And the Glory of God Shone Around Them E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passion Translation Devotionals
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 85

Beschreibung

Prepare yourself this Christmas to celebrate the real reason for the season!   Beginning with the first Sunday of Advent, And the Glory of God Shone Around Them Advent Devotional takes the reader through the entire Christmas season with twenty-one devotionals organized around the four weekly themes of Advent.   Through short, engaging reflections on hope, peace, joy, and love, combined with the beauty and relevance of The Passion Translation®, you will find the inspiration you need to celebrate God's gift to the world throughout your week.   Each devotional follows the inspiring journey of the main characters of the Christmas story and offers an Advent prayer, making them perfect for personal, family, or small-group use. Scripture readings from The Passion Translation will give you greater insights in your journey toward Bethlehem.   This devotional and fresh version of God's Word will kindle and inspire your faith in the one who came to rescue us and will come again to create us anew!  

Leseprobe

Published by BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

www.broadstreetpublishing.com

AND THE GLORY OF GODSHONE AROUND THEM

Advent Devotional

By Dr. Brian Simmons with Jeremy Bouma

Inspired by The Passion Translation by Dr. Brian Simmons

www.thepassiontranslation.com

© 2020 BroadStreet Publishing®

978-1-4245-6251-0 (paperback)

978-1-4245-6407-1 (eBook)

All Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation®,copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.

Design by Garborg Design Works, Inc. | www.garborgdesign.com

Printed in the USA.

20 21 22 23 24   5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Introduction

What Is This Devotional, and How Should I Use It?

WEEK ONE: HOPE

Day 1 Nothing Will Be Able to Stop Us!(Psalm 80:1–7)

Day 2 Every Great Story Has a Great Beginning(Matthew 1:1–17)

Day 3 What’s in the Name of Jesus?(Matthew 1:20–21)

Day 4 The God Who Lived Your Life(Matthew 1:23)

Day 5 What Do You Do When Life Doesn’t Turn out the Way You Thought it Would?(Matthew 1:24–25)

WEEK TWO: PEACE

Day 1 The Promise of the Lord’s Peace—in a Piece of Candy(Psalm 85:1–2, 8–13)

Day 2 Whether Bad News or Too-Good-To-Be-True News, God Really Can Be Trusted!(Luke 1:5–24)

Day 3 Are You a Forerunner of the Prince of Peace?(Luke 1:14–17)

Day 4 How Could This Happen?(Luke 1:26–38)

Day 5 A Tale of Two Reactions(Luke 1:5–38)

WEEK THREE: JOY

Day 1 Lord, Do It Again!(Psalm 126)

Day 2 Mary’s Head-Turning Response to Her Remarkable News(Luke 1:46–55)

Day 3 The God Who Works Mighty Miracles(Luke 1:46–51)

Day 4 The Story about the Greatest Reversal Ever!(Luke 1:52–53)

Day 5 The Never-Forgetting, Always Promise-Keeping God(Luke 1:54–55)

WEEK FOUR: LOVE

Day 1 The Faithful, Steadfast, Never-Failing Love of God(Psalm 89:1–4, 19–26)

Day 2 The Hero-God Who Saves the Day(Luke 1:67–79)

Day 3 The Loyal God Who Loves by Remembering Us(Luke 1:70–75)

Day 4 Have You Heeded the Warning of Jesus’ Paul Revere?(Luke 1:76–77)

Day 5 Do You Know How Much God Loves You? This Much!(Luke 1:78–79)

Christmas Eve or Christmas Day Shout for Joy, for the Messiah Has Come…and Will Come Again!(Psalm 98:1–9; Luke 2:1–20)

A Word about The Passion Translation

INTRODUCTION

I just love the Christmas season! Do you? What I love even more is the story behind the season, the story of Jesus—the reason for the season, as they say. This is why I’m thrilled to share with you these twenty-one devotionals. Each one is inspired by the passionate love story of Jesus to guide your celebration of his birth.

As you allow these words to warm you this Christmas season, walk in the hope Joseph had when Gabriel visited him; rest in the peace Mary experienced when she was told she’d bear the Son of God; join her in shouting for joy in praise of the mighty Miracle Worker; and delight in God’s furious, passionate love—a love so big and wide and deep that he sent his loving Son to suffer and die in your place.

Advent is a season to both celebrate Jesus’ first coming and prepare for his second. I trust these encouraging words about the birth of God’s Son will help you prepare him room this Christmas season—in your life, your home, your heart.

Now, let heaven and nature sing in celebration of our loving King!

WHAT IS THIS DEVOTIONAL,AND HOW SHOULD I USE IT?

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”

The 1960s pop singer Andy Williams perfectly captures the emotion many of us feel during the Christmas season with his hit song of the same title. It really is the most wonderful, magical time of the year, isn’t?

There’s something about this season that makes people come alive, that draws out the inner child of even the “Scroogiest” of adults.

Perhaps it’s how the snow transforms any landscape into an epic fairytale land.

Perhaps it’s the smell of fresh-baked gingerbread out of the oven or a stew that’s been simmering in the Crock-Pot all day. Or the taste of hot cocoa with a candy cane perched on the side.

Perhaps it’s seeing the face of a child light up when she opens up that one present she’s been dreaming about all winter long.

Of course as Christians, we know why it’s so wonderful. The angels said it best: “Glory to God in the highest realms of heaven! For there is peace and a good hope given to the sons of men” (Luke 2:14).

Christmas time is the most wonderful time because a peace and a good hope have been gifted to humanity by the God of the universe! In fact, this peace and good hope were wrapped in the unlikeliest of ways: flesh and blood. Here is how the apostle John speaks about this gift:

He was not born by the joining of human parents

or from natural means, or by a man’s desire,

but he was born of God.

And so the Living Expression

became a man and lived among us!

And we gazed upon the splendor of his glory,

the glory of the One and Only

who came from the Father overflowing

with tender mercy and truth! (John 1:13–14)

This is the most wonderful time of the year because it is the time when God came to us by becoming one of us. And it is this gift, this coming, that we celebrate during this sacred season of Advent.

The term Advent may be unfamiliar to you. It is this time of anticipation and preparation that begins the Christian liturgical calendar and includes the four Sundays before Christmas. The name comes from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming.” During the Advent season, Christians prepare for the different “comings” of Christ—first as a baby born to take away the sins of the world, and second as the victorious King come again to put the world to rights.

If your particular Christian tradition celebrates Advent then you are already familiar with the Advent wreath and four candles, which help the church celebrate Christ’s first coming: hope, peace, joy, and love. Each Sunday, a new candle is lit and a new theme is unpacked to help Christians reflect upon Christ’s birth. It is this practice that inspired this Advent devotional using a faithful and fresh, reliable and relevant new translation of the Bible, The Passion Translation.

The Passion Translation is a groundbreaking attempt to reintroduce the passion and fire of the Bible to the English reader. It doesn’t merely convey the original, literal meaning of words. It expresses God’s passion for people and his world by translating the original, life-changing message of God’s Word for modern readers.

God longs to have his Word expressed in every language in a way that would unlock the “passion” of his heart. Our goal is to trigger inside every English speaker an overwhelming response to the truth of the Bible, unfiltered by religious jargon. This is a heart-level translation, from the passion of God’s heart to the passion of your heart. And we’ve put this devotional together to help introduce you to it in a way that will bless your walk through the Christmas season.

This book is organized around the four weeks of Advent and its themes of hope, peace, joy, and love. Each week begins with a Psalm reading and section of the Christmas narrative from either Luke or Matthew, which coincides with the Advent readings of the liturgical calendar. You can choose to read the selection of Scripture at the beginning of the week on Monday, or do so at the start of each day. You’ll find a short devotional along with Scripture passages from The Passion Translation for five days of the week, Monday through Friday, which are based on those Scripture readings. Christmas Eve (or Christmas Day, depending how you want to use it) has its own special reading and devotional.

We trust this version of God’s Word will kindle in you a burning, passionate desire for him and his heart, while influencing the church for years to come. We also pray this Advent devotional will encourage and inspire your faith in the One who came to rescue us and the One who will come again to create us anew!

WEEK ONE

Hope

Week One

SCRIPTURE READINGS

PSALM 80:1–7, 17–19

1 God-Enthroned, be revealed in splendoras you ride upon the cherubim!

How perfectly you lead us, a people set free.Loving shepherd of Israel—listen to our hearts’ cry!Shine forth from your throne of dazzling light.

2 In the sight of Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh,

stir up your mighty power in full display before our eyes.

Break through and reveal yourself by coming to our rescue.

3 Revive us, O God! Let your beaming face shine upon us

with the sunrise rays of glory;

then nothing will be able to stop us.

4 O God, the mighty Commander of Angel Armies,

how much longer will you smolder in anger?

How much longer will you be disgusted with your people

even when they pray?

5 You have fed us with sorrow and grief

and made us drink our tears by the bowlful.

6 You’ve made us a thorn in the side of all the neighboring lands,

and now they just laugh at us with their mocking scorn.

7 Come back, come back, O God, and restore us!

You are the Commander of Angel Armies.

Let your beaming face shine upon us with the sunrise rays of glory,

and then nothing will be able to stop us!

17 Strengthen this Branch-Man, the Son of your love,

the Son of Man who dwells at your right hand.

18 Then we will never turn back from you.

Revive us again, that we may trust in you.

19 O God, the mighty Commander of Angel Armies,

come back and rescue us!

Let your beaming face shine upon us

with the sunrise rays of glory.

Then nothing will ever stop us again!

MATTHEW 1

From Abraham to Christ

1 This is the scroll of the lineage and birth of Jesus, the Anointed One, the son of David and descendant of Abraham.

2