Daily Scripture Readings for Advent

The weeks of Advent remind us to set aside some of the hectic business of the holiday season, and to quietly reflect on the promise of the baby born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. The Bible readings listed below relate to the Advent themes of waiting, preparation, light in the darkness, and the coming of the promised Messiah.

Scriptures

First Week of Advent - Sunday Romans 13:11-14

11 Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed;

12 the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;

13 let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.

14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

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Monday Corinthians 1:3-9

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,

5 that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge--

6 even as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you--

7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ;

8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Tuesday Mark 13:33-37

33 Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come.

34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.

35 Watch therefore--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning--

36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.

37 And what I say to you I say to all: Watch."

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Wednesday John 1:1-5

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was in the beginning with God;

3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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Thursday John 1:6-9

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him.

8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.

9 The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.

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Friday Jeremiah 33:14-16

14 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'

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Saturday Isaiah 60:19-22

19 The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

20 Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.

21 Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land for ever, the shoot of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.

22 The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it.

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Second Week of Advent - Sunday Romans 15:4-13

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

5 May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,

6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7 Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs,

9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will praise thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name";

10 and again it is said, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people";

11 and again, "Praise the Lord, all Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him";

12 and further Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse shall come, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope."

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

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Monday Psalms 43:3-6

3 Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me, let them bring me to thy holy hill and to thy dwelling!

4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise thee with the lyre, O God, my God.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.

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Tuesday Psalms 27:1-4

1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers assail me, uttering slanders against me, my adversaries and foes, they shall stumble and fall.

3 Though a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

4 One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.

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Wednesday Psalms 119:105-106

105 Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe thy righteous ordinances.

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Thursday John 12:35-36

35 Jesus said to them, "The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." When Jesus had said this, he departed and hid himself from them.

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Friday Ephesians 5:6-14

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

7 Therefore do not associate with them,

8 for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),

10 and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

12 For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret;

13 but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.

14 Therefore it is said, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light."

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Saturday 1 Peter 2:5-9

5 and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

6 For it stands in scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame."

7 To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,"

8 and "A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall"; for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

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Third Week of Advent - Sunday Isaiah 60:1-3

1 Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

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Monday 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.

4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.

5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

6 For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

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Tuesday 1 John 1:4-7

4 And we are writing this that our joy may be complete.

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth;

7 but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

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Wednesday John 3:16-21

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

18 He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

21 But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.

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Thursday Isaiah 40:1-11

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.

3 A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.

5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

6 A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

7 The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people is grass.

8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever.

9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"

10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

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Friday John 9:1-7

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth.

2 And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

3 Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.

4 We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work.

5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

6 As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay,

7 saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Silo'am" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

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Saturday Luke 3:1-6

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiber'i-us Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturae'a and Trachoni'tis, and Lysa'ni-as tetrarch of Abile'ne,

2 in the high-priesthood of Annas and Ca'iaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechari'ah in the wilderness;

3 and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;

6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

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Fourth Week of Advent - Sunday Isaiah 11:1-10

1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;

4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

5 Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

7 The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

10 In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.

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Monday Zephaniah 3:14-17

14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!

15 The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has cast out your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear evil no more.

16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: "Do not fear, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.

17 The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing

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Tuesday Matthew 1:18-25

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit;

19 and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

20 But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit;

21 she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

23 "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us).

24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife,

25 but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.

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Wednesday Luke 2:8-20

8 And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.

10 And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people;

11 for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!"

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."

16 And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17 And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child;

18 and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

19 But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

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Thursday Matthew 4:14-16

14 that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

15 "The land of Zeb'ulun and the land of Naph'tali, toward the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles--

16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."

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Friday Isaiah 2:1- 5

1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,

3 and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

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Saturday Luke 2:25-33

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

27 And inspired by the Spirit he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law,

28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

29 "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word;

30 for mine eyes have seen thy salvation

31 which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples,

32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel."

33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him;