Advent - Week 1 - Hope

Throughout the season of Advent there will be one post each week containing one of the Advent passages and a short devotional on the text.  Use them by yourself, with a group or with your family. If you have an Advent Wreath, you might want to use it as you read and participate in these devotionals.

It is our hope that Advent would be a quiet season of preparation for the birth of the Messiah.

Week 1 - This week we light the first purple (or the blue) candle in the Advent wreath.
“We light this candle in hope, the bright hope of Jesus, the Christ.”


Questions:
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the word hope?
Who in your life do you think of as an example of hope?
What gives you hope?

Scripture:
Isaiah 2:1-5
"The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!"

Discussion:
What does the above passage have to do with hope?
Isaiah writes, ”(God) shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
What do you think these words mean?
Does this relate to hope? Why or why not?
What do you wish God would do in the world? In your life?
How can you be a source of hope for others?

Activity:
Sometime this week, write down a list of your hopes for yourself, for your family, for our world.
Share these with someone else.
Consider ways that you might work toward these purposes.

Christmas Benevolence:
Go to the church's website to find ways to volunteer for this year's Christmas Benevolence - 
www.secondchurch.org/cb.

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