24-7 Rewind - Life in the movement – Monday,
2 December 2013
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24-7 Rewind
Life in the movement
Advent Begins - 24-7 Rewind
Andy Freeman brings you this week's
update with details about two devotional resources to help you journey through
Advent.
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Two Ways To Journey With Us Through
Advent
This advent we are releasing two
recources to help you focus your thoughts and prayers over advent.
1) 'Light Breaking' - Daily Reading,
Prayer and Thought
This Advent why not join us for a daily
reading, prayer and thought called ‘Light Breaking’ on the 24-7 Daily mobile
app.
Isaiah said “the people in darkness have
seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2). That
light is Jesus born as a baby, come to bring a new and everlasting light into
the world. It is good news that we
celebrate at Christmas and we’d light to meditate on that goodness and light
each day for this season.
Franciscan theologian Richard Rohr once
asked why do we spend so much time trying to think about the ‘problem of
evil’? How about instead thinking about
the problem of goodness - how come in such a dark world there is so much light,
love and goodness around us.
Advent is a time when the goodness around
us can come into focus once again.
Goodness exists because of our God, every good and perfect gift comes
from him (James 1:17). You could say
this light which breaks into our world is like the fingerprint of God - an act
of mercy, a moment of forgiveness, a miracle, a person finding faith - all this
stems from the baby born in a manger in Bethlehem. All this is light breaking in just as Isaiah
spoke about. This is what we’d like to look at this Advent.
You can download the 24-7 Daily mobile
app for free on both ios and android.
2) Devotional Video Podcast
For advent will we will also be
re-releasing the 2011 Advent Podcast series - 'The Vision is Jesus'. A free,
5-minute devotional video released each day on the run up to Christmas to help
you focus your thoughts and prayers on the hope, love, joy and peace of Jesus.
This is also available on the mobile app as well as iTunes, twitter and
facebook.
(Andy Freeman is 44 years old and a
father to 5 beautiful kids. He lives in
Winchester, England. Andy was part of
the team that pioneered 24-7's first Boiler Room community. He is now a trainee Ordinand with the Church
of England and is working with others on 24-7's partnership with the Fresh
Expressions movement. Andy loves
reading, movies, music, cricket (the sport) and Arsenal football club. Andy is involved with Just 24-7 and 24-7's GB
team. You can continue to dialogue with
Andy on his twitter (@AndyF247).)
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Blogging
24-7 Rewind News on the Move - Stories from the last 3 months (Adam Heather)
Every 3 months, Pete Greig brings an
update on all the exciting stories from the last 3 months in the 24-7 Prayer
movement.
Here is November's update with news
about; prayer in prisons, new 24-7 leaders in the US, resources going viral,
and the exciting news that we reached our 10,000 registered Prayer Room...and
more:
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Look out for the next 'News on the Move'
in Feburary 2014!
(Adam Heather helps to keep 24-7 talking
to the world as part of the communications team based in Guildford. He got
connected with 24-7 after spending a year studying with a church in California.
He loves playing games and he is easily
captivated by any exciting new idea. You can catch up with Adam on twitter)
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24-7 Rewind Advent Podcast Eps 1: The Vision is Jesus (Matthew Horswell)
The smallest light, which is very
unimpressive in daytime, can light up a whole room in the darkness.
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Framing everything around the ancient
prayer 'Maranatha' - 'O Lord Come'. We take a few minutes everyday this advent
to remember that 'the vision is Jesus'. What would it look like for Jesus to
come into every area of our lives this christmas?
Pete Grieg starts off our advent series
by thinking about the context of christmas and the difference light can make in
darkness, then challenging us to pray for those
'living in a land of deep darkness'.
Subscribe to the series
We will be releasing a new episode each
day and you can access it in all the following ways:
On the Podcast Page
Subscribe to the iTunes Podcast feed
YouTube
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24-7 Rewind 4 reasons that thanksgiving is underrated (Adam Heather)
“10,000 reasons for my heart to sing”
I remember singing this line from Matt
Redman and feeling a deep conviction in my spirit to be a more thankful person.
I promptly went out a purchased a little black book, the plan was to make an
actual list of 10,000 reasons for my heart to sing – intense, maybe, but I have
always been a rather intense person.
As with the best-laid plans of mice and
men, I lost the little black book long before I reached the end of my list. The
book may be gone, but the lessons I learned remain; so here are 4 reasons I
think that thanksgiving is underrated.
1. Thanksgiving changes us
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance,
chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house
into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past,
brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” (Melody Beattie)
We live in a world where we are
constantly being sold the recipe to happiness – maybe it comes with that new
house, or with that sports car, surely I will be happy when I finally find that
perfect partner. There is a deep longing
in the human heart to be content; it’s just that contentment is always one
purchase away.
But then we have a penniless
carpenter-become-king, who displays to us the real secret to joy. Contentment
is not found in having all things but giving thanks in all things. The truth is
that we are not entitled to joy and yet God offers it to us a free gift, a gift
unlocked in thanksgiving.
2. Thanksgiving is prayer
“If the only prayer you said in your
whole life was ‘thank you’ that would suffice” (Meister Eckhart)
Consistently the Bible reminds us that
thanksgiving and prayer go together, in fact Psalms tells us to “enter his
gates with thanksgiving”. How often do we approach God by saying thank
you?
3. Thanksgiving starts something beautiful
Jesus often gave thanks before he did his
most amazing miracles. Not many people would dare to say thank you when given
one boy’s lunch to feed thousands. But Jesus looked at things differently and
his ‘thank you’ started something beautiful. What could you be holding which is
one ‘thank you’ away from becoming something beautiful?
4. Thanksgiving is attractive
No one wants to be friends with Scrooge.
Today is the American Thanksgiving and it
provides a perfect opportunity to make you own list of 10,000 reasons. I dare
you to become the most thankful person you know.
(Adam Heather helps to keep 24-7 talking
to the world as part of the communications team based in Guildford. He got
connected with 24-7 after spending a year studying with a church in California.
He loves playing games and he is easily
captivated by any exciting new idea. You can catch up with Adam on twitter)
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Going deeper
The Prayer Course
Six videos to fuel discussion and deepen
the prayer life of your church
24-7 Prayer and Alpha have teamed up to
produce The Prayer Course - six 10 minute videos, hosted by Pete Greig, to help
you explore different themes of prayer found in the bible: adoration, petition,
intercession, unanswered prayer, listening to God and spiritual warfare.
Available for free download at www.prayercourse.org
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24-7 Prayer
Allen House Pavilion
Eastgate Gardens
Guildford, GU1 4AZ
Company No. 04176643
Charity No. 1091413
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