From Creation to Christ – An Advent Devotional – Day 5

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.

From Creation to Christ – An Advent Devotional – Day 4

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!

From Creation to Christ – An Advent Devotional – Day 3

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.

From Creation to Christ – An Advent Devotional – Day 2

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 2: Sin enters the World

Ornament: Tree with a snake

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-10, 23; Isaiah 53:6; 1 John 1:8-10; Isaiah 59:2 

Song: Joy to the World 

Have you ever made tried to make a painting or a batch of cookies, only to have something happen that messed up those plans? Have you ever spent hours designing and building the perfect fort out of blankets and chairs, or the perfect Lego creation, only to have your dog or your little brother break it to pieces an hour later? 

We want our plans and our creations to work out perfectly, don’t we? But that doesn’t always happen. 

We have seen how God perfectly designed and created the world around us. Adam and Eve were the first two people God created to enjoy his beautiful world. God designed the garden to provide perfectly for all their needs. God placed a special tree in the garden called the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” God told Adam and Eve that they could eat of any tree in the garden except for this one tree. God wanted Adam and Eve to trust and obey Him. 

Satan, disguised as a serpent, tempted Eve to disobey God. Rather than trusting God’s goodness and honesty, Eve chose to believe the serpent’s lies. Both Adam and Eve ate from the tree that God had told them not to eat from. They made a choice to disobey God, to sin against their good and loving God.  

A perfect world became a broken world and every single person since then has been born a sinner. 

God taught Adam and Eve that sin is costly. Their sin separated them from their loving Father and one day it would cost God’s Son, Jesus, His very life. That act of love by Jesus on the cross provided forgiveness for Adam and Eve’s sin, as well as for your sin and mine, but God wants us to trust and obey Him, like He wanted Adam and Eve to trust and obey Him. 

Do you believe that God is always good and true? Do you believe in Jesus as your Savior?

Thank God today for sending Jesus to earth to die for our sins and to be resurrected to eternal life. 

Remember … Christmas is all about Jesus! 

From Creation to Christ – An Advent Devotional – Day 1

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 1: Creation

Picture / Ornament: Globe

Scripture: Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-4, 14 

Song: All Creatures of our God and King – YouTube Link here

On this first day of advent, let’s think back to the very beginning, when God created everything. God created everything by the power of His voice. God created light. God created land and water, animals and man. God created all of this out of nothing, simply by His spoken word. 

God created all of this in only six days. Think of how long it takes for a baby to grow in his mother’s womb. Think of how long it takes to build a house. Think of how long it takes for a tree to grow tall. Yet, God created the world and everything in it in only six days with only His spoken word. 

God created the world that mankind would know how wise and good and powerful He is. The Heavens indeed declare the glory of God, but so do the incredible creatures that God made. The beauty of flowers and butterflies, giraffes and elephants and pandas, declares the glories of God.  

God had a plan for everything He made. God’s marvelous creation all works together. The air, the water, the soil and the sun all work together to sustain life on our planet. Plants and animals, too, work together in an incredible way – again giving glory to God.  

God had a plan for everything He made, but His greatest plan of all was His plan to meet our deepest need by sending his son, Jesus. Even before the creation of the world, God planned to send Jesus to earth one day. Almighty Jesus humbled Himself willingly, leaving heaven to be born as a helpful baby. And at the perfect time, Jesus came to earth to live a perfect life, performing countless miracles in front of hundreds of eyewitnesses, proving His power and divinity. Our good Savior died on the cross for our sins, and was raised back to life to live again for eternity. The beauty of creation all around us reminds us of the beauty of our creator’s plan for us.  

God wants YOU to know His son, Jesus. Remember … Christmas is all about JESUS!!