Depending on your background you may be familiar with the word “advent.” It’s a word that simply means the “arrival” of something significant. In other words, it indicates a big moment is at hand. Throughout history churches have used “advent” as the name for the days leading up to the annual celebration of Christ’s birth….Christmas. This year Mercy Church is celebrating “advent” throughout the month of december. Sometimes we forget the anticipation of Christ’s arrival seen in the bible, and we almost always underscore the significance it has for our lives today. Our hope is this december you will come to understand and experience the deep, beautiful truth of advent: Hope Lives.
We will be going through Luke 1-2 during our weekend worship throughout Advent. We encourage you to use the resources below to dive deeper into the advent season either individually or with your family.
“Good News of Great Joy”
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s is a daily devotional through the advent season. Created by Desiring God ministries, this devotional will walk you through the passages we will be going through at Mercy Church and will be a great companion to our Advent series. The readings are short and easy to build into your daily bible reading routine. If you don’t have that routine yet…what a great time to start! For families with older children, consider using a resource like this around the dinner table or before your typical bedtime. a 5-10 minute guided conversation every day for 25 days could do wonder for cultivating the family dynamic around the gospel you’ve been praying for!
Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Calendar
As a father of young children, I want to do everything I can to help my children understand the gospel. Advent is such a natural time to serve as a catalyst for me to lead my family in walking with Christ. Courtney and I have found the Jesus Storybook Bible to be a great tool to help us disciple our children in the faith. The group who made this bible also created an advent calendar that will walk you through the major events leading up to and including Jesus’ arrival. A great resource, available for free, that our family will be using this year!