Devotions for Advent (Ebook Shorts): Meditations Based on Best-Loved Hymns

By Robert J. Morgan

The lyrics of our favorite hymns are rich in images that can help us in our daily walk with God--they are miniature Bible studies that lead us effortlessly toward worship, testimony, exhortation, prayer, and praise. They're bursts of devotional richness with rhyme and rhythm. They clear our minds, soothe our nerves, verbalize our worship, summarize our faith, and sing our great Redeemer's praise. Bestselling author Robert J. Morgan has gathered favorite hymns, as well as classic, lesser-known gems to guide your quiet time with God during Advent.

Each devotional begins with Scripture, includes a story about the hymn or its writer and the lyrics to the hymn, and ends with a prayer. An index of hymn titles and first lines is included. What better way to end your devotional reading than with a song in your heart?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781441240439

Robert J. Morgan

Rob J. Morgan is the pastor of The Donelson Fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee, where he has served for thirty-three years. He has authored more than twenty books, including The Lord Is My Shepherd, The Red Sea Rules, and Then Sings My Soul. He conducts Bible conferences, family retreats, and leadership seminars across the country. He and his wife, Katrina, live in Nashville. His website is RobertJMorgan.com.

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Day 1

Ye Christian Heralds

As we sing out our faith in church every week, we should include a mixture of mission songs, for we have the greatest calling in history. We’re to take the gospel to every creature under heaven. Ye Christian Heralds, though seldom heard today, was once a favorite missionary hymn. It was written by Rev. Bourne Hall Draper, who was born near Oxford in 1775. His parents were Anglicans who wanted their son to prepare for Holy Orders, but they didn’t have the money for his education, so he became a printer with Oxford Press. While there, he began attending a Baptist church and was eventually ordained into the Baptist ministry, pastoring in Isaac Watts’s hometown of Southampton. Draper wrote this hymn as a young man for the farewell service of a group of missionaries leaving for India on December 1, 1803.

Ye Christian heralds, go proclaim

Salvation through Emmanuel’s name;

To distant climes the tidings bear,

And plant the Rose of Sharon there.

Ruler of worlds, display Thy power,

Be this Thy Zion’s favored hour;

Bid the bright morning star arise,

And point the nations to the skies.

Set up Thy throne where Satan reigns,

On Afric shores, on India’s plains;

On wilds and continents unknown,

And be the universe Thine own!

And when our labors are all o’er,

Then we shall meet to part no more;

Meet with the blood-bought throng to fall,

And crown our Jesus, Lord of all!

Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

Acts 13:3

Day 2

Be Still, My Soul

Eric Liddell was the Scottish runner whose story is told in the movie Chariots of Fire. After winning the men’s 400-meter race at the 1924 Paris Olympics, he left as a missionary to China. In 1943, during the Japanese invasion of China, Eric was imprisoned in the Weihsien Internment Camp along with numbers of missionary children. There he served with enormous courage until sidelined by a brain tumor. As he lay dying in the camp hospital, he had his nurse pass a note out the window, asking the camp’s Sunday school band to play his favorite hymn, Be Still, My Soul (Finlandia), which they did. Three days later, he was with