The Advent wreath with candles may be one of the most recognizable symbols of this season. You know the rhythm: each week you light another candle as the days count down toward Christmas. What some do not know is that each candle has a theme attached to it. Though they vary slightly, depending upon our various traditions, we find five grand themes for the Advent candles. This guide will shepherd us through FIVE CANDLES sharing ONE FLAME: Hope, Faith, Joy, Peace, and Love.

Some years ago, Urban Skye produced an Advent Guide, Prophecies of the Christmas King, based upon Messianic forecasts found in chapters seven and nine from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah. Our Scriptural foundations this year bring to light even more prophecies from Isaiah concerning the coming of Jesus. To place these in a historical timeline, Isaiah ministered roughly 300 years after the time of King David and 700 years before the birth of Jesus We focus on several of the other clues God’s people received about the One who was to come from the lineage of King David (the son of Jesse).

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—

the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and of might,

the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord

(Isaiah 11:1-2)

This guide’s twelve contributors—five Colorado pastors and seven artists associated with The Christos Collective—believe that engaging this season of anticipation for Christmas is good for the soul as well as the Church. Advent is a spiritually-necessary on-ramp to the Feast of the Nativity. The Church, in her wisdom, has known that preparation of heart, hands, and head are essential for getting us ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus