This Advent The Vision is Jesus

Scot Bower, November 22nd, 2011

How do you prepare for Christmas?

My kids have already written their letters to Santa ready to be left outside on the 1st of December (I think that's right, the tradition seems to alter slightly each year!) and last week my wife Misty and I made the decision that this year we'll be spending the holidays by ourselves. At home. Resting.

I'm looking forward to it already; time with the family, switching off emails and facebook, taking long walks with our energetic puppy, watching cheesy Christmas movies, eating good food. And into all that everyday, normal life, I'm looking forward to welcoming Jesus again and celebrating goodness.

And so now as I look forward to the holidays I want to make time to prepare for the arrival of the Son of God.

Advent is a special time in the church calendar, it's a time to prepare for the party but also a season to reflect on the coming of Christ. Four weeks where you can ask yourself some pretty big questions.

To help us ask those questions (and after all the fun we had journeying through Lent together) 24-7 Prayer will be releasing short devotional videos every day in the run up to Christmas. Each day we'll be reflecting on the coming of Jesus and praying the ancient prayer 'Maranatha; O Lord Come.'

You can pray 'O Lord Come' in 3 ways:

• Pray for the world around you: "What came into exisitence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out." (John 1:4&5 The Message). Come Lord Jesus and bring life and hope for all those in darkness; to the widow and the orphan the lost and foresaken.
• Pray for yourself, "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts." Psalm 139:23 Come Lord Jesus and search me, examine my heart and my motives that I may become more like you.
• Pray for Jesus to come again. 'He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.' Rev 22:20

So, along with picking up your Christmas tree, buying that Buble album(!) and baking mince-pies, this year why not subscribe to the podcasts and spend 5 minutes each day of Advent preparing your heart and soul for the coming of Emmanuel - God with us. This year the vision is Jesus.

The videos will be available on this website at 24-7prayer.com/spaces (where you can subscribe to the RSS feed) and from itunes . We will also post them to our facebook page and youtube channel each day and you can join in the conversation on twitter using the hashtag #247spaces.