{"id":16755,"date":"2017-11-28T15:17:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T19:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=16755"},"modified":"2017-12-28T16:36:57","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T20:36:57","slug":"advent-2017-devotional-helps-prepare-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=16755","title":{"rendered":"Advent 2017 Devotional Helps Prepare the Way!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Members from several local churches have come together to produce a Daily Devotional for this year&#8217;s Advent season. The booklets were published in hardcopy form and distributed within the participating churches, but electronic copies of the devotions are presented here.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-16753\" src=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Advent17-Cover_400x678-177x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"177\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Advent17-Cover_400x678-177x300.jpg 177w, https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Advent17-Cover_400x678.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 177px) 100vw, 177px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you want a printed copy, visit or contact one of the participating churches:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.trinitymullicahill.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trinity United Methodist Church (Mullica Hill)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zioncommunityumcclarksboro.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Zion Community Church (Clarksboro)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/eumchurch.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evangelical UMC (Clarksboro)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.umc.org\/find-a-church\/church\/159550\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New Hope UMC\u00a0 (Penns Grove)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blcdelmar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bethlehem Lutheran Church (Delmar, NY)<\/a><\/li>\n<li>and <a href=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?page_id=619\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pitman United Methodist Church<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Daily Devotions for Advent 2017<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The devotional is presented in PDF format. Instead of presenting the entire booklet in one file (and forcing you to scroll through the whole thing to find the current date&#8217;s article), the booklet is broken up into four separate week-by-week files.<\/p>\n<p>To read the article for any given date, scroll down to the week you want and click on the button. All of the files begin with Sunday and run through Saturday of the indicated week (except for week 4- that ends on Tuesday, which is Christmas Day).<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy; and may God bless your devotional time!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">First Week in Advent<\/span> <\/span><\/h3>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>(Sunday December 3 through Saturday December 9)\u00a0 <\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n<a href='https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Advent17-01.pdf' class='icon-button paper-icon' target=\"_blank\">Week 1<span class='et-icon'><\/span><\/a>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Second Week in Advent<\/span> <\/span><\/h3>\n<h4><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">(Sunday December 10 through Saturday December 16)<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n<a href='https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Advent17-02.pdf' class='icon-button paper-icon' target=\"_blank\">Week 2<span class='et-icon'><\/span><\/a>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Third Week in Advent<\/span> <\/span><\/h3>\n<h4><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">(Sunday December 17 through Saturday December 23)<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n<a href='https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Advent17-03.pdf' class='icon-button paper-icon' target=\"_blank\">Week 3<span class='et-icon'><\/span><\/a>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Fourth Week in Advent<\/span> <\/span><\/h3>\n<h4><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">(Sunday December 24 through Monday December 25)<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n<a href='https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Advent17-04.pdf' class='icon-button paper-icon' target=\"_blank\">Week 4<span class='et-icon'><\/span><\/a>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Why Read these Devotionals???<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">God is coming to the Earth! \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>News like that will really motivate you to get ready!\u00a0 It&#8217;s enough when your Mom is coming over for dinner.\u00a0 But imagine that God Himself is about to step into your world!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s what this season is for; Advent is a time of preparation. \u00a0 Not so much to buy gifts, or to send cards, or to put up a Christmas Tree, but to re-evaluate your heart and your relationship to God.\u00a0 Maybe even to challenge the <em>status quo<\/em>.\u00a0 These devotionals are intended to do just that.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the forward to the devotional booklet (written by Pastor Ron Smith, of the Trinity UMC)&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><div class='et-box et-shadow'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='et-box-content'><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080; font-size: 14pt;\">We are pleased to present you with these homegrown Advent devotions. My prayer is that they center you afresh and anew on the wonder of the miracle of Christmas. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080; font-size: 14pt;\">Not long after President Reagan took office, he was facing a nation with inflation rates in the twenty percentile range. At the same time, Mr. Gorbachev was facing a nation so economically depressed that many of the grocery stores were without milk and eggs. These two leaders called a major economic summit to see if progress could be made. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080; font-size: 14pt;\">Tensions got very high as a result of the disparate world views between the two superpower leaders. It is reported that Mr. Reagan got up and walked out of the meeting. Not desirous of allowing such an abrupt conclusion, Mr. Gorbachev followed the President out to the lobby elevator. He stepped on the elevator with President Reagan, and Mr. Reagan looked at Mr. Gorbachev and said, \u201cLet\u2019s try this again.\u201d And, with a hand extended, he said, \u201cHi! My name is Ron. What\u2019s your name?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080; font-size: 14pt;\">Mr. Gorbachev later cited that moment as the beginning of the end of the Cold War. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080; font-size: 14pt;\">I hope in these Advent devotions you can capture the sense of the God of grace and glory, in the person of His only begotten Son, holding out His hands to you in the person of Jesus saying, \u201cMy name is Emmanuel, what\u2019s yours?\u201d<\/span>\n <span style=\"color: #800080; font-size: 14pt;\">In the wonder of His Presence, <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Pastor Ron Smith, Trinity United Methodist Church<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #800000;\">2017 Advent Schedule<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Advent is a time of preparation, and PUMC is offering many opportunities of fellowship, service, and worship throughout this season to help you do just that.<\/p>\n<p>To keep up with the schedule of events of this Advent season, view the following post, which gives our 2017 Advent Schedule:<\/p>\n<div class='et-box et-shadow'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='et-box-content'><blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"816jViYIFp\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=16729\">PUMC to Welcome the Christ in 2017 (December, 2017)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;PUMC to Welcome the Christ in 2017 (December, 2017)&#8221; &#8212; pitmanumc.org\" src=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=16729&#038;embed=true#?secret=tcGo98HAgm#?secret=816jViYIFp\" data-secret=\"816jViYIFp\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">+\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +<\/span><\/p>\n<p>For other daily devotionals , visit our Devotionals Page:\u00a0\u00a0 <a href='https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?page_id=2573' class='big-button bigred'><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Daily Devotionals<\/span><\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Members from several local churches have come together to produce a Daily Devotional for this year&#8217;s Advent season. The booklets were published in hardcopy form and distributed within the participating churches, but electronic copies of the devotions are presented here. If you want a printed copy, visit or contact one of the participating churches: Trinity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[123],"class_list":["post-16755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-godprints","tag-christmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16755"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16844,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16755\/revisions\/16844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}