Living Between The Advents Of Christ

As we prepare each year to celebrate the Incarnation, the Advent season reminds us that we live in an interim period between the First and Second Comings of Jesus Christ. In this book of twelve riveting sermons on a variety of Advent themes (all based on texts from Cycle B of the Revised Common Lectionary), Michael Ruffin explores the challenges of Christian living in this time between the First and Second Advents -- particularly the tension between the modes of patience and action. Though we await Jesus' return with hopeful anticipation, Advent waiting is active waiting. Ruffin's messages invite readers to share in the richly rewarding life of faith, while providing abundant comfort and inspiration for those who endeavor to live as disciples of Jesus in the modern world. Preachers looking for an imaginative illustration or observation to stimulate their sermons will find ample material in this book. But this is much more than just a reference for ministers preparing to preach during Advent -- it's also an excellent resource for spiritual reflections reminding us that the good news in these days between the Advents is that Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us. Possessed by an abiding love for the Lord Christ, Michael Ruffin approaches a season that he loves with his scholarly skills of exegesis, his insight into contemporary life issues, his common sense, and his disarming humor, crafting a collection of sermons that will bless the reader, inspire the preacher, and remind us all of the renewal that Advent brings. James C. Elder Jr. Pastor, First Baptist Church Fitzgerald, Georgia Michael L. Ruffin is the pastor of The First Baptist Church in Fitzgerald, Georgia. He is a graduate of Mercer University (B.A.) and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div., Ph.D.).

Bobby Gross presents chapters on each season of the liturgical year, accompanied by weekly devotions based on the Sunday readings of the lectionary cycle. His book offers a flexible weekly format, designed to let you break the devotions down any way you want to.

Through this eight-week small group Bible study, Gospel in Life, Timothy Keller explores with participants how gospel can change hearts, communities, and how we live in the world. This pack includes one softcover 230-page Participant Guide and one DVD.

Advent, says Fleming Rutledge, is not for the faint of heart. As the midnight of the Christian year, the season of Advent is rife with dark, gritty realities. In this book, with her trademark wit and wisdom, Rutledge explores Advent as a time of rich paradoxes, a season celebrating at once Christ’s incarnation and his second coming, and she masterfully unfolds the ethical and future-oriented significance of Advent for the church.

There has been much discussion of two dimensions of the kingdom of God in scholarship: the temporal (already/not yet) and the embodied (spirit/flesh). Russell proposes that there is a third parallel dimension, a social dimension. Using Victor Turner’s concepts of structure, antistructure, and liminality, Russell explores how these concepts are consistently expressed in Jesus’ teaching, in Paul’s writing, and through the writers of the second and third centuries. She demonstrates how, from the very beginning of the Jesus movement, Christ followers were unique, not because their members were to live liminal lives apart from structure, but because they lived out new antistructural relationships within existing structures and thus transformed them. They lived liminally within their structure.

“We live between two mighty events…” Advent is as much about looking back as it is looking ahead—back to Christ’s incarnation, ahead to His return. From Heaven combines A. W. Tozer’s best reflections on these two themes to help us better appreciate the season of Advent. Each daily reading is paired with Scripture for meditation, drawing our attention to the rising light of Christ. “I am struck with the wonder and the significance of the limitless meaning of these two words, He came. Within them the whole scope of divine mercy and redeeming love is outlined.” — A. W. Tozer Chapter titles include: Christmas Reformation Long Overdue The Meaning of Christmas The Logic of the Incarnation Divine Love Incarnate God Manifest in the Flesh What the Advent Established