Prepare Him Room

Advent - Prepare Him Room

Today we are about to embark on the last week of classes- a time of rejoicing for some because your work is done and you have extra time to prepare for exams and for others an additional week of stress finishing up papers and projects before finals. In speaking to a lot of you it seems to have been a trying semester in many ways. So today as we embark on the Christmas Season I am calling an audible and we are going to spend some time speaking about the Advent Season, A Celebration of Christ’s coming.

There is a line in Joy to the World that I have been mediating on this week

Joy to the World the Lord has come

Let Earth receive her King

Let Every Heart, Prepare Him Room

And Heaven and Nature Sing

And Heaven and Nature Sing

And Heaven and Heaven and Nature Sing!

That Prepare Him Room Line is unbelievable. The Author Issac Watts, is calling us to call others of us to make space in our hearts for the King of Glory.

That is what we are going to do today, to help us do that the rest of the month. We are going to take this morning and reflect on the virtues of Advent and meditate on the concepts of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. We are going to watch some short videos and between them I will have a few words, and some different instructions to help us.

Hope (4:12)

Hope

Make a plan to direct your hope to Christ and away from other things?

Are there things that we need to wait for God

What are some things you want to do between now and Christmas to direct our Hope on Him?

Commit to being at gatherings with us here or at your home church when you return over the holidays

Commit to doing an advent devotional, We will send out one today that is on the bible app

Find 3 or 4 verses to meditate on when you find yourself placing your hope in other things, by way of reminder

Write down a prayer for yourself

Peace (3:30)

What are some ways that you can bring Shalom to your life, to your family, to those around you this holiday season?

Brainstorm at your table? I am going to ask you to share with me?

Joy (4:12)

Joy as attitude, joy as feeling - extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of something good

Do we have things to be joyful about? People can be an awfully negative bunch. What would it take for you to be joyful amidst the things that you have going on right now?

Love (4:30)

What are things I can do to be self-less this holiday season? Cut the TV off for some length of time or strategically and figure out when and where you can help someone?

Christmas time is unique in that you can get away with loving people more during this season than any other. You have excuses to buy people stuff, do stuff for others,give them things because those are the values of the season. And whether we know if or not they are the values of Christ. Let’s commemorate what was given to us out of love by doing the same for others.