Are you prepared for Christmas? Advent Resources

Are you prepared for Christmas?

I don't mean by that:
have you bought all the presents you are going to give
have you ordered your turkey
have you organised which family members you're going to see
have you started writing your cards
have you booked your annual leave from work

Nope.

What I mean is: have you started preparing your heart for celebrating the birth of the most amazing, earth-shattering, life-changing person ever born: Jesus.

I have a confession to make. We are totally ready for Christmas in our house.

I have a super organised wife, who likes to start thinking about Christmas while we're still on summer holiday. (Picture it: ice-cream in one hand, Christmas card list in the other.)

It's a source of personal distress to her if we're not all sorted by the beginning of November. 

So... all our presents are bought, the turkey (crown) is in the freezer, our holidays with family are booked, and our cards are ready to be written (cards are my job, which is why they're not actually written yet).

Christmas is a crazy busy time in a pastor's house. Add into the mix the fact that both our children have birthdays in the run up to Christmas (worst family planning ever for a pastor), and that my birthday is just after Christmas (sorry wifey), and you can tell why it's a real blessing to have a super organised Better Half.

But as pastor to my family (this is where you listen up guys), the responsibility falls squarely on my shoulders to prepare the family for the whole point of Christmas: celebrating 'God with us'.

Fortunately for crazy busy people like me (and you?) there are some really fantastic resources available this year to help families and individuals prepare for CHRIST-mas. 

Here are five of the best Advent resources I've come across - some of them completely FREE! (If you're not interested in the family/kid-friendly ones skip to resource no.5)

1. The Expected One App: 

This is a brilliant app that has been produced by LifeWay Christian Resources and is available for iphone, ipad, ipod and Android. It's designed to be used by families. Starting on December 1st, every day up to Christmas contains a Bible reading and a short explanation and then three or four questions to prompt discussion. For younger ones, it also contains colouring sheets and some Christmas games, as well as some suggested songs for the family to sing together. If you're not sure about family devotions, there's even a 'guide to family worship' page. And what's more - it only costs 50p! You can get it HERE

2. The Christmas Journey Advent Book 2013: This is an absolutely brilliant family advent resource produced by Verge Network. It's FREE to download as pdf. Like all the other advent resources, there are suggested Bible readings for every day in December. However what's brilliant about this one is that it starts in Genesis 3 and works it's way through the whole Bible, picking out passages that anticipate the coming of Jesus. To help show how every story points to him, each reading is linked to pages in the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (probably the best children's 'Bible' around). Each day also has it's own picture to colour in and decorate. These are intentionally 'bauble' sized: they are designed to be cut out and hung on your Christmas tree (or 'Jesse tree'). It's a brilliant interactive idea for kids. Get the pdf HERE

Good Book Advent Calendar Packs: 

The Good Book Company have been producing these for a few years now. We've used a few of them as a family and they're really excellent. Each pack comes with an advent calendar, complete with doors to open each day. Most reveal a Christmas-themed Bible verse which links to a reading in a booklet, which comes in the pack. This booklet  includes questions for each day in December, to help children understand the main point of the Bible passage, and how it points to Jesus. I can't recommend these superb resources highly enough. You can get the one I think is the best HERE

Beginning with God at Christmas: If your child is younger (pre-school) you might not have started a regular pattern of family worship yet. Christmas is a great time to start and the Beginning with God series by The Good Book Company is unsurpassed. They produced a Christmas edition, which is even more engaging than the usual version, including stickers - always a hit with toddlers. If you have a pre-schooler, this is worth a go. If you order it today you'll only have missed a few days. You can get it HERE

Good News of Great Joy: If you're slightly older and have perhaps moved out of the child phase, this is the resource for you. John Piper is known for his engaging speaking ministry, but he has been writing really helpful Bible-based, Christ-centred daily devotionals for some time. Desiring God have just produced a new book of Advent Daily Devotionals written by Piper that is well worth getting hold of. You can order a paper version from Amazon HERE for £3.21 or you can download it for FREE now as an ebook HERE

So there you go - five different ways to get properly prepared for Christmas. Advent starts on December 1st - so what are you waiting for!?

Do you need Spiritual Bootcamp?

As a pastor I regularly come across people who are struggling in one or more areas of their lives. Sometimes it's a marriage issue, sometimes it's a work issue, sometimes it's a church issue, sometimes a moral issue, sometimes it's all four issues! 

Like most men, I'm a fixer by nature. So my natural response to the pastoral problems I'm presented with is usually to suggest a strategy to fix them: spend a date night with your wife once a week; create some boundaries so that work encroaches less into family life; seek to be reconciled with the person you've fallen out with in church; put an internet filter in place on your computer etc etc.

However while a strategy is often a helpful short-term response to pastoral problems, I've noticed that it rarely works in the long term. When the initial flush of determination wanes, routine returns and resolve fails, so often the same issues emerge - albeit sometimes in different forms. The conflict returns; the boundaries shrink; the bitterness resurfaces; the addiction finds another avenue.

The reason for this, of course, is that strategies deal only with symptoms, whereas real change starts at heart-level.

Jesus said it's out of the HEART that sinful behaviour emerges:

'For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.' (Matt 15:19)

When Jesus referred to the 'heart', he didn't mean the organ that pumps blood around our bodies. He meant the driving force of who we are and how we think about ourselves and the world. And therefore the only way to change ground-level sinful behaviour, is much deeper and more profound heart-level change.

In his book 'Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands' Paul Tripp illustrates this principle using the example of a bad apple tree:

Let’s say I have an apple tree in my backyard. Each year its apples are dry, wrinkled, brown and pulpy. After several seasons my wife says, 'It doesn’t make any sense to have this huge tree and never be able to eat any apples. Can’t you do something?' 

One day my wife looks out the window to see me in the yard, carrying branch cutters, an industrial grade staple gun, a ladder, and two bushels of apples. 

I climb the ladder, cut off all the pulpy apples, and staple shiny, red apples onto every branch of the tree. From a distance our tree looks like it is full of a beautiful harvest. But if you were my wife, what would you be thinking of me at this moment? 

If a tree produces bad apples year after year, there is something drastically wrong with its system, down to its very roots. I won’t solve the problem by stapling new apples onto the branches. They also will rot because they are not attached to a life-giving system. And next spring, I will have the same problem again. I will not see a new crop of healthy apples because my solution has not gone to the heart of the problem. If the tree’s roots remain unchanged, it will never produce good apples. 

The point is that, in personal ministry, much of what we do to produce growth and change in ourselves and others is little more than “fruit stapling.” It attempts to exchange apples for apples without examining the heart, the root behind the behaviour. This is the very thing for which Christ criticized the Pharisees.

It's a brilliant illustration of a profound truth: your fruit reveals your root; your words, actions, attitudes and thoughts reveal what's in your heart.

That's where the root of all behaviour problems lie.

Which means what I - and all those I pastor - need MOST is an ongoing transformation of heart.

But how does this happen?

Romans 12:1-2 is crucial in helping us understand how heart-level change happens. It's also the biblical principle from which I've developed the pastoral tool of 'spiritual bootcamp'.

Paul says:

'Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.' (Romans 12:1-2)

Paul presents a simple choice in these verses. We can either be conformed to the pattern of this world, or we can be transformed, so that we are able to know and do God's will. We can either live in a way that honours the world or in a way that honours God.

And what's the key to living in a way that honours God?

Being transformed... in our mind.

And there lies the issue.

Trace sinful  behaviour to it's root and you'll always find a mindset - a heart - more conformed to the pattern of the world than transformed by the Word of God.

The problem is that it's  really hard to kick-start the habits that are necessary to renew our minds, transform our hearts and bring about lasting change and transformation in our behaviour.

Which is where 'Spiritual Bootcamp' comes in.

It's easy for the busyness of family, work or church life to erode even the best intentioned spiritual resolve and chip away at the disciplines that counteract the gravitational pull of the world. 

Before we know it, we've stopped reading the Bible regularly, we've stopped praying for our family, our desire to share Jesus has waned, our commitment to meet with God's people has been eroded and our area of service has become a drudge. Before long, spiritual things can seem odd and unnatural and hard work. Prayer becomes awkward, reading God's Word feels forced, service becomes a duty. 

All these are symptoms of a heart that's become world-shaped.

And so what we need is a radical recalibration of our hearts.

Paul said to Timothy: 'Train yourself to be godly' (1 Tim 4:7). The Greek word he used for 'train' is the one from which we get our English word 'gymnasium'. 

However when our hearts are dry and barren and world-shaped, the sort of training regime we need is more like bootcamp than tone-up. It's more like detox than dieting.

At first sight that can seem at odds with a gospel of grace where our good works and effort make no difference to our standing with God. However while we're not saved by our effort, that doesn't meant our sanctification doesn't require a bit of exertion and self-discipline.

Which is why a bit of spiritual bootcamp can sometimes be just what we need.

'Spiritual bootcamp' is designed to be a spiritual shock to the system. I guess you could call it a version of fasting from the world (as much as is possible). It's an intensive dose of the essential spiritual vitamins and minerals designed to re-start healthy habits that will help our hearts  start beating in rhythm with God again. It's an immersion in spiritual habits designed to refresh dry hearts.

When I suggest spiritual bootcamp to someone I tell them to do the following things for a period of at least 2 months. 

Why 2 months? Because the best research suggests that it takes 66 days to form a habit.

• Set a time and read the Bible every day without fail using a good devotional guide like Explore 
• When in the car or house listen to Christian music - all the time you can.
• Go to church twice on a Sunday - take notes of what God says to you that you can re-read and reflect on during the week. Expect God to speak to you during these times - listen for his voice.
• Take a fast from non-Christian fiction/magazines, read as many heart-warming Christian books as you can (like Tim Keller's  'The Prodigal God' or Paul Miller's 'The Praying Life')
• Take a fast from as much TV as you can, read your new Christian book!
• Start a prayer diary, pray every day for yourself, your family, your work, your church.
• When you pray, kneel (posture helps humility!)
• Practice the spiritual discipline of encouragement: be intentional about encouraging another Christian every day in some way. (Disillusionment and cynicism are some of the key symptoms of a dry heart. It will feel unnatural to offer spiritual encouragement to start with, but it will become more and more natural as your heart warms up to God and give you great joy!)
• Start the habit of memorising scripture. The Topical Memory System is still the best tool to help develop this. Keep the scriptures you memorise on your smartphone or on credit card pieces of paper in your wallet/purse.
• Make yourself accountable to someone who you will meet up with you, pray for you and challenge you about how 'bootcamp' is going.

Keeping up this level of intensity is hard and probably not sustainable in the long term.

There's nothing wrong with enjoying the good things God has given us in the world like watching great drama on TV or listening to great secular music. We're not to become trappist monks who's aim is to escape from the world. Jesus didn't pray that his disciples would be taken out of the the world, but he did pray that the world would be taken out of them (John 17:15-17).

And that's the purpose of 'spiritual bootcamp': shock therapy to kick start the habits that are essential to the ongoing process of renewing our minds and hearts so that we are transformed and not conformed.

Feeling spiritually unfit and flabby? Why not give it a go?