Recapturing the Glory of Christmas: A 25-Day Advent Devotional by Albert Mohler. B&H Books. 162 pages. 2024
****
In this Advent devotional, Albert Mohler tells us that Christmas means worship and adoration. He intends this devotional as a call to worship and praise. In each of the twenty-five devotions leading up to Christmas, Mohler mines the depths of the Bible and its teachings about Advent and Christmas. He dwells on all the theological riches God has gifted to his people through Christmas.
Each daily reading begins with a verse or short passage from Scripture followed by a devotion that you can read in five or six minutes that will help you recapture the glory of Christmas. This is a wonderful resource to read either individually or with your family.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review and a review of Let Earth Receive Her King: Daily Readings for Advent by Alistair Begg
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst
I’M CURRENTLY READING….
- The grand narrative of the Bible points to this essential truth: God determined to bring glory to himself through the salvation of a people redeemed and purchased by his own Son, the Christ.
- The one who slept in the arms of Mary was the same one upholding the heavens and the earth. This is the magnificent, mysterious, yet glorious fullness that Christians proclaim at Christmas.
- Jesus is the embodiment of the kingdom. He is the ruler of the kingdom. He is the presence of the kingdom. The kingdom is his.
- Jesus Christ will judge all mankind. His first coming has announced the reality of this future judgment.
- Christmas reminds us all that Jesus was born in Bethlehem as a baby. But when Christ returns, he will come as a conquering King and will execute judgment—perfect judgment.
- A failure to call the unbeliever to repent is, in short, a failure to share the gospel. It is motivated out of fear rather than love.
- If we want to recapture the glory of Christmas, we must see how God, despite human sin and depravity, providentially orchestrated all the events of history to bring about the birth of his Son.
- This Christmas, let your hearts be full of joy with the coming of the Son, but don’t neglect yearning and longing. Christ has come. He will come again, and we should await that day with conscious eagerness, expectation, and hope.
- A true Christian will not deny the virgin birth.
- Christmas is especially for those who mourn and suffer grief, for the message of Christmas is nothing less than the death of death in the death and resurrection of Christ.
- Remember, above all else, that those who are in Christ, though dead, celebrate Christmas with us—just upon another shore, and in a greater light.
- Christmas marks the inbreaking of hope, peace, and the salvation of the world.
- Go and proclaim to the world that their King has come, that he paid for their sins, that he died for their redemption, and that eternal life awaits them if they would but believe. This is the glory of Christmas.
- Christmas helps us look to Christ’s incarnation, which in turn reminds us to look forward to his return.
- We believe and celebrate at Christmas the most important truth anyone could hear and know: God the Father sent God the Son to save sinners because God so loved the world that he willingly gave up his Son for us.
- Christ’s birth points toward his cross and the fulfillment of his saving work.
- The message of Christmas is received when Jesus Christ is not merely affirmed as the baby in Bethlehem’s manger but as one’s own Savior and Lord.
- When Christmas is rightly understood, we know that God loves us, even as we are sinners who deserve no love. We also understand that this love is demonstrated in the gift of the Son, who would die for our sins and would be raised by the Father in order to secure our salvation.
- The babe of Bethlehem is none other than the Savior of the world—the one for whom God so loved the world and gave his only Son.
- The babe born in Bethlehem—the promised Messiah, the eternal King on David’s throne—is the same Son of God who will rule the nations with truth and grace. This is what we pray to see, and this is what we hope for at Christmas.
Let Earth Receive Her King: Daily Readings for Advent by Alistair Begg. The Good Book Company. 156 pages. 2024
****
In this Advent devotional, Alistair Begg starts at the beginning, and follows God’s preparations for the awe-inspiring event of that first Christmas night. He traces His plans and purposes through the Old Testament, before we enjoy reflecting once more on the events surrounding the coming of the Word made flesh. He starts with Genesis 1, and by Christmas Eve he reaches the other end of the Scriptures and the final chapter of Revelation.
“Advent” comes from the Latin words “Adventus,” which means “Coming.” The author tells us that we are meant to have two “comings” in view—Christ’s arrival in the past and His return in the future. He invites the reader to join him in looking back to the Lord’s first coming – to how the wondrous gift was given, and how that gift is joy to the world, and for our hearts, today. And he also invites the reader to join him in looking forward to His second coming – to what God is still preparing to deliver in the future, and what that, too, means for us today.
The book is divided into the following five sections:
Part 1: Christmas in the Beginning
Part 2: Christmas in the Land
Part 3: Christmas in the Gospels
Part 4: Christmas in the Letters
Part 5: Awaiting a New Advent
Each of the devotional readings begins with scripture, a verse or short passage. The reading is followed by a “For Reflection” section, and a Christmas hymn.
This is a wonderful Advent devotional for individual or family use. My wife Tammy and I used it for our devotional reading last Advent season.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
- The child in the manger was the very same person who put the stars in the sky – including the very star which led the wise men from the east to come and worship Him.
- Christ’s divinity, then, has no starting point in time. He always was. He was God before time began. He is God at this very moment. And He will continue to be God forever.
- God is in control of all things. This is a cause for celebration if you long to live under the rule of one who will make everything wrong come right.
- As we ponder Christ in a cradle this Christmas, we do so in awareness of what He accomplished on that cross.
- The good news of Christmas is that the God of the Bible, the Light of the world, came down and entered the darkness, and it could not overcome Him.
- Without Jesus, if we possess everything, we really have nothing; and with Jesus, even if we possess nothing, we really have everything.
- To be a Christian is not simply to perform the good works and religious ceremonies that the Bible prescribes and to avoid the deeds that the Bible proscribes. It is, rather, to be united to Christ by grace through faith—to know Him and to trust Him.
- Jesus will either be everything to us this Christmas or He will be nothing. But if we know Him as our Savior, then how sweet His name sounds to us!
- When our eyes are opened to the majesty of King Jesus, we bow before Him in humility, wonder, and awe.
- To worship the one who was born to rule you and save you is to live in line with truth, and to find great joy for this life and for the next.
- At the heart of Christmas is the truth that Jesus is both fully God and fully man.
- He who was somebody became a nobody so that we who are nobodies might in Christ become somebodies.
- The Christmas story is a great story because it is the gospel story—the good news of what God, in His overwhelming and undeserved kindness, has done to save His people.
- God demonstrated His love for us not simply by sending Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem so that He could grow up and show us how to live a good life; rather, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
- Remembering that the kingdom is yet to come means we do not settle for the best of what this world has to offer, nor do we despair over the worst that this world throws at us. One day, all this will be swallowed up by the glorious reign of the Lord Jesus.
- Christmas isn’t only a celebration of what our newborn King came down to earth to save us from; it’s a celebration of what He came to save us for – eternal life with Him in His perfected kingdom.
- We are a waiting people: waiting not for Christmas but for Christ.
- The wonderful thing about being His follower is that what is most wonderful about Christmas Day remains true every day. Jesus is your Immanuel. Jesus is the one who gives you all you need—the one who fulfilled every promise of God and fills full every one of His followers.
- Not Old, Not Young, Not Done. Tim Challies reviews Christopher Ash’s new book Not Old, Not Young, Not Done. He writes “I highly recommend it to anyone else who is already in the afternoon of life or who will soon be. I have every confidence that you will enjoy it as much as we have.”
- Now’s The Time to Prepare for Christmas. Tim Challies writes “If you want to use a guide or devotional in the lead-up to December 25, this is the time to start looking into your options and buying the one you deem suitable. To that end, I would like to offer a few suggestions, each of which is relatively new.”
- Tim Keller on Sin and the Way Back to God. Allyn Bock reviews Tim Keller’s new book What Is Wrong With the World? The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid. She writes “In What Is Wrong with the World?, Keller offers hope and clarity for those who feel uprooted by the evil in this world.”
- Study, Savor and Share Scripture: Becoming What We Behold. My wife Tammy has published a book about HOW to study the Bible. The book is available on Amazon in both a Kindle and paperback edition. She writes “Maybe you have read the Bible but want to dig deeper and know God and know yourself better. Throughout the book I use the analogy of making a quilt to show how the Bible is telling one big story about what God is doing in the world through Christ. Quilting takes much patience and precision, just like studying the Bible, but the end result is well worth it.”
Won’t you read along with us?
Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst
Pastor and author Timothy Keller (1950–2023) built a lasting legacy in Christian ministry, planting Redeemer Presbyterian Church and cofounding the Gospel Coalition. With sharp biblical insight that has shaped countless church leaders, along with counsel on the Christian life that has stirred and strengthened audiences worldwide, Keller’s teaching promises to influence generations to come.
Synthesizing Keller’s work topic by topic, each chapter of this book highlights a key aspect of the Christian life—covering his views on prayer, suffering, friendship, vocation, intimacy with God, and more. Written by pastor Matt Smethurst, Tim Keller on the Christian Life draws from Keller’s nearly 50 years of sermons, conference messages, and books to share practical theological insight that will galvanize leaders and laypeople alike.
As we read through this book, we now look at Chapter 2: Excavating Sin A Tale of Disordered Loves. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:
- Sin is what’s wrong with the world. Sin is what’s wrong with our hearts.
- One of the most pronounced features of Tim Keller’s teaching is that the problem of sin is, at bottom, a problem of worship.
- Nobody is truly an unbeliever. Either you trust the real God or you’re enslaved to something you treat as a god.
- Channeling the apostle Paul, Keller puts it categorically: idolatry is always the reason we ever do anything wrong.
- One way to know whether a good thing in your life has been inflated into an ultimate thing – an idol – is to assess how you respond when it’s threatened or lost.
- The secret to destroying idols is not just to remove them; it’s to replace them.
