Advent begins this Sunday

Good Friends,

Another year has passed as we enter into the season of Advent beginning THIS Sunday. You’ll receive your first devotional at 5 AM this Sunday morning and the following days through Epiphany, January 6th.

Our primary purpose for these writings is for us to have a daily encounter with the Lord and hear his voice. Begin each devotional with a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to speak to you through his written Word. In addition, our hope is:

1) to help give us a better grasp of the unity of the Bible as one grand story and increase our knowledge of this Library of Books

2) to assist us in developing a daily pattern of reading Scripture

3) to provide us with a daily encounter with a wide variety of vocal and choral music of substance to inspire our faith

4) and to introduce us to the prayers of some of the saints of the past and “sinners” from the present! I can think of no better way to start the day. St. Paul writes, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.”

     If you find these daily excursions into the Scriptures rewarding, I would greatly appreciate your help in passing the word along. As always, subscribing is simple and free.

  1. Go to: sharpdevotional.com
  2. Put in your email address to subscribe.
  3. Put in your name plus check “I am not a robot”!
  4. Click “subscribe”
  5. That’s it! (You can unsubscribe at any time.)

Then you will automatically receive the emails in your boxes 5:00 AM each morning EST. Be sure to Whitelist our email to reduce the chance of getting caught in spam filters!

If you missed an email I sent a couple of weeks ago, this year’s Advent is a little different. (If you read the earlier email, you can skip reading this.) . . . or review!!

                                                          ADVENT 2023

     As some of you know, I am in the process of writing a book which may turn into four volumes of devotionals for the entire Christian year. It is a large undertaking. I am making great progress on the first volume which goes from Advent to Ash Wednesday. Because of this undertaking, I do not have time to write an additional Advent devotional for this year. So, my wife suggested I use some manuscript from part of the book for this year’s daily devotionals. They will be unedited and not the final copy, but you will get a devotional each day as in the past. I would welcome any typo’s, misspellings, etc. you find! There will undoubtedly be some re-write as well! Not sure what the title will be at this point!

How to Read This Year’s Devotionals

     There are some unique challenges in writing such a book since the starting dates of Advent, Ash Wednesday, Easter, and Pentecost all vary from year to year! But I’ve figured out a way to make it work regardless of when those seasons begin. This year Advent begins on December 3rd, the latest it could ever begin meaning Christmas Eve is on Sunday, December 24th. That also means the fourth week of Advent is a single day!

     Accordingly, the devotionals are based on weeks of Advent rather than specific dates. So, we begin with the First Sunday in Advent followed by First Monday in Advent, First Tuesday, and so forth. This year since Christmas Eve is the fourth Sunday in Advent, you’ll have no more days for the fourth week. (All the days of the fourth week do appear in the book, so regardless of what year Advent starts, you’ll always have a devotional. The book will continue with devotionals for each day until March 10th, the latest possible date for Ash Wednesday. There will be an index listing the first Sunday in Advent through 2075 so you will know when Advent begins every year and a similar calendar for the beginnings of Ash Wednesday.)