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    Prepare the Way: Cultivating a Heart for God in Advent
    Prepare the Way: Cultivating a Heart for God in Advent
    Prepare the Way: Cultivating a Heart for God in Advent
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    Prepare the Way: Cultivating a Heart for God in Advent

    By Pamela C. Hawkins

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    About this ebook

    Throughout Advent we read and sing the words Prepare the Way as we make room to welcome the Christ child into our lives once again. We prepare our city streets and buildings. We prepare our homes and workspaces. But sometimes Advent can slip away from us before we can prepare our hearts.

    In this 4-week study and prayer book, Pamela Hawkins invites us to prepare our hearts through guided prayer, readings from Isaiah and Matthew, as well as brief reflections on four scriptural themes: Peace, Justice, Fearlessness, and Faithfulness.

    Prepare the Way includes these spiritual practices:

    • Prayers of invocation, intercession, and benediction
    • Reflection through spiritual reading
    • Silence
    • Meditation on scripture
    • Call to Christian witness and service

    4 weeks • Includes Leader's Guide

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUpper Room Books
    Release dateSep 1, 2016
    ISBN9780835815710
    Prepare the Way: Cultivating a Heart for God in Advent
    Author

    Pamela C. Hawkins

    Associate Pastor, Belmont United Methodist Church, Nashville, TN

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      Book preview

      Prepare the Way - Pamela C. Hawkins

      PREPARE THE WAY: Cultivating a Heart for God in Advent

      Copyright © 2016 by Pamela C. Hawkins

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews. For information, write Upper Room Books, 1908 Grand Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212.

      Upper Room Books website: books.upperroom.org

      Upper Room®, Upper Room Books®, and design logos are trademarks owned by The Upper Room®, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.

      At the time of publication all website references in this book were valid. However, due to the fluid nature of the Internet some addresses may have changed or the content may not longer be relevant.

      Scripture quotations not otherwise identified are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Cover design: Bruce Gore, Gorestudio.Inc.

      Cover photo: Shutterstock

      Interior design: Perfect Type, Nashville, Tennessee

      LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

      Names: Hawkins, Pamela C., author.

      Title: Prepare the way : cultivating a heart for God in Advent / Pamela Hawkins.

      Description: Nashville : Upper Room Books, 2016.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2016005506| ISBN 9780835815697 (print) | ISBN 9780835815703 (mobi) | ISBN 9780835815710 (epub)

      Subjects: LCSH: Advent—Prayers and devotions.

      Classification: LCC BV40 .H385 2016 | DDC 242/.332--dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016005506

      In memory of my beloved RAY

      and in deep respect and love

      for my sons ERICK and PHILIP

      who have all been

      tireless companions

      on my walk with God

      Contents

      Introduction

      How to Use This Book

      Week One—The Way of Peace

      Week Two—The Way of Justice

      Week Three—The Way of Fearlessness

      Week Four—The Way of Faithfulness

      Small-Group Study Leader’s Guide

      About the Author

      Introduction

      For much of my life, the shape and story of Christmas formed around readings from the four Gospels. And within the boundaries of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ arrival into the world, I pinned my most vivid Christmas imagination against Luke’s Gospel. Like in a child’s kaleidoscope, each year the colorful fragments from other Gospel readings may have come into view momentarily, but my overall faith perspective of the significance of Jesus’ birth came into focus only at the reading of the second chapter of Luke.

      Like many others of my generation, the existence and meager celebration of Advent in my church ensured that I did not notice it until I was in my twenties. Readings from the Prophets were uncommon in my church upbringing, and although I now know that some of my favorite Christmas hymn lyrics have a prophetic grounding, I had no idea of this in my early years. In my home church, we seemed to leap in worship from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, bypassing the elegant and essential bridge of Advent built on God’s prophetic word. But since that time, I have discovered and grown close to the words of Isaiah and other prophets whom God called to speak truth and promise to God’s people, even when they blatantly and destructively lived outside of their covenant with God.

      So powerful in message and beauty, the words of God’s prophets shine through the darkness of the people of their times as well as through our contemporary darkness that descends when we, God’s people, continue to stray from covenantal faithfulness to God. To approach Christmas only by way of the Advent Gospel readings will leave us ill-equipped to live in the post-Christmas world that is not all stars and angels, but is, in fact, rife with both destruction and possibility. Humanity cannot take Advent and God’s coming among us to heart if we bypass the prophets. God’s people struggled mightily with faithfulness and faithlessness. Their struggle and lack of discernment often brought dire and desperate consequences. Yet through the cacophony of pleas, arrogance, and wars, God’s prophets spoke to the people of a redemptive future of joy, kindness, and peace—all made possible by God’s steadfast love born into the world. When we allow God’s prophets to speak a word to us, alongside those of the Gospel writers, we discover an even more stellar and glorious gift in the manger: Because of the darkness, the Light comes to us. Because of sin’s death-dealing ways, the life-giving ways of faith in Jesus the Christ can reassure us that all things are possible because God is with us.

      For me, Advent’s message

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