My Thoughts

Before Christmas, The Story of Jesus from the Beginning of Time to the Manger by author Bill Crowder is a perfect advent book. This small God glorifying book will help any reader strengthen his Walk with Jesus. It was a delightful find.

Filled with scripture the author has done research in both the Old and New Testaments. He goes back to when God made the Earth and talks about Jesus and the Holy Spirit. New Testament references go through Revelation.

There are six chapters in this book. Beginning with “His Character as God” and concluding with “His Announced Arrival” all six chapters examine a part of Jesus to help us learn more. The author has included some reflections and stories of his own along with the scripture.

This is a well planned, organized, and nicely written book. It was easy to read and understand. I will keep it on hand for future reference.

I highly recommend this. A church library would benefit from a few copies. This would make a great group study, especially during advent. It gets a 5 out of 5 star rating from me. A copy was provided by Celebrate Lit but these are my honest thoughts.

About the Book

Book: Before Christmas

Author: Bill Crowder

Genre: RELIGION / Holidays/Christmas & Advent

Release Date: October, 2019

Embrace the majesty of the Messiah

Bill Crowder invites you to explore the backstory of the first advent. He brings you on a journey into the very heart of God, to a greater understanding of what it means that “the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).

Walk through Scripture to see and know Jesus in a richer way. Examine His character as God, His relationship with the Father, His appearances in the Old Testament, and more. Understand how these pre-Bethlehem truths lead into the Savior’s birth and the events of that first Christmas—and, most importantly, how it all comes together in God’s great story of redemption and rescue.

You’ll embrace the majesty of the Messiah and celebrate Christ’s birth with renewed joy and wonder.

Click here to get your copy.

About the Author

Bill Crowder, who spent over twenty years in the pastorate, is vice president of ministry content at Our Daily Bread Ministries. He is a contributor to Our Daily Bread and the author of nine books, including My Hope Is in You, Seeing the Heart of Christ, and For This He Came. He and his wife, Marlene, have five children.

More from Bill

During my years as a pastor, I found Christmas and Easter to be challenging. Certainly I love those seasons (for very different reasons), but finding creative ways to retell these important stories was often difficult. But, at one such season I realized that the story we tell at Christmas is not really the whole story. By entering the story at Nazareth or Bethlehem, we enter too late. We can’t simply start with the Baby in the manger—we need to go back. Before time began. To the eternal Christ. Unless we seek to understand Him, we’ll never fully appreciate who He was and why He came. That is the Christmas story. – Bill Crowder