Advent begins this coming Sunday, November 29.
If you have followed my blog for more than a year, you know that each year I publish my personal meditations from Advent of the previous year. I publish a paperback book, with all the profits going to Love for the Least, a movement that shares the compassion of Christ with an unreached world.
The missionaries serve in a refugee camp on the border of Iraq and Syria, a dangerous place near ISIS with many people who have never met a Christian. They also have orphanages and ministries in Africa run by local people who have become Christians as a result of Love for the Least and have been discipled so they can make disciples who make disciples.
If you would a copy of the book to hold in your hand and want to contribute to an amazing mission for God’s Kingdom order the paperback.
I’d like to raise as much money as possible for Love for the Least, but I also want everyone to have access to the devotionals. If you prefer, you can download a PDF version of the devotionals at no cost. If you order the print book, you may want to download the PDF to use until you receive your print copy.
Devotional for the First Sunday in Advent:
The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
~ 1 Thessalonians 5:2-8
We often think of Advent as preparing for Christmas, and that is correct. However, even more, Advent is preparing for the Second Coming of Christ in glory at the end of time. That is what we need to be ready for. That determines where we will spend eternity. Scripture tells us that we must be prepared at all times, because we will not know when Jesus is coming. Let us keep awake and be sober, Paul tells us. It may seem like we have plenty of time to get right with God, but He could come tonight, and we must not be found sleeping.
Lord God, empower me by the Holy Spirit to be awake and sober always in readiness for the Coming of Jesus in glory at the end of time. In the name of my blessed Lord and Savior Jesus I pray. Amen.