Joy to the World – Advent Devotional

Advent is for adoring Jesus Christ. It is an annual season of patient waiting, hopeful expectation, soul-searching and calendar watching for many churches, individuals and families. There is no biblical mandate (instruction) in Scripture to observe Advent. It’s an optional thing – a tradition that developed over the course of church history as a time of preparation for Christmas Day. Many of us find observing Advent to be personally enjoyable and spiritually profitable.

The English word “Advent” is from the Latin adventus, which means “coming.” The advent primarily in view each December is the first coming of Jesus two millennia ago. But Jesus’ second coming gets drawn in as well, as the popular Christmas carol “Joy to the World” makes plain:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He come to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found.

Join us at First Baptist and celebrate the Advent season with us each Sunday morning at 9:30 am. We will light a new candle on the advent wreath and count down the weeks before Christmas. We will focus on a different Gift of Christmas: Hope, Joy, Love and Peace each Sunday. Learn more at Christmas.

Come get your FREE copy of Joy to the World: Daily Readings for Advent by John Piper to enjoy on your own or with your family.

Note: Excerpted from the preface of Joy to the World.

Categories: Advent, Community, HolidaysTags: , ,