Daily Guideposts: 25 Devotions for Advent

By Guideposts

Experience the joy of the Advent season in a new light with the help of America's favorite devotional, Daily Guideposts.

Advent is a sacred time of preparation, a time of wonder and anticipation, and a time to ponder the miracle and mystery of Christ's birth. This year, rekindle the hope of the Christmas season with Daily Guideposts: 25 Days for Advent.

In just five minutes each day, these devotions will provide you with a timeless Bible verse, a personal story, and a prayer to help you apply the day's message. For each of the 25 days of Advent, Daily Guideposts invites you to experience:

• God's heart for redemption
• The gift of hope
• The promise of God's love

Travel with Rick Hamlin as he finds joy in the Advent season through small moments. Learn with Daniel Schantz how the little things we take for granted played important parts in the story of the world's most extraordinary birth. Find out how Brock Kidd and his family celebrate the birth of Jesus. Learn how Patricia Lorenz increases her joy by giving the gift of herself. And join Mary Brown for a special journey as she ponders the seven "I am" sayings of Jesus.

Join the community of over a million Daily Guideposts readers on this remarkable and deeply personal spiritual journey as you learn to take off those things that we do not need and wrap ourselves in what is coming: the Light of the World.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Oct 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9780310349433

Book preview

Season’s greetings, friend!

When the nights start getting longer and the cold wind whips around our ankles, there are lots of things we start putting on: woolen socks and scarves, hats and gloves, sweaters and jackets. We head out to the stores and put shopping bags, filled with gifts for loved ones, on our arms. We throw a log on the fire and put up colorful strings of lights outside because they look lovely and hold back the night just a bit.

As Paul points out in Romans 13:14, all the things we put on this time of year can make it hard to clothe ourselves with Christ. Jesus, born into this world as light in the darkness, is the reason that love, forgiveness, redemption, and hope have the final say.

God desires to come to us in the midst of our lives. Mary was busy going about her daily work, when the angel Gabriel told her she would conceive and give birth to a son, whom she would name Jesus. Mary’s response? How will this be . . . since I am a virgin? And then, May your word to me be fulfilled (Luke 1:26–38, NIV).

So for the next twenty-five days, join us as we put on the light, one candle at a time. We remind ourselves to take off those things that we do not need and wrap ourselves in what is coming: the Light of the World.

This is the season of Advent, a time of wonder and anticipation, a time to ponder the miracle and mystery of Christ’s birth.

Blessings,

Editors of Guideposts

DECEMBER 1

THE CROSSLET

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth. —Psalm 50:2 (

NKJV

)

In the early 1970s, Bea Alexander told our churchwomen’s group about the most beautiful tree she’d ever seen—a Chrismon tree. The pictures of exquisitely crafted white-and-gold ornaments on a stately balsam tree were breathtaking. Bea said that Frances Kipps Spencer of Danville, Virginia, had created the ornaments, which were all symbols of the Christian faith, to remind people of the true meaning of Christmas.

We voted unanimously to replicate the tree in our small church and immediately ordered the pattern book and kits. Despite the fact that I’m all thumbs, I agreed to make three ornaments. Reality hit two weeks later when I received a bag of wire, pearls, foam, and gold trim to make a Latin crosslet, the symbol for perfection.

I tried, but my ornament bore only a vague resemblance to the picture. What a joke! I lamented to the pastor’s wife. My crosslet is about as far from perfect as possible.

She examined the