Are you burnt out on the consumerism and busyness of the holiday season and longing to experience the true hope of Christmas?
Damascus: An Advent Journey Through the Life and Letters of Paul is a devotional that invites us to connect the miracle of Christ’s birth with the gift of our salvation. Inspired by Paul’s dramatic transformation on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, this devotional offers a fresh approach to the ancient practice of Advent.
Damascus
This Devotional Is For You If You...
- Are entering the holiday season weary, stressed, or overwhelmed and are longing for the true hope of Christmas.
- Want a fresh perspective on a season that has perhaps become routine, consumer-driven, and stressful.
- Want to discover what the Christmas season means for your everyday walk with God.
THE DETAILS
Damascus
Topic: Advent
Length of Study: 4-week Bible Study
Focal Scripture: The Life and Letters of Paul
“Christmas is just a taste of what is to come—so of course we want it to go on. The incredible news for those who are reborn in Christ is that it can.“
—Hannah Jessen Conway, author
DAMASCUS
From The Introduction
If we let it, Advent can be so much more than an ancient practice or an annual tradition. It can be a sacred season during which we discover how Christmas is more than a story of a birth—it’s a story of rebirth, too. A story of miraculous transformation and undeserved redemption, much like the one Paul experienced on the road to Damascus. Paul, too, was well acquainted with the rules and religious practices but lacked a real relationship with Jesus until that miraculous encounter. I want us to have a similar encounter this Advent; one that takes this season from stressful to sacred and from performative to transformative.
- Hannah Jessen Conway, author
MEET THE AUTHOR
Hannah Jessen Conway
Hannah Jessen Conway loves words—reading them, writing them, and, most recently, learning to sign them. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband and two wild and wonderful boys. She’s a beach girl at heart, a Tar Heel fanatic, and the author of Love Sounds Like, a children’s book inspired by her deaf son. With a background in nonprofit marketing, Hannah now seeks to use her writing to point others back to the Author of our faith. You can connect with her by visiting HJConway.com or on Instagram.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Hannah’s Story
I grew up in a Christian family, and so the practices of Advent were familiar. And while these traditions marked the holiday season for me, I failed to grasp what Advent meant for my own walk with the Lord until I was older. In my early 20s, I began to understand for the first time how the Christmas story wasn’t just something of the past—it provided hope for my present and, even more significantly, for my future.
Since then, Advent has been my favorite season. As November draws to a close each year, I can feel myself becoming more expectant, more excited about what God is going to teach me. Rather than letting life's hardship drive us further from Advent, I pray it beckons us toward it. We don’t have to be “ready” for Advent. We can come as we are, knowing that Jesus will meet us in the middle of our messy stories, just like he entered into our messy world more than 2,000 years ago.
That was the impetus for writing Damascus: to remind us all that Advent can be so much more than an ancient practice or an annual tradition, if we let it. It can be a sacred season during which we discover how Christmas is more than a story of a birth—it’s a story of rebirth, too. A story of miraculous transformation and undeserved redemption, much like the one Paul experienced on the road to Damascus. Paul, too, was well acquainted with the rules and religious practices but lacked a real relationship with Jesus until that miraculous encounter. I want us to have a similar encounter this Advent; one that takes this season from stressful to sacred and from performative to transformative.
I hope that you’ll join me this Advent as we discover how Christmas still has the power to change everything. Let’s not merely survive the holiday season—let’s embrace the wonder of Christmas and celebrate the hope that it gives us, not just for this life, but for the next.
