envelop spinner search close plus arrow-right arrow-left facebook twitter

Advent Week 2: The Way of the Wilderness, Day 1

Do you have a wilderness location? A place of separation? How do you listen there for God's word?

by David Joynt on December 04, 2016


SEPARATION

MARK 1:4-5

One special characteristic of wilderness is that it is away. Away from our regular lives and jobs, our usual patterns, our normal relationships. We don't have to leave life behind to meet God, but sometimes all the ongoing activity of our lives distracts us, stealing all our focus and energy. Our minds and hearts are too full of our own agendas to make room for God's agenda. John preached in the wilderness partly because there he could be heard. There were no errands to run, no people to placate, no rewards to seek, no problems to solve.

Do you have a wilderness location? A place of separation?

How do you listen there for God's word?

FAMILY TIME: Have everyone say what was their favorite family vacation. What made it special? Plan a time, away from distraction, to connect with one another and with God.

Tags: advent, wilderness

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

More from Pastor Joynts Devotionals

return to Pastor Joynts Devotionals