Author: kendraske

My family has loved doing advent devotionals for years, so I decided to write my own. I pray it blesses your family as much as it’s blessed mine.

You can purchase the whole book in print or in an ebook format on Amazon. You can download a printable set of ornaments here or draw or make your own!

Day 8: The Passover

Picture / Ornament: A Door with Blood

Scripture: Exodus 1:1-14; Exodus 3:1-12; Exodus 12:1-14, 21-28

Song: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Joseph’s brothers stayed in Egypt and raised their families there. The descendants of Jacob came to be known as the Israelites. The Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves and would not allow them to worship God. The Israelites cried out to God to save them and He did!

God called Moses to deliver them. Moses had actually grown up in the Egyptian pharaoh’s house but had fled to the desert as a young man. While Moses was out taking care of his sheep, God spoke to him out of a burning bush. God told Moses that He was going to use Moses to lead His people out of Egypt.

God told Moses and his brother Aaron to tell Pharaoh, “Let my people go that they may worship me.”  Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go, even when God sent a series of plagues on his land. First, the water was turned to blood, then the land was covered with frogs, then gnats, and then flies! Then, God struck the livestock with a deadly plague, then the people and animals broke out in boils! Then, the land was struck by hail and then by locusts and finally darkness fell over the land. But every time, Pharaoh refused to release the Israelites to go worship God. God wants and deserves worship, and His people should be free to worship Him.

The final plague was on the firstborn son of every family, yet God had a plan to rescue the Israelites from this plague. God commanded each family to kill a lamb and put the lamb’s blood on the doorposts of their home. In any home without the blood, the firstborn would die, but in any home with the blood, the firstborn would be safe for that home would be “passed over.”

God was teaching a lesson to this land that He separates those who trust and obey Him, rescuing them from his just judgment by their faith.

God was faithful to keep His promises, both to the Egyptians and to the Israelites. God saved His people that night and God told the Israelites to celebrate a Passover feast every year to remember when God delivered them. The story of Passover also teaches us about Jesus. Jesus is that perfect, spotless Lamb of God whose blood saves us when it is applied to our hearts. When we trust and obey Jesus, we become His special people and are given eternal life as a gift. God will pass over us for judgment because Jesus was judged in our place.

Today is a perfect day to thank God for His saving grace through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Remember … Christmas is all about Jesus.

My family has loved doing advent devotionals for years, so I decided to write my own. I pray it blesses your family as much as it’s blessed mine.

You can purchase the whole book in print or in an ebook format on Amazon. You can download a printable set of ornaments here or draw or make your own!

Day 7: Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors

Picture / Ornament: A Colorful Coat

Scripture: Genesis 37:1-11, 23-28; Genesis 39:1, 20-21; Genesis 41:1-8, 14-16, 25-36, 39-41; Genesis 42:1-13; Genesis 45:1-8; Genesis 50:14-21; James 2:1; Jeremiah 9:23-24; Romans 5:8, 8:28

Song: Hymn of Joy

God has a special purpose for each and every person that He makes. God blessed Jacob with 12 sons, each with a special purpose. Jacob had been his mother’s favorite child, then Jacob had a favorite wife (Rachel) and now Jacob chose one of his sons, Joseph, the first son of Rachel, as his favorite child.

In James 2:1, we read that Christians should not show favoritism. In Jeremiah 9:23-24, we read that we should not boast in our own wisdom or power or wealth. Jacob’s favoritism toward Joseph and Joseph’s dreams about his coming superiority over his brothers, caused division and jealousy between Joseph and his brothers. Joseph’s brothers sold him off to some traders on their way to Egypt, where Joseph became a valuable servant in Potiphar’s household.  

Eventually Joseph was thrown into prison after being falsely accused of a crime against Potiphar’s wife. Have you ever been falsely accused of something that you didn’t do?

God was always with Joseph, even during his years in prison, giving Joseph favor with the prison leaders. After Joseph correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph was released from prison and became Pharaoh’s “right hand man.”

God gave Joseph wisdom, so that the Egyptians would save up food for seven years because a famine was coming. When the famine came, just as God had said, the Egyptians had food stored up. Guess who came to Egypt to buy food? Joseph’s brothers. Those very same brothers who had sold Joseph off! Yet, Joseph had grace and mercy toward his brothers. Like we are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:15, Joseph did not repay “evil for evil,” but he sought to “do good to one another and to everyone.”

Joseph’s life reminds us of Jesus. Jesus had grace, mercy, and love for us while we were still His enemies. Jesus, too, was treated unfairly and falsely accused, yet He repaid evil with good. God worked through both Joseph’s and Jesus’s trials to bring about blessing as a result of painful circumstances.

Today is the perfect day to thank God for working all things together for GOOD for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

Remember … Christmas is all about Jesus.

My family has loved doing advent devotionals for years, so I decided to write my own. I pray it blesses your family as much as it’s blessed mine.

You can purchase the whole book in print or in an ebook format on Amazon. You can download a printable set of ornaments here or draw or make your own!

Day 5: God Provides a Ram in Isaac’s Place

Picture / Ornament: A Lamb

Scripture: Genesis 22:1-14; Isaiah 53:7; John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19

Song: Jesus Paid It All

Another Song: Father Abraham

As Abram knew God more, his faith grew stronger. God gave Abram a new name, Abraham, which means “Father of many.” This was an unexpected name because Abraham and his wife, Sarah, hadn’t had any children together and they were very old.

At just the right time, as God had promised, Sarah gave birth to a son and they named him Isaac, but one day God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as an offering. Even though this was an unthinkable request, Abraham trusted God and prepared to do what God had told him. Abraham built an altar and placed Isaac on it, and at just the right time, God provided a ram to take Isaac’s place on the altar. God often grows our faith as we wait for Him to the very last minute!

I can only imagine how excited Abraham was to see that ram. Abraham had trusted God and God kept His promises to Abraham.

Just like God provided a ram to die in Isaac’s place, God provided Jesus to die in our place. In Romans 6:23, we read that “The wages of sin is death.” This means that our sinful deeds deserve death. We earn death by our sin. But Romans 6:23 goes on to say, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” When Jesus died on the cross, He paid for our sin with His death. Jesus is called “The Lamb of God,” because He was the perfect sacrifice for mankind’s sin. We can receive eternal life and forgiveness of our sin when we trust in Jesus Christ to be our Lord.

Thank you, God, for providing Jesus to take my place and to pay for my sins. 

Remember … Christmas is all about Jesus.

My family has loved doing advent devotionals for years, so I decided to write my own. I pray it blesses your family as much as it’s blessed mine.

You can purchase the whole book in print or in an ebook format on Amazon. You can download a printable set of ornaments here or draw or make your own!

Day 4: The Call of Abram

Picture / Ornament: Camel and Tent

Scripture: Genesis 12:1-7; Hebrews 11:8; Matthew 1:1 

Song: Trust and Obey

Have you ever had to move to a new town? We did. We had to leave our house, our friends and our family when we moved to a new state 5 ½ hours away. Moving can be a scary experience. You have to leave behind what you’re used to and go to a new, unknown place full of new, unknown people

About 4000 years ago God told a man named Abram to go to a new place, but He didn’t even tell him exactly where to go! God told Abram to go to a place that He would show him, and Abram trusted and obeyed God.

Look again in Genesis 12 and see what God promised Abram He would do in this new land.

God promised to make Abram a great nation, to bless Abram, to make Abram’s name great, to bless those who blessed Abram and curse those who cursed Abram. God promised that all of the families of earth would be blessed because of Abram.

WOW! That’s a lot of promises! Abram obeyed God because he trusted God. He believed that God would keep his promises. Abram had faith like Noah.

How about you? Do you trust God? Are you willing to obey whatever God tells you because you believe His words? God has graciously given us the Bible, so we can know Him and know how to obey Him. Do you read your Bible? Reading the Bible is how you, too, can know and trust God.

Remember that promise that God made that all the families of the earth would be blessed through Abram. Matthew 1:1 tells us how that happened. Matthew 1:1 tells us about the family tree of Jesus. Can you find Abram’s name there? Abram had a lot of descendants, but the most important one was Jesus, the Savior of the world.

All the families of the world have been blessed through Abram because Jesus came to earth. Every single person who trusts in Jesus for salvation can receive forgiveness and a place in heaven with Him. Have you received Jesus’s gift of salvation and forgiveness? You can trust Him today!

Remember … Christmas is all about Jesus!

My family has loved doing advent devotionals for years, so I decided to write my own. I pray it blesses your family as much as it’s blessed mine.

You can purchase the whole book in print or in an ebook format on Amazon. You can download a printable set of ornaments here or draw or make your own!

Day 3: Noah’s Ark

Picture / Ornament: Ark with a Rainbow

Scripture: Genesis 6:5-8,13-22; Genesis 7:7,11-12; Genesis 8:15-17; Genesis 9:12-16;
Romans 6:23; Joshua 23:14

Song: O Come, All Ye Faithful

Another Song: My God is so GREAT

About a thousand years after God created Adam, Noah was born. Noah was the great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson of Adam, but people back then lived a long, long time. Adam had only died about a hundred years before Noah was born, because Adam lived for over 900 years!

By the time Noah was born, everyone on earth had turned against God. Everyone’s hearts had grown wicked, but Noah remained faithful to God. Noah was different than the people around him. Noah obeyed God even when no one else did.

God knew that Noah would obey, so He gave Noah a very big job. God told Noah to build a huge boat called an ark, because God was going to send a flood to cover the whole earth. God told Noah exactly how to build the ark and Noah did it just as he was told.

God is faithful to His promises and the flood came just as He said. Before the flood came, God sent many animals to get on the ark to be saved. Anyone who trusted God could have been saved by entering the ark, but Noah and his family were the only people who got on board.

After the waters went down, God sent a rainbow as a sign of His promise to never flood the earth again. Ever since then, whenever we see a rainbow, we can be reminded of God’s faithfulness to keep His promises.

Do you know what the greatest promise is that God ever made … and kept? God promised hundreds of years before Jesus was born that He would send a Savior into the world to save His people – and God did, just as He said. In fact, that promised Son was a descendent of that faithful man, Noah. We can trust God to always keep His promises because He is always faithful and trustworthy. He is faithful to keep His promises to both the faithful and the wicked.

Jesus is the greatest gift we can ever receive. Have you trusted in Jesus to save you?

Remember … Christmas is all about Jesus.