From Fleming Rutledge in Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ: “Even the tiniest sign of reconciliation, the smallest hint of forgiveness, the most minuscule glimmer of kindness is a sign that God is with us, our Lord Emmanuel. In even our most seemingly insignificant moments of fellowship and renewal, God is at work. He can use you to make a little piece of heaven come, if only for a moment, for someone, this very night. Never underestimate the power of a God who could have turned his back on us in wrath forever, but instead became Love incarnate,...

From Louie Giglio’s Waiting Here for You: “God has not forgotten you or His promise. If you feel like you can’t make it one more step, or if you’ve already stumbled and hit the deck, He is holding out His hand. Even when you are falling, hope in the Lord, stand on His promise, no matter what the circumstance, and you will find new strength—His strength—to carry on.”

From John Piper’s The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: “Make this personal and love him for it. Take the very personal words of the apostle Paul and make them your own. ‘The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ (Gal. 2: 20). This is how he destroyed the works of the Devil and rescued us from our sin. Don’t leave Christmas in the abstract. Your sin. Your conflict with the Devil. Your victory. He came for this.”

“A Light Bulb Moment” Isaiah 9:6 – “For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” In the movie Toy Story 4, viewers are introduced to a new toy. Forky. Forky is made on the first day of kindergarten by Bonnie, the young girl who owns all the other toys we have come to love. Forky is made of a plastic spork, clay, popsicle sticks, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners. For a good...

From Paul David Tripp’s Come, Let Us Adore Him: “But here’s what you need to understand today. The surety of these past prophecies and the specificity of how Jesus fulfilled them is also your guaranteed future hope. The story that the prophets of old pointed to has not yet come to its final conclusion. This means that today, in your life and mine, God is still working his unstoppable plot, and he will not relent or rest until all that the prophets predicted is fully realized in the lives of every one of his children. Know today that it’s not...

From Russ Ramsey’s The Advent of the Lamb of God: “This, ultimately, is what the story is about. It is a tale filled with people in trouble, all living somewhere between wandering and homecoming, between devastation and restoration, between transgression and grace. Every mortal character in the story needs rescue, but they have all turned aside, and together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. It’s a textured story. But after clearing away all the levels of intrigue, conflict, and suspense facing mankind, this story is not ultimately about mortals. It is a...

From Fleming Rutledge in Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ: “In a very real sense, the Christian community lives in Advent all the time. It can well be called the Time Between, because the people of God live in the time between the first coming of Christ, incognito in the stable in Bethlehem, and his second coming, in glory, to judge the living and the dead. In the Time Between, ‘our lives are hidden with Christ in God; when Christ who is our life appears, then we also will appear with him in glory’ (Col. 3:3–4). Advent...