Celebrate Advent at Greenville First
Hey Church,
Christmas at Greenville First is here, and we are filled with excitement as we look forward to taking this 2024 Advent journey together!
Advent is for adoring Jesus.
The Christmas season is one of the busiest times of the year. But it is also a season of reflection and preparation for that special day when we mark Immanuel’s coming—the arrival of our eternal God in our own frail humanity.
This is the greatest of history’s many wonders, something too stupendous to celebrate just on one day. Advent is a way of lengthening and intensifying the joy of Christmas.
These 25 brief devotional readings begin on December 1 and carry us to Christmas Day. Our hope is that God would use these meditations to deepen and sweeten your adoration of Jesus and help you keep him at the center of your Christmas season.
On a personal note, our family started observing Advent several years ago and it has helped shape our Christmas seasons to behold the joys of Jesus in ways I never imagined. Advent is a Latin word that means “coming” or “arrival”. Since the fourth century, Christians have observed Advent as a time to remember both Jesus’s first advent (His coming as a baby born in Bethlehem) and anticipate His second advent (His triumphant future return).
On the church calendar, the season of Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas Day and culminates on Christmas Eve. It is a season full of hope, expectation, and longing. There’s no biblical mandate to observe Advent. It is optional—a tradition that developed throughout the church’s history as a time of preparation for Christmas Day. Many of us find observing Advent to be spiritually challenging, enjoyable, and beneficial.
Christians throughout the world have their different ways of celebrating Advent. Some light candles. Some sing songs. Some eat candies. Some give gifts. Some hang wreaths, but the figure at the center is Jesus—the baby born in Bethlehem, the God-man in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, destined for Calvary, sent by his Father to die and rise again for his people.
“No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.”
We encourage you to join us along the way this Advent season. In addition to our four corporate Sunday gatherings and Christmas Eve Candlelight, we’ll have daily readings that you can check out on the website as well as other resources for personal use and for the family. We pray blessings to you and your family this Christmas season!
Pastor Brandon Smotherman
Spiritual Formation Pastor
The Dawning of Indestructible Joy
DAILY READINGS FOR ADVENT
Advent Bible Reading Plan
Advent is a term that means “a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the coming of Christ.”
In this 24-day plan, we’ll look at some of our favorite Christmas traditions and see how we can use each one to point back to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Recommended Advent Guides Available for Purchase
Advent 2024: The Dawn of Redeeming Grace
The season of Advent and the anticipation of Christmas Day call our minds and hearts to the birth of our Savior over two thousand years ago. As we celebrate His coming in the flesh, we are invited to reflect on the weight of His arrival. What did Jesus come to accomplish? What are the ways He radically transformed the world and His people?
He is here. He is with us. He is true hope, peace, joy, and love in the flesh. Let us rejoice, because He is the One the world was waiting for. Redeeming grace has come to us fully in the person of Jesus, so we remember and celebrate what He came to do, and we fix our eyes on His coming again.
We also have the Advent night with Christine Caine and the four Sunday Advent Services leading up to our Christmas eve gathering.