Meeting the Messiah: Scriptures for the Advent Season

Journey through this Advent season with a purposeful focus on the Christ child. Meeting the Messiah encourages you to slow down and pay attention to the real meaning of Christmas.

Six weeks of short readings and guided reflection will enrich your celebration of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. You will be filled with joy and thanksgiving as you think about scripture passages from the perspectives of the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist, Mary, the shepherds, the magi, and Jesus himself.

This year, look closely at the Christ child as if you were meeting him for the first time. For individual or group study.

Kara Lassen Oliver is executive director of The Upper Room Center for Christian Spiritual Formation. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Oliver and her family (husband, Jeff, and children, Claire Marin and Carter) spent two years in Malawi, Africa, as Volunteers in Mission. Oliver is the author of Passing It On: How to Nurture Your Child's Faith Season by Season and the compiler of Stepping Out on Your Own: Devotions for High School Graduates and Meeting the Messiah: Scriptures for the Advent Season. Oliver has served Discipleship Resources International, part of Discipleship Ministries, as director of publishing initiatives in the Central Conferences. She spent several years as a freelance editor and writer and was youth minister at Belmont United Methodist Church in Nashville from 2003-2006. She holds a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School and a bachelor of arts in religious studies from Butler University.