Advent is an interesting time of year for protestants. Growing up Baptist I had very little experience with the idea of preparation for Christmas outside of wish lists for Santa and decorating the tree. The idea there could be spiritual preparation for the events of December 25th never occurred to me. Advent is spiritual preparation and something every Christian should be intimately familiar with if only to bring sanity to the month of December!
Advent is a time to reflect upon God's love, grace and mercy given to us through the manger. God, Almighty God, set aside the glory of Heaven to come to earth and be born a baby so we might be delivered from sin and the hopelessness which comes with it! THIS should be the focus of December not gifts, parties, food or Santa Claus. Christ is truly the reason for the season but He will rarely occupy His rightful place of priority if we fail to participate in the ancient celebration of Advent.
Advent begins four Sundays prior to Christmas and concludes on Christmas Eve. Do not miss out on the opportunity to make this Christmas the best ever by making Advent a part of your celebration! Take time each day during these four weeks to pray, thank God for His incarnation (birth into our world) and meditate upon what Christ did by leaving Heaven for a manger. And find a good church with whom to celebrate Advent! Join with other believers and worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the great and mighty God, who came to earth in order to save us from our sins.
Do not let Christmas sneak up on you this year! Don't miss out on the celebration Christmas is supposed to be! Participate in Advent and enjoy Christ our Savior!
James
I've never 'participated' in Advent, because I've never really understood what it was, but I've seen blogs where mothers are making an effort to teach their children about it. This is definitely something I'd love to do, for myself and for my family. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jennifer. I am going to post more on it over the next few weeks...hope to give out some good resources along the way. There are a lot out there.
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