The Winner is.... and a new series on Advent

I'm so excited to announce the winner of my $25 Lowe's gift card giveaway is JenT! Yay- your 5 entries paid off!! Thank you to all of you who entered and check back often because I have two more giftcard giveaways coming up in December.

I really enjoy posting series and I've decided in honor of the Christmas season that I'm going to post on the Advent this month. Our word advent comes from the Latin word adventus which means "coming". Adventus in turn comes from the Greek word parousia which is commonly used in reference to the second coming of Christ. So, for Christians the Advent season before Christmas each year serves the dual purpose of looking back to the original waiting for our coming Messiah and also our current expectation of his imminent return.

You might be wondering why I chose this topic. First, like many Christians I get frustrated when I look around and see that Christmas has become largely a State holiday wrapped up in reviving the economy through rampant spending (whether we can afford to or not). My mom got a quote for putting up Christmas lights the other day- $700. They won't be putting up lights this year. Not that they can't afford it, but come on isn't this getting a little bit ridiculous? C.S. Lewis wrote an essay on the difference between Christmas and X-mas that was a warning for Christians in his time and has become even more true in our day.

The other reason I want to post on Advent this month is that I just love looking at Old Testament Scriptures in the light of the first coming of Christ our Saviour. In other words, I love reading Messianic prophesies in the OT that are satisfied in the NT. Verses that didn't even completely make sense until Christ's coming fulfilled them. We use the Desiring God Sunday School materials for our kids in church. The study that the 3rd graders and I are going through right now is called "In the beginning... Jesus". It has been such a blessing to be able to teach our children that Christ's coming was not a plan B for God, but that the entire Old Testament of the Bible points to the coming Messiah.

So, I hope you'll enjoy my little series on Advent and that together we'll put Christ back in Christmas, as if anyone can take Him out of it!