GOSPEL CONVERSATION OPPORTUNITY
Advent Week One- The Gift of HOPE
Have you noticed the excitement building in your home? Yes- you’ve almost made it through the entire Bible! But also, we are moving into one of the most wonderful seasons of the year- CHRISTMAS! This season is such a special one as families intentionally set aside time to be together and to focus on celebrating the birth of Jesus.
Traditionally, the Advent season begins 4 Sundays before Christmas Day and includes a celebration of the gifts of hope, love, joy, peace and ultimately JESUS! Advent means “coming” and is a season to celebrate the first coming of Jesus (Luke 2) as well as the second coming of Jesus. (2 Corinthians 4:14-18) As we finish our Chronological reading plan, we are also going to take time to remember Advent as we celebrate all that Jesus did when He came to us as a baby and all that He will do when He returns to take us to take us to Heaven to be with Him.
HOPE is what we celebrate on the first week of advent. Hope is a feeling of expectation and a desire for a certain thing to happen. As we read through the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians this week, Paul reminded us of the hope of HEAVEN. We know that we can walk in faith believing that our faith will be made sight one day. Jesus will return and take us to Heaven!
For the Israelites, they had hope for the promised Messiah. They had a confident expectation that what God had promised, He would fulfill. Remember, we can trust that God keeps His promises! Our readings in the New Testament have pointed to the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled by coming as a baby, living a perfect life, dying on the cross for us and raising from the dead three days later. All those things that the Israelites were hoping for- Jesus fulfilled them all to show them that He was the promised Messiah.
Spend some time as a family discussing what you “hope” will happen for Christmas this year. Waiting for Christmas day to come can be hard to do, can’t it? Especially when we are so hopeful of what will happen! Think about how long the Israelites had to wait for Jesus to come. There was even a period of time- almost 400 years- when the Israelites waited, and God was silent. God broke that silence when he sent an angel to Mary and to Joseph to tell them that Mary was going to have a special baby who would be the promised Messiah. God kept His promise and sent Jesus. All they had hoped for was coming to be! What a gift!
2 Corinthians 9:15- “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”
Click below for this months take home sheets!
December Memory Verse:
I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.
Using the daily reading prompts from George H. Guthrie’s Read the Bible for Life, here’s how to use this devotional:
- Bring your Bible! Your kids need to see that everything you are reading to them or learning about comes from an actual Bible!
- Each day starts with a reading prompt. Read the selection as a family. If your kids are readers, encourage them to read along with you.
- After you’ve read the passage, read the short devotional thought that goes along with each passage.
- Prayer and application are important any time we read God’s word! After each devotional, there is a challenge to help apply what your family has read that day.
- There is a reading for six days of the week. The last reading of the week is a Gospel Conversation Prompt to help you connect the reading from the week with God’s plan for salvation.
Other Resources:
December memory verse coloring sheet