Welcome to Advent 2022!

The word “advent” comes from a Latin word meaning “arrival.” It covers the season starting four Sundays before Christmas Day and functions like a countdown to Christmas Day.

Where do we start with Advent?

Advent starts today.  The theme for the first Sunday (and this week) is hope.  Indeed, Advent is a time for hope.  This is not the “I hope I get a car for Christmas.”  This is hope based on and for Jesus Christ.  Think of Advent as a journey: here we are four weeks away from celebrating Christ’s birth.  We hope.

Read the following two passages of Scripture for today and meditate on the hope we have in Jesus!

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.”

Jeremiah 33:14-16
New International Version

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge—because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

1 Corinthians 1:4-9
New International Version

Here are some suggestions for reading and meditation this week:

• Isaiah 2:1-5
• Isaiah 64:1-9
• Psalm 80:1-7; 17-19
• Romans 13:11-14
• Song: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
• Song: “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”

Happy first Sunday of Advent!  In Romans 5:5 Paul writes, “Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

We have a reason for hope!