CHRISTMAS ADVENT
As we are now well into the Christmas season (and for some people, that happened back in October!), we are going to spend some time preparing for the blessed celebration of Jesus’ birth. For many, many centuries, this has been called the Advent season – a time to focus and reflect on the particular themes of John the Baptist’s preparation for the ministry of Christ, the annunciation to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus, Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, and the final judgment. Throughout the season we are constantly reminded that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.
Last night I received a link from Gary Kato to a website which has already completed the Advent devotions for the weeks leading up to Christmas. It is an excellent resource, and one that is timely for me personally (I have a lot of vacation to use up before the end of the year!). But what I especially like about these devotions is that they are to be done in community. From the authors:
“We designed this devotional as a way to help you, Christ’s worshiping community; think about Advent themes during the entire month-not just on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas.
“Each individual devotion contains a passage of Scripture, a brief reflection on that passage, sample prayers to guide the prayers of children and adults, and hymns to sing together to give voice to your praises and longings.
“The devotional was designed to be read in community. So, whether you have a large family or live alone, we encourage you to find one or two (or more) others and go through these devotions together during a time of family devotions, after a meal, or over the phone. Read the Scriptures, pray together, and sing the songs together (if you can’t read music, you can find many of the tunes either on iTunes or by doing an online search of the hymn’s title)”[1].
Unfortunately, I don’t have the capability to reproduce the music here, but I trust you can find the songs on the web.
I personally love this concept of devotions done in community! I hope you’ll give them a try, and if you find the exercise valuable, drop me a line or post a commnent.
I will post the Advent devotions daily as available (there are only 4-5 devotions/week). However, if you would prefer to print out the entire booklet of devotions (including the songs), you can do so by clicking here.
May God bless you this Christmas season as you remember the real reason for it.
-Mike
[1] www.ctkraliegh.org
