From Heaven by A.W. Tozer I am all about making magical holiday traditions...especially after reading Sacred Holidays last month (click here to see my review!),! When my sister and I were little, we celebrated the Advent season with chocolate Advent calendars. Each evening, we'd slowly peel back the cardboard of our calendars to see what festive shape that day's chocolate was shaped into (and we'd each insist that OUR piece was cooler). Every Sunday morning at church, I'd admire the large pink and purple Advent candles (my two favorite colors as a five year old girl, of course) and I loved the poinsettias and greenery decorating the sanctuary. If I'm honest, however, I didn't really understand what Advent was or why we celebrated it. In my little heart I was really just looking forward to Christmas, Santa, and our family festivities and traditions. Now I have a family of my own, and while Elaina doesn't have teeth yet and therefore can't enjoy a chocolate Advent calendar, Jake and I are excited to begin celebrating Advent with her now. Even more important than enjoying the magic and whimsy of the season with her, we want to foster within her an excitement for celebrating Jesus and the day He came from heaven to Earth to be born as a tiny baby and save humanity from sin. A tradition we are excited to start this Advent season is reading from a Christ-centered devotional each evening before bed. I cannot wait to sit with Elaina and Jake around the Christmas tree for even just a few minutes each evening to meditate on, talk about, and celebrate how God came to Earth to save us from death. Deciding which devotional to read from for our new Christmas tradition was easy. After reading A.W. Tozer's Lent devotional, From the Grave (here's my review on that one) last year, I couldn't wait to read it's Advent counterpart. From Heaven is a 28 day Advent Devotional designed to help our hearts celebrate Christ's coming and to center our focus on the true meaning of the holiday season. Each day is brief and can easily be read in 15 minutes, but the depth of the content encouraged me to rest and actually process what I had read. Tozer's writing is easy to understand while giving challenging exhortation. I loved this challenge he gives on page 21 while talking about God's grace to us: "And what about the years, the rest of your existence? You cannot believe that you have earned it. You cannot believe that it has something to do with whether you are good or bad. Confess that it is out of His grace, for the entire universe is the beneficiary of God's grace and goodness." My rating? 5/5 I really love Tozer, and I love the way his sermons and writings are challenging and Christ-centered. From Heaven is a short, theologically rich Advent devotional that I love enough to go through with my own family this holiday season! For more recommendations on Advent Bible studies and devotionals click here! *I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest, unbiased review! "Get this book" link provided through Amazon Associates.*
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