Advent Encounter: A Christmas Devotional

By Matt Messner, Heidi Messner and McMurray-Branscombe Rachel

Through the tradition of Advent this devotional will help you unplug from all the bustle and experience your own Advent Encounter. Each chapter features a weekly devotional reading, a video, Scripture reading, candle lighting, prayer and discussion questions. This book has been designed for individuals, families and small groups. Hope. Provision

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matt Messner
• Release date: Nov 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9780692044025

Matt Messner

Matt Messner is the lead pastor at Faith Center in Eureka, California. He has taught at Fuller Theological Seminary, LIFE Pacific College, King’s College and Seminary, and is on the faculty of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. Matt earned his BA at LIFE Pacific College, an MA from Fuller Theological Seminary and a DMin from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. 

Book preview

Advent Week 1 Encounter Hope

Christmas is the story of hope—hope fulfilled and hope instilled. The coming of Jesus was the answer to a plea, the realization of a promise, the embodiment of a prophecy.

But hope doesn’t end at Christmas; it begins there. Hope for the future, for families and friends. Hope is found in what has already happened, and what has yet to happen.

In the flurry of Christmas magic, it’s easy to confuse hope with a wish, something we would add to a holiday list of wants. But hope isn’t a hesitant wish that God would be, or could be, faithful and true. It’s the confident expectation that He cannot be anything but faithful and true.

And faith? Well, that’s when we put hope into motion. It whispers, "Take heart and take