Operation Noah has launched an advent initiative for 2008 calling for ‘reclaiming christmas‘. As a response to the increasing consumerism of the Christmas season, they are suggesting a series of events for the first weekend of December, all about sustainability, and simpler living. Activities will include special services, present-making workshops, and clean-up operations around shopping centres. Several cathedrals will be taking part, including Birmingham, who recently hosted SGM Lifewords‘ Space Encounters prayer stations.

For more about the project, click here. Resources include liturgy and prayers, and check back soon for their alternative Christmas play, described as ‘Dr Who meets Dickens’ A Christmas Carol’. The project will be launched formally on 11th November with a lecture from Abbot Christopher Jamison, best known for the BBC series ‘The Monastery’, and the book ‘Finding Sanctuary’ (a book a number of us at SGM Lifewords have read and enjoyed.) Jamison introduces the idea:

“Advent is the traditional month of preparation before Christmas, a time of fasting and intense prayer, a time of eager expectation. It is above all a time to celebrate waiting as a normal part of human experience, when the Christian tradition invites us to wait for the birth of a child. In Advent we rejoice that we are waiting, that there is still time to prepare a way for the Lord and we celebrate the virtue of patience. By contrast, the consumer world tells us not to wait but to ‘buy now.’ Greed cannot wait, so to learn to wait is a simple antidote to greed.”

Operation Noah is the climate change initiative from Christian Ecology Link and Churches Together’ Environmental Issues Network.

In the Bible, Zion is the name given to the place where God lives with his people. When Jesus came to earth, God lived among us for a short time as a human being. But when Jesus comes again, we will live with God forever. There will be a new heaven and new earth. And it will all be perfect – just as God intended in the very beginning.

 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, “Look, the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or crying or sorrow or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever.” Rev 21:1,3 (NLT)

 Pray: God, thank you that right from the very beginning, you had a plan for us. Thank you that one day we’ll be able to be with you forever. Thank you that you will put an end to death, suffering, tears and pain. Thank you that your kingdom will never end.

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You’ve now reached the end of Lifewords’ Advent A-Z! We hope you’ve enjoyed them. If you’d like to continue receiving daily Bible content by email, sign up for our Life Changing Words service at lc-words.com.

These A-Z reflections were written by Sam Luscombe, and designed by Keith Talbott, with illustrations by Chinatsu Sunaga. Copyright Lifewords, 2007.

Christmas Day is here at last! We’ve only been waiting for 24 days – but can you imagine how excited people must have been on that first Christmas day? God’s people had been waiting for thousands of years for this child to be born. The angels announce it with massive excitement. For Mary, nine months of pregnancy are over. Her baby is born at last. Born for us.

 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isa 9:6 (NLT)

Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Lk 2:11 (NIV)

 Pray: God, thank you for all the fun we have celebrating Jesus’ birthday. Thank you for the gift of your Son.

Christmas is really really really exciting! It’s great fun counting down to Christmas day, looking forward to it coming, and enjoying getting ready for it together.

 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit … All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” – which means “God with us.” Mt 1:18, 22-23

 When Mary found out she was expecting a baby, she must have felt all sorts of different emotions. She was probably shocked and surprised, but also really excited that God had chosen her to carry this special baby: a baby God’s messengers had talked about thousands of years before; the one they’d all been waiting for.

 Pray: God, thank you that when you’re looking for people to be part of your plan, you use ordinary people like Mary. Help us to be as willing to serve you as she was. Thank you for the excitement of looking forward to Christmas. Thank you that it’s good to celebrate together.

Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the world what he has done. Oh, how mighty he is! Sing to the Lord, for he has done wonderful things. Make known his praise around the world. Isa 12:4-5 (NLT)

 Worship is all about giving someone worth – recognising how great they are, and responding by telling them about it! The more we understand who God is, the more we want to worship him.

 Pray: God, you’re wonderful! Thank you for your amazing creation, for your great love for us, for your rescue plan for the world. Thank you that we can get to know you.

Amazingly, in Jesus, God became a human being. God visited planet earth as a tiny, vulnerable baby. God was so concerned with us that he came to be one of us, knew what it was like to laugh, cry, be hungry and thirsty, grow up, live life.

 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited his people and redeemed them. Lk 1:68 (NLT)

Who’s seen God? No one. But we’ve seen his only Son, Jesus, and you don’t get closer than that. Jn 1:18 (The Liberator)

 Pray: God, thank you that you visited us. Thank you that you were born as a baby. Thank you that you know what it’s like to be human – the good bits and the bad bits. Help us to remember that this Christmas.

God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. Jn 3:16(NLT)

 God’s rescue plan wasn’t just going to get the people of Israel out of trouble. The message of Jesus was for the whole world. Everyone is invited to have faith in him.

 Pray: God, thank you that the good news of Christmas is for everybody, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, whatever language they speak, whichever country they live in. Thank you that we’re all invited to get to know Jesus.

Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Israel. There he will teach us his ways, so that we may obey him.” Isa 2:3 (NLT)

 If we’re going to live in the way that God wants us to, we need people to teach us. God promised to teach his people the right way to live. Jesus was a fantastic teacher. Huge crowds of people would gather to hear what he had to say. He taught them how to obey God, not just in his words, but in his actions as well.

 Pray: God, thank you for the people who teach us: parents, school teachers, church leaders. Thank you that Jesus is the best teacher. Help us to understand what he says to us – and to act on it.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. Isa 40:10-11 (NLT)

 Shepherds worked extremely hard. They had to keep finding food and water for their flock. They protected them from wild animals. They made sure that they were safe as they slept. They lived on the hillside with their sheep, making sure that they had everything they needed. They looked after them when they were ill, or when they had lambs. When Jesus came, he called himself the good shepherd. He cares for us with that much attention to detail. If we trust him, he will make sure that we have everything we need.

 Pray: God, thank you that on the first Christmas night, the shepherds on the hillside were invited to the party. Thank you that Jesus looks after us with just as much care as a shepherd looks after his sheep.

“The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem” says the Lord, “to buy back those in Israel who have turned from their sins.” Isa 59:20 (NLT)

 To redeem something (or someone) means to ‘buy back.’ When God sent his Son, Jesus, to earth, he came to buy us back. In a slave market, a price could be offered which would ‘redeem’ the slave, buying back their freedom. The Israelites, in slavery in Babylon, needed to be bought back. We, in slavery to sin and circumstances, need to be bought back too. The baby in the manger at Christmas would grow up to become the Redeemer the Bible speaks about, buying us back with love.  

 Pray: God, thank you for sending Jesus to us as a tiny baby in a manger, who would one day grow up, give his life for us, and buy us back.