One more post on Advent before Thanksgiving. The rest of the day today will be spent preparing food and thinking of all the things for which I am thankful. The kids are happy to have a day off school and I am happy to have a day to putter around the kitchen. Although my thoughts on the blog have been focused on Advent, offline we have been talking much about Thanksgiving…putting up leaves on our thankful tree and celebrating family.

Today will mainly be a day of links on Advent. Resources where you can cull some ideas of how to make Advent your own. First, though, some history lessons. These links will help you understand Advent, the moment in the Church Calendar, more fully. Some ideas for devotionals and a few links on music are listed as well.

Friday I’ll write more about what Advent is going to look like for us in our home.

Introduction

Calvin Seminary has a brief, but helpful overview in Introducing Advent.

If you have a hot cup of coffee and time to read, head over to read Mark D. Roberts What is Advent.  He actually has a book called Discovering Advent, which is only 2.99 on Kindle. The blog post, however,  pulls together several articles and gives a thorough overview of Advent and how Roberts has been impacted by the season of Advent.

Here is brief overview from ChristianHistory.com

One more short article of history from Christianity.com

Devotionals

Mark D. Roberts has an easy to follow devotional from last year.

Again, The Village Church has a great Advent Guide, especially for families.

God is in the Manger is a devotional of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings, formatted specifically for Advent reading.

Max Lucado has an Advent devotional, which is only 1.99 on Kindle:  Celebrating Christmas with Jesus

Marva Dawn also has devotional, at only .99 on Kindle: Follow the Story- Daily Advent Devotionals

Ann Voskamp has some great ideas about turning Christmas Upside Down. You could spend hours on her site. Seriously.

Music

If you are hoping to include some music in your Advent practice, here are a couple links that might help.

Tony Jones at Patheos has a post on Advent Hymns. Read through the comments for lots of suggestions for songs to use in our discipline of training our focus on the coming of Christ:  Best Advent Hymns and a suggestion for the CD Advent Carols from St John’s

The Seedbed has 11 Songs to Add to Your Advent Playlist

Reformed Worship has a list of a few songs, with some good thoughts.

How about a Steve Bell CD, written specifically for Advent.  Keening for the Dawn