Christmas Countdown--Advent Bible Readings

I've been doing a lot of thinking about how to count down the days until Christmas. I've made a list of crafts and things to do as well as learning activities in the subject areas. I'll share these a bit later (still tweaking).

For today I'll share our list of Bible readings that we'll be using from Sunday, November 28 (the first Sunday in Advent) until Christmas Day (28 readings total). I hope these can be useful to you in your regular family devotion times.

In a nutshell, the readings begin with the beginning. They trace God's continued promises to His people over thousands of years until the fulfillment of these with the birth of Christ. The last readings tell about Jesus' work on earth and culminate with readings from Holy Week and Easter.

John 1:1-5 (Christ, the Word, and the beginning)
Genesis 2:4-25 (the creation of Adam and Eve)
Genesis 3:1-15 (the Fall and the Promise)
Genesis 15:1-6 (God's promise to Abraham)
Genesis 28:10-17 (Jacob's dream and God's promise)
Deuteronomy 18:15-19 (God's prophets speak God's Word)
Ruth 4:13-17 (after summarizing Ruth 1-4, use these verses show the continued line of Christ)
1 Samuel 16:1B and 16:5-13 (David anointed)
Psalm 40 (prayer for God's deliverance from sin)
Psalm 24 (What does God do? He acts.)
Isaiah 40:1-5 and 40:9-11 (Comfort and God our Shepherd)
Isaiah 9:2 and 9:6-7 with Isaiah 60:1-3 (People in darkness and For unto us...)
Isaiah 11:1-11a (Root from Jesse to redeem for the second time)
Luke 1:5-25 (John the Baptist's birth foretold) and John 1:19-28 (John's later message)
Luke 1:26-38 (the annunciation) and Isaiah 7:13-14 foretells this about 700 years earlier
Matthew 1:18-25 (angel's message to Joseph)
Luke 1:39-56 (Mary visits Elizabeth)
Luke 2:1-20 (Jesus' birth) with Philippians 4:4-9 (what we now do)
Luke 2:21-40 (Jesus' presentation at temple)
Matthew 2:1-23 (Magi visit, Mary, Joseph, Jesus escape to Egypt, return)
Psalm 98 (joyous psalm good for use with Joy to the World)
2 Corinthians 8:9 (Christ, who was rich, became poor. Good for use with various Christmas hymns)
Luke 3:1-6 and 21-23a (Jesus baptized by John)
Luke 4:1-13 (Jesus tempted by the devil)
Luke 19:28-38 and Luke 22:1-6 (Palm Sunday)
Luke 22:7-23 and Matthew 26:36-50 (Last Supper and arrest)
Matthew 27:11-26 and John 19:16-20, 28-30 (Jesus before Pilate, crucifixion, death)
Luke 23:50 through 24:1-8 (burial and resurrection)

Note: To start making this list I consulted an online advent calendar. Then I modified and added readings taking into account some of our church's readings for the upcoming weeks. Finally, I added a few days of readings from Holy Week and Easter. After all, the reason Christ came at Christmas was for our salvation through His death and resurrection on Good Friday and Easter. God's blessings on your Christmas Countdowns!