The season to rejoice and remember with more intentionality (as we should every season) the incarnation of Christ is here. My wife and I make it a goal to read an Advent devotional in this season to focus our minds on the true meaning of Christmas. With all the shopping, traffic, decisions on gifts, etc., it is always a good thing to have our minds and hearts filled with God’s peace, joy, and love that the Christmas season is all about. Christ is our peace, love and joy.

Having said that, we always tend to get behind on our reading and have to play catch-up every few days. It always happens. Recognizing our failure to take a moment and pause everything, we end up taking up whatever book we are reading together, and pick up where we left off. This year, we decided to read John Piper’s daily readings for advent, “The Dawning of Indestructible Joy.” 1-2 page reminders of Christ’s incarnation and his purpose for it has always set our hearts in the right direction. After each reading, my wife and I talk for a few minutes about what our minds were stirred up to think and we pray for us to be changed by God’s word.

The purpose of this 4 part blog series is to relate some of the highlights that I am learning in our Advent devotional readings so that you may also have a chance to meditate for a few minutes about God’s love towards us in sending us His son.

So, I invite you to join me in these next few days, as we play catch-up in our devotional reading and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas: the God man, Jesus, being born of a woman to redeem His people by His life, death, and resurrection and save them from their sins.

We’ll start tomorrow. I hope you join me.

“14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” -John 1:14-16