent daily Advent devotional you can sign up for or read here and I'd like to share their introduction as a way to introduce Advent:
Richard Lints:
In our more reflective moments, we sometimes dare to ask two thought-provoking questions: “What have I done with my life?” and “What will I do with the rest of my life?” When God intrudes into those quiet moments, we ask those questions not simply in terms of the details of life—what jobs we had, where we lived or what our college roommate will be like next year. Rather, we ask them in search of the significant purposes of our lives.
Advent is a time for asking the big questions of life, though this season tends to crowd out the quiet spaces, leaving little room for reflection. ... It is our shared conviction that Jesus is not just the “reason for the season.” Jesus is the “reason for everything.” In him, everything holds together. We trust that in some meaningful way, you will find that your own life holds together in Jesus this Advent season. This is our prayer for you. May it be your prayer as well.
Week 1: The Messiah, Born of a Woman
Genesis 3:15:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Luke 1:26-33:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”