Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

October 9th, 2008

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus ed. Nancy Guthrie.  Wheaton:  Crossway Books, 2008.  142 pp. $12.99. Buy from Westminster Books

Note:  This is not a book review per se because of the genre of the book (devotional) and the seasonal nature of this devotional.

Christmas is that time of year when everyone gets rushed and hurried in the home, in the office, and in the shopping stores.  We go about our daily business with the addition of the Christmas festivities.  It is so easy to get caught up in it all and shove the real reason we celebrate Christmas to the back burner.  Nancy Guthrie has put together a book of 22 meditations from some of the pastoral giants of past and present.  (Joni Eareckson Tada is one of the contributors and is not included in the phrase ‘pastoral giants.’)

From Randy Alcorn to George Whitefield, Nancy has presented us with 22 short meditative chapters that will help us to keep Christ at the center of everything we are doing during the Christmas season.  Other contributors include John Piper, J.C. Ryle, Jonathan Edwards, and Tim Keller. What is most amazing is that all of the contributors strike one note in calling for a Christ-centered Christmas celebration.  It is awesome to see that if one’s basis of understanding how to celebrate this time of year is rooted in the Bible, then it does not matter when you lived (Calvin in the 1500’s vs. Spurgeon in the 1800’s vs. Lloyd-Jones in the 1900’s).  Regardless of when and where you lived, you will seek to glorify God because of Christ in all that you this December.

This is certainly a book worth purchasing as you seek to keep Who is most important central to all that you do during this Christmas season. I look forward to incorporating this into mine and my wife’s evening time together with the Word.