The world rushes forward, lighting up screens and decking out storefronts in a mad sprint toward the next thing, but Advent pulls us back.
In Scripture, laments are raw expressions of grief, but they always point to hope. What if our culture’s obsession with holiday lights is an unconscious way of crying out, “We need good news, and we need it now”?
Below is an excerpt from the personal devotional included in this year’s 1517 Advent Resources.

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Elsewhere makes promises that can’t be kept, but God’s promises are secure, reliable, and certain.
Bathed in the waters of baptism, you are placed in God's path of totality, a path he won for each and every one of us.
Lord, remember us to remind us, that we may know all good things come from you.
Do you confess Christ as God in the flesh, born, died, and raised to new life for you? Any answer of yes will do
Big or small, potential or certain, the despair we may grapple with during this time of year tends to find its end in the fact that things are not as they should be.
The church is the only place God promises to lift us out of ourselves not in order to become more like God but so that we may finally be freed from our obsession with becoming little gods.
Wilson reminds his reader over and over again that, in his love, God accepts sinners as they are so that we may be delivered from the self-acceptance, self-worship, and self-justification of our selfish definitions of love.
God uses the unlikely, the unexpected, and sometimes even the unsavory to deliver us and to crush the heads of his enemies
As the body positivity movement has gained traction, we must also be aware of some of its pitfalls
We all know what I think (maybe) Rachel knows: Celebrating ourselves isn’t enough. It won’t ever be enough.
When we come to God with our faithful obedience to make a case for our just cause, we expect to hear his deliverance in the form of a "yes."
The truth is we’ve always mixed up the roles of penitent and priest.