Advent Devotional Booklet 2022

INSIDE THIS BOOKLET

Advent is such a beautiful, holy season. As we prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of the Christ child, you are invited to approach each weekday with a prayerful spirit and a willingness to let the gifts of Jesus fill your soul.

Monday through Friday of each week, our prayer is that you will turn the pages of this booklet to participate in a churchwide Advent devotion. Each day’s experience is brief- a reading, a carol, or a prayer to encourage you during this holy time.

This year’s activities will require a few supplies to create these simple ways to reflect on the Advent season. Many of the supplies are things you can easily access in your own home. But, just in case, we will have most of the things you’ll need on a table in the Atrium. Feel free to pick up the supplies all at once at the beginning of Advent, or each week you can get what you’ll need for that week’s activity.

While this booklet is all you need, we are also providing online options that will enhance your experience. On corresponding days, you can go to the First Baptist Greensboro Facebook page or fbcgso.org/advent-devotional-2022l to find a video of a church member or pastor leading us through this booklet.

Whether you use this booklet, watch online, or some combination of the two, our hope is that this guide will bless our entire congregation as we await this Christ child together. May the gifts of hope, peace, joy and love be with you throughout Advent.

Week OneHope

Day One

SCRIPTURE

If you’d like to watch this video, go to our facebook page or fbcgso.org/ advent-devotional-2022. Hear our children & youth lead us.

In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.

Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Isaiah 2:2-5

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

This week you’re invited to consider the following question. Ask yourself the question and answer it in any form. Maybe you’ll journal about it, or perhaps you’ll tell someone your answer. This is also a great question for you to ask friends and family members as a conversation starter in the week to come.

Why does the birth of Jesus give us reason to feel hopeful all year long?

Read this prayer and hold it in your heart this week.

Dear God,

You shape our dreams. As we put our trust in you, may your hopes and desires be ours, and may we be your expectant people.

Amen.

Day Two

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Devotion from Rev. Buck Cochran

Our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah this Sunday begins with the prophet speaking of people going “up to the mountain of the Lord” with beautiful and hopeful imagery of how it will change us and teach us the way of God and how to walk in God’s path for us. I love that image and I love the mountains. It resonates with me and may with you too. It brought to mind a recent trip to the mountains of North Carolina.

At the end of October a group from our church traveled to Black Mountain to participate in our Family Mission Trip. The group was of all ages and from different parts of our church community. To be honest, we did not know each other all that well. We were there to serve, helping with a community garden and at the Black Mountain Home for Children, and yet we all – perhaps, especially the adults on the trip –experienced something that was profound and life-changing: hope.

The hope we experienced was lived out in different ways. First, the hope that we shared with those we served. As we worked on repairing and beautifying a shared courtyard space at the children’s home, one of the managers told us there would be eyes peeking from the windows and wondering why we were up early on a cold and chilly morning, working so hard to help them. Likewise, I watched as peopled walked by our group at the garden as we struggled to clear out an area overgrown to “biblical” proportions that would be planted in the spring. What were they thinking about our hardworking team? Was it giving them hope for their community?

Another unmistakable sign of hope that weekend were the young people on the trip. We would not have accomplished all of our tasks without them. Their spirit and enthusiasm made the weekend special for us all. I see great hope in the children and youth of First Baptist, and it is a great privilege to serve with them and to learn from them.

This Advent season we journey with great hope toward the birth of a child who calls us not to keep hope to ourselves or even within the walls of our church. In this season of hope, I invite you to think about the places you can share the hope Christ has given us and be signs of his living hope to others and to the world.

Day Three

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Song from the Sanctuary Choir

Day Four

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How have you experienced hope throughout your faith journey?

I’m a person who says, “Let’s not get our hopes up.” “That’s wishful thinking.” “Let’s not be too hopeful for things.”. I have that tendency, but I realize too that hope in terms of our Christian faith and thinking about God’s plan, is so much bigger than the little day to day where we hope this will happen or we hope that will happen. Tonight I was looking

up and seeing the full silvery moon and its ability to mesmerize the oceans. I was in my car and thinking, “God created that and who can do that?!” I think that my perspective and vantage point are small, but God’s hope is so big. Hope in God is so big.

If I think about God’s creation, God’s promises, the assurance of eternal life in him and the knowledge that goodness will prevail- those are the things that I can really have hope in. It’s okay if we have moments of anxiety, times of grief, and times of struggle, but that doesn’t take away from the bigger, larger hope that I have in God.

How do you find hope in the Advent and Christmas season?

The birth of Jesus is the most amazing example of God answering the hopes of humankind. And so, Advent and the coming Christmas, are what exemplify hope. It sounds simple, but if I reread Luke 2, then that reminds me of all of that. The simple act of reading that scripture reminds us what this is all about and what’s happening.

One of the things I like to do around Christmas time is to watch the movie from the book A Christmas Carol. There’s a moment near the end where Scrooge awakens and he realizes that there’s still time to be a better person. It’s not too late to do good, and I think that’s hope in the Christmas season.

How would you encourage others to find hope during the Christmas season?

I like to look back on the course of my life and the events of my life and think about times when I was disappointed or something didn’t work out. But then, over the fullness of time, I’ve come to see that if that thing didn’t play out that way, I would never have met my husband, or this other event would never have happened.

Counting our blessings really helps us to have hope because in the looking back, we can see how the promises of God have already played out in our lives. Then we know that more is ahead that we can’t see and we can’t know. There is more

ahead from God. That gives us hope as well. If we happen to be going through a difficult time, we can look back and see how things have been, and what God has given and know that there is more in store for us.

Day Five

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Activity from Rev. Courtney Willis

Supplies:

-Five candles**

-Strips of colored paper**

-Writing utensil of any kind

-Tape or glue

-Greenery (optional)

** You may use your own, but these items are available for pick up on the table in the Atrium.

Instructions:

On each of the strip of blue paper, write one of the words: “hope”, “peace” and “love”

On the pink strip of paper, write the word “joy”.

Secure the pieces of paper around each candle, leaving one candle as the Christ candle.

Arrange the candles however you’d like- in a circle or in a line, with or without greenery. Each week, find space in the midst of each day (first thing in the morning, around the dinner table, before bed, etc.) to light the corresponding candles for that week, finishing on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day with lighting the Christ candle. Each day, offer a prayer that God would give you opportunities to experience and share each gift of Christ during Advent and in the year to come.

SCRIPTURE

Week TwoPeace

Day One

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In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’

”Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Matthew 3:1-11

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

This week you’re invited to consider the following question. Ask yourself the question and answer it in any form. Maybe you’ll journal about it, or perhaps you’ll tell someone your answer. This is also a great question for you to ask friends and family members as a conversation starter in the week to come.

How has your faith in Jesus given you peace at some point in your life?

PROCLAMATION

Read this proclamation of worship and hold it in your heart this week.

The desert will sing and rejoice And the wilderness will blossom with flowers; And will see the Lord’s splendor, See the Lord’s greatness and power. Tell everyone who is anxious: Be strong and don’t be afraid. The blind will be able to see; The deaf will be able to hear; The lame will leap and dance; Those who can’t speak will shout. They will hammer their swords into ploughs And their spears into pruning-knives; The nations will live in peace; They will train for war no more. This is the promise of God; God’s promise will be fulfilled.

Iona Community Worship Book

Day Two

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Devotion from Rev. Alan Sherouse

Every year, the second week of Advent takes us out to the wilderness to John — the one who thunders with the Advent message: “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

Jesus goes out to him in his first public act. I guess that’s something a cousin might do.

After all, these two have been connected since John leapt in his mother’s womb at the news of the coming Messiah. But then this is more than a family connection. Jesus is associating with John. In beginning his public ministry, he chooses to connect his message to the wilderness prophet, John, and his cry to “Repent for the kingdom is near.”

What does that have to do with the candle of peace we light this second week of Advent? What kind of peace do we hope will flicker in the shadows of this world?

Sometimes when we seek peace, I think we might actually want tranquility. We have plenty of volume and noise, so it might be natural for us to want cousin John to quiet down. Too loud. Too long. Too disruptive. Many of us are seeking to be still, quiet, undisturbed in this season. But if it’s tranquility or serenity we seek, we’ll need a voice different than John’s.

Or how often are we praying for peace but longing for catharsis? So often we want some sort of release from the troubles we’ve known, or a cleansing of our emotions that can help us feel renewed without necessarily changing much.

And if that’s what we’re after, we’re going to need a message different than “Repent for the kingdom is near.”

I wonder how often we light a candle of peace, but what flickers in us is nostalgia — a longing for the sense of a simpler, candlelit time hearkening back to memories joyous and full, and overwhelmed with the beauty of emotion and assurance. These are all good things, and yet if we want to warmth of memory, we’re going to need a setting different than the wilderness.

Yes, if Jesus wasn’t so insistent in leading us out to John, we might settle for quiet and serenity, nostalgia and warmth. In doing so, we’d mistake these good things for the far greater and more demanding thing that we know in the Prince of Peace.

The peace we want is connected to the justice we need. Jesus himself could have stayed amidst the serenity and tranquility known at the side of God, but the story of Advent is the story of God choosing to enter a place where roads were crooked and lives were broken and all the possibility of a good creation was still unfulfilled. So if we want to know the peace of Advent, it will be by following that same way. We have to go with Jesus out to the wilderness to John, and hear that message about what can yet be in our lives and in our world.

If we are to ever know true peace, we must first work for it, shout for it and be a clear voice and witness for it. So this second week of Advent, Jesus leads us out to John in order to remind us that peace has a cousin, and it’s the justice of God.

Day Three

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Song from the Sanctuary Choir

Day Four

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Testimony from Adam Barnes

How have you experienced peace throughout your faith journey?

I think of the Hebrew word for peace, which is ‘shalom’ and how it has this kind of connotation of “wholeness” to it. So, I like to ask myself, “Where am I lacking wholeness?” That has led me to some interesting places at times- whether that’s

doing prison ministry when I was in college or working at the hospital, being with folks who are experiencing illness and sickness, my work with folks with disabilities. If you’re not doing this kind of work, it can often feel kind of out of sight, out of mind in some ways. I think there’s a sense of going to the margins and trying to be aware of what God is doing there. There is a sense of being surprised and open, and simply receiving all of the abundance happening in those spaces.

How do you find peace in the Advent and Christmas season?

My natural way of being is very thought-heavy, in some ways, and not so much feelings-centered. So, there’s not a great, “Here’s a song”, or “Here’s a smell”, or an experience that kind of gets to me. But I think the story of the incarnationof God being with us Godself, is very peace-evoking. A lot of Christians think about salvation as the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, and there’s a reason for that; but I think that the incarnation is just as saving for us. There are a couple different expressions of that.

There are times where it may be tempting to feel insecure, inadequate or deficient- to feel not good enough or not worthy- so that’s one voice that’s there. I think we all probably experience that in variations of intensity and content. But in the incarnation, the story of God wanting to be with us, is a pretty different voice. It’s not like God waits for Israel to get itself together. God still comes to Israel at a time when there’s injustice going on, and in a time where there are people not loving their neighbors very well. People were not being faithful to God, and God sees all that and still says, “Yeah, those are my people. That’s who I want to be with and who I want to have dinner with and have conversations by the well with, or make friends with.” I think that voice of being enough, and being good is saving in its own way. There’s some peace in that. The other voice of insecurity or doubt doesn’t go away, but it’s not the loudest voice in the room, and it’s not the one that speaks to my truest self.

I think it may sound simple, but thinking about God being with us in the midst of the chaos. For a lot of folks this season can feel very chaotic, whether that’s with family preparations or grief of not having loved ones with them this year. I think there’s an invitation to try to slow down where we can and to see God in the midst of all that’s going on.

Day Five

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Activity from Rev. Courtney Willis

Supplies:

-One river rock**

-Permanent marker**

** You may use your own, but these items are available for pick up on the table in the Atrium.

Instructions:

Choose one of the words of Advent that you are needing the most this year: hope, peace, joy or love. Write the word (and even decorate!) on your rock with permanent marker.

Keep the rock with you throughout Advent- in a pocket or bag that you carry. Each time you see or touch the rock, offer a prayer asking God to show you ways you can experience that particular aspect of the Christmas season in your heart and in your life.

You might choose to do one rock for the entire Advent season, or you may choose to create one rock for each week of Advent- it’s up to you!

How would you encourage others to find peace during the Christmas season?

Week Three Joy

Day One

SCRIPTURE

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And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has come to the aid of his child Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Luke 1:46b-55

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

This week you’re invited to consider the following question. Ask yourself the question and answer it in any form. Maybe you’ll journal about it, or perhaps you’ll tell someone your answer. This is also a great question for you to ask friends and family members as a conversation starter in the week to come.

What is the difference in finding joy in the things of this world and finding joy in knowing Jesus?

POEM

Read this poem and hold it in your heart this week.

Christmas Poem

When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the magi and the shepherds have found their way home, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost and lonely one, To heal the broken soul with love, To feed the hungry children with warmth and good food, To feel the earth below, The sky above!

To free the prisoner from all chains, To make the powerful care, To rebuild the nations with strength of good will, To see God’s children everywhere!

To bring hope to every task you do, To dance at a baby’s new birth, To make music in an old person’s heart, And sing to the colors of the earth.

Jim Strathdee

Day Two

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Devotion from Rev. Chris Cherry

Joy is a recurring theme in the gospel of Luke and comes in many forms. We see it in moments of forgiveness, praise for healings, renewal after raising the dead, and in the reception of cultural outcasts. We see joy in these moments between Mary and Elizabeth in their pregnancies, in the expectation of babies, and in their shared journeys, but it is Mary’s song that shows us deeper roots of joy.

In these verses, Mary sings praises for the promises of God— promises both fulfilled and yet to come. Joy is found because God is good, the lowly will be exalted, and Israel has been redeemed. And the best part is, God is still fulfilling these promises. When we work for justice, advocate for others, use our resources well, and see the dignity in others, we are witnessing the work of God exalting the lowly and redeeming the world.

This past summer, our youth took their Mission Trip to Birmingham, Alabama. There we visited Community on the Rise. One thing they offer for people experiencing homelessness is “Table Talk,” where folks from all over the unhoused community come together to share, laugh, and think deeply about humanizing questions. What are your dreams? Tell me about your family? What have you done

What have you done for others today? Our youth were there participating in this time of fellowship. They learned folks’ names, their stories, their hopes, and best of all, they recognized the humanity in other people who might typically be considered “lowly.” It was a true joy to see our youth come to life among wonderful people, and it also led to one of the greatest moments of the entire trip.

Later that week, we were in Kelly Ingram Park, the site of the famous images of police dogs and water cannons being used on teenagers and kids during the Birmingham Children’s March of 1963. We were having lunch and looking at the various monuments when a few of our middle school guys struck up a conversation with a man on a bench. Quickly, they learned his name, that he participated in the Children’s March, and that he was bit by one of the police dogs. He also happened to be experiencing homelessness. Our youth invited him to join us for lunch. We talked, we ate, we laughed, he sang a few songs for us, and we made a connection we might have otherwise missed. All of our youth were shocked by how joyful this man was despite the challenges he was facing. And more than that, his joy spread and changed the course of our entire week.

Joy comes in many forms.

Day Three

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Song from the Sanctuary Choir

Day Four

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Testimony from Elaine McRae

I’ve always tried to incorporate joy into my life, and it started at a young age. My parents were models of patience, love, and kindness. One of the things that we were taught is that the word “JOY” could be used as a model for how to live our lives. ‘J’ is putting Jesus first. ‘O’ is putting others second. And ‘Y’ is putting yourself last. Those three little letters, J-O-Y, have helped to guide my life and they’ve made all the difference. This is not to say that I’ve never been anxious or angry or aggravated, but I’ve realized that joy is really a part of who I am. It’s the fruit of the spirit that doesn’t leave when negative things happen. It can be found in everyday things, everyday aspects of our lives, and when we are Christians, it should be a focus of our life. I have been able to weather a lot of storms by focusing on this joy that comes from this beautiful, liberating gift, which is truly part of me.

When I was 16, I experienced a life-shattering and lifealtering moment. It was a time when my younger brother, who was 12, was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. Watching him through this period of about 4 months, and seeing his faith and his strength, even at such a young age, made quite an impact on my life. It was a testimony to our whole family. Through his nausea, through the headaches, through trying to get to sleep at night, and lots of sleepless nights, I can remember and hear him singing and humming to a Christian album of hymns that he loved. He would be singing ‘Onward

How have you experienced joy throughout your faith journey?

Christian Soldiers’ or something like that. It was calming to us because he was exuding that joy even in his pain.

Right before he died, he was talking to my mother and he said “Mom, you know, I’m really glad that God knew what he was doing when he allowed me to be the one to get sick because I don’t think the girls could have handled it.” He was talking about my sister and me. And of course he was right. He was absolutely right. But he exuded this joy to the very end and it made such an impact, and is still making an impact on my faith journey.

I began to see what he knew in his heart all along – that true joy is not fleeting. It is with you always. C.S. Lewis’ book, Surprised by Joy, also had a pretty profound impact on my faith journey. Through his journey, Lewis pointed me to something bigger. Lewis understood that joy couldn’t be pursued just for its own sake, but that it became something bigger than itself.

How do you find joy in the Advent and Christmas season?

My husband, Corie and I have always made a practice of doing individual devotions and prayer time when we first get up because we get up at different times now that we’re retired. But every night we do have a personal devotion and prayer time together. It’s our time to pull things together. It is during this Advent season that we focus on the birth of Jesus and the everlasting gift of that authentic joy.

We’re aware that joy is a feeling of good pleasure and happiness, but it’s dependent on Jesus rather than what’s happening in the world around us. We look at the Holy Spirit and that guiding influence. And of course we also are looking at the Word of God as we read together, and try to draw closer to him to feel that peace as well as that joy.

Throughout the year, but particularly during the Advent season, I am drawn to the joy of hospitality. That gives me great joy to give it to other people and it’s like a circle in that

it comes back to you. Whether it’s by food or opening up my home, it’s all about that joy. I also think that being part of a strong faith community has increased that joy during the season. Also, reading the Word, listening and singing those joyful hymns and carols, and just being with people to experience genuine Christian fellowship, has brought increased joy to that time. I would say that everyone wants pleasure, but more deeply, people want happiness, but most deeply people want joy.

How would you encourage others to find joy during the Christmas season?

You have to look at the people you’re surrounding yourself with. I think you can find lots of strength through others as well as in self-reflection. I also think looking at the Word, listening to the Word- not just one person’s verison of the Word, but what you are gleaning from what you are readingis really, really helpful.

If you’d like to watch this video, go to our facebook page or fbcgso.org/ advent-devotional-2022

** You may use your own, but these items are available for pick up on the table in the Atrium.

This week, take some time to slow down and pause. Put on some Christmas music, light your Advent candles, and color the page you’ve gotten. Meditate on the picture and any words on the page. Invite God to remind you of the Christmas story and all we have to learn from it as we hear it with renewed hearts and minds this year.

Week Three Love

Day One

SCRIPTURE

If you’d like to watch this video, go to our facebook page or fbcgso.org/ advent-devotional-2022. Hear our children & youth lead us.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife but had no marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son, and he named him Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

This week you’re invited to consider the following question. Ask yourself the question and answer it in any form. Maybe you’ll journal about it, or perhaps you’ll tell someone your answer. This is also a great question for you to ask friends and family members as a conversation starter in the week to come.

Who do you need to love more, better, or with intention because of Christ’s love for you?

POEM

Read this poem and hold it in your heart this week.

First Coming

God did not wait till the world was ready, till… nations were at peace. God came when the Heavens were unsteady, and prisoners cried out for release.

God did not wait for the perfect time. God came when the need was deep and great. God dined with sinners in all their grime, turned water into wine. God did not wait.

till hearts were pure. In joy God came to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.

To a world like ours, of anguished shame God came, and God’s Light would not go out.

God came to a world which did not mesh, to heal its tangles, shield is scorn. In the mystery of the Word made Flesh the Maker of the stars was born.

We cannot wait till the world is sane to raise our songs with joyful voice, for to share our grief, to touch our pain, God came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!

Madeleine L’Engle

Day Two

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Devotion from Rev. Amy Starr Russell

Every parent has uttered this sentence to their child at one point or another. The world is a big place for a child’s growing heart and mind to always understand. At times, when kids cannot make sense of what is happening around them, they feel afraid and uncertain.

Joseph was not a child, when he found out his fiancé was with child but the first thing the angel says to him after he decides to quietly end their engagement is “…do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.”

Joseph didn’t keep a diary of his thoughts and feelings throughout their engagement and Mary’s pregnancy, but we can imagine the range of emotions he must have been feeling, including fear. He had to know they would be socially ostracized. He had to know that his life would be harder because of this unconventional birth. Perhaps he worried what this would all mean for their future children or about his ability to continue in his vocation.

But Joseph said yes to love. I do not mean cheesy, Hallmarkproduced love. I mean he said yes to Jesus - love incarnate. This Advent season, this is the challenge for us as well.

How many times are we afraid to say yes to this irrational, life-infusing, fear-obliterating love incarnate? It can feel safer to retreat to the safety of the shadows, away from love’s warmth. The shadows do not ask much of us. The shadows stagnate and isolate.

But the love of Jesus reconciles us to each other, it makes us whole, it values the worth and dignity of every single person.

“You have nothing to be afraid of.”

And it asks us to do the same for each other. It asks us to look around us and see clearly who does not know love in this earthly realm. It asks us to bring the heavenly realm down to them so that they may know love now, not in some distant future.

Friends, you have nothing to be afraid of. Jesus is coming. Love is made incarnate. May this Advent season continue to be filled with the warmth of love come to earth.

Day Three

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Song from the Sanctuary Choir

Day Four

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Testimony from Seth Hix

I think love is certainly the foundational piece that holds our faith together, that undergirds our faith, and brackets our faith. I think first of the fact that this Advent and Christmas season, we think of God’s love for us. God became human and came and walked among us to breathe to feel and to experience all the things that we experience as a human. So God’s love is what begins the faith journey for us and that’s the foundation of it.

But I also think, equally as important, of how love is bracketed in the Gospels. Jesus, in his final days with his disciples, talks about the new commandment- that we are to internalize that love that God has shown us through the Advent and Christmas season and to display it for the world to see, and we are to share that love with one another. That is actually how God’s love will spread in this world. As we treat one another the way that God has treated us, we share that love that we have so graciously received with others. That is where God’s love is shown to the world.

In our world today, we have romanticized love in a way that is probably not the way that God intended. We have cheapened and watered it down to greeting cards and chocolate too often (not that I’m against greeting cards and chocolate- I love those things), but I also am reminded of Paul’s words in Corinthians, in that famous passage that many of us had read at our weddings. It displays a very different expression of love that is not just love that comes easy and naturally to us, but love that

How have you experienced love throughout your faith journey?

is not just love that comes easy and naturally to us, but love that requires work- love that is not self-seeking or selfish or seeking the limelight. It’s a love that compels us to do things sacrificially and sometimes quietly in the ways that we express the love that God has given us to others.

How do you find love in the Advent and Christmas season?

For me, in the Advent and Christmas season, experiencing God’s love starts in corporate worship. I think as a church musician and someone who appreciates the arts, that is where I first began to experience God’s love in the season- in the sights and the sounds of this season. As we make music together, and as we join our voices with instruments(sometimes elaborately during this season), we work together and we reconcile our own differences through the arts and through corporate worship.

I also think that the Advent and Christmas season is a time when so many of us are able to pause and reflect a little more deeply on the things that matter most. Sometimes we don’t pause our schedules as much as we should, but I do think that we shift our focus in ways that we don’t throughout the rest of the year. Churches and charity organizations rely on those days to meet their budgets for the year, and the cynic in me may say there are tax breaks to be had, but I also think there’s something special about the Advent and Christmas season. We are able to focus our energy in a different way, and reflect on the love that God has given to us and how we are called to share that.

In my last church, they did something called ‘The Christmas Project’. It was a completely lay-lead effort that began in a Sunday school class, a Sunday school class that felt called to provide a Christmas experience for a local family or two, and it blossomed into a large-scale production that would serve sometimes 200 families in a Christmas season. It would provide meals, presents for the children, and clothing. There was a store

where folks could come and get household items that they needed. The first year that we participated in this, much like with our church’s angel tree, we would go find a card and then purchase presents and bring them back unwrapped. We would turn them in to those who were organizing the efforts and come back later to wrap presents. We would wrap presents and show up later on a delivery day to actually go and drive to the homes of the people who would be receiving these gifts. The first year I think it really was a God thing, that we chose a card, we purchased the presents, and then later we came back to help wrap, the presents that were given to us were the ones that we had bought. Then, when we showed up again to deliver the gifts, it just so happened that the random delivery was the presents that we had bought and wrapped. So we drove to their house and were able to deliver those presents. As we were able to purchase and wrap and deliver presents and food and items that would help a family in need throughout that time, we were truly able to see how God is at work. We saw how God can work through the best of us when we give of our time and give of our efforts. We may never fully know how God works in those situations.

How would you encourage others to find love during the Christmas season?

I think the ironic thing about looking for God’s love is that so often the most meaningful acts of love are those that don’t draw attention to themselves and those that are self-sacrificial. They are those that are done in private or in quiet. If we are paying attention during the Advent season, we’re able to find those people and those acts of love all around us. I would just encourage all of us throughout this season to be open to those, and to be looking for ways that we ourselves can serve others in those self-sacrificial and quiet ways.

Day Five

If you’d like to watch this video, go to our facebook page or fbcgso.org/ advent-devotional-2022

Activity from Rev. Courtney Willis

Supplies:

-Ornament**

-Strip of paper**

-Ribbon**

-Writing utensil of any kind

** You may use your own, but these items are available for pick up on the table in the Atrium.

Instructions:

Using the strip of paper, write a brief prayer to God. This could be something you’ve learned in the Advent season. It could be something you are hoping for the year to come. Remove the top of the ornament, place the strip of paper inside, secure the ornament, and tie a ribbon around the top. Place the ornament on your tree as a reminder of your prayer. Perhaps next year, you can open the ornament and reveal the ways God has heard or spoken to your prayer over the year.

Join us this Advent

ADVENT VESPERS | Wednesdays at 6 pm

Each Wednesday during the Advent season, all adults are invited to gather in the Chapel for a breif service to pray together and connect to the themes of the Advent season.

COOKIES AND COCOA WITH AMY

Saturday, December 3 at 9 - 11 am FBCKids Families! Save the date and be on the look out for location details, which will be announced in your children’s ministry weekly email. Join us after for the Christmas parade in downtown Greensboro.

YOUTH CHRISTMAS PARTY

Saturday, December 10 at 5 - 7 pm All youth are invited to the annual Youth Christmas Party! We will have lots of fun celebrating Christmas together. Location to come. Be sure to watch your weekly Youth ENews for details.

LONGEST NIGHT SERVICE

Wednesday, December 21 at 6 pm Join us in the Chapel for a quiet service of encouragement through reflection, prayer and song.

CHRISTMAS EVE FOOTBALL | NOON

Join us at noon at Lake Daniel Park by the basketball court (at the entrance off Benjamin Parkway) for a fun game of touch football. All ages and abilities are welcome! This game happens rain, snow, or shine.

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE | 5 PM

All are invited to this special service of carols, communion, and candlelight celebrating the birth of the Christ Child. Nursery will be provided for 4 years and under.

More can be found in our Advnt Guide.