From the PASTOR
Dear Friends,
The time after Christmas is where people usually take their gifts back: wrong size, wrong shape, wrong colour, made a mistake, simply does not suit, etc. I read somewhere recently how there’s usually over one billion dollars in unwanted gifts; that’s staggering! And what’s more, it never ceases to amaze me how shoppers will wait in line (even in the dark) not even 24 hours after Christmas Day just to grab a bargain on Boxing Day.
But the day after Christmas is also a good day to think about what you’ll do with that big gift you got; you know, the one that fits – the expensive one. The one that’s just right and exactly what you needed. I hope you don’t take that back the original Christmas gift – Jesus! He is God’s gift to you!
Jesus means saviour from sin, and since God in Christ, became one of us, it means he became personally responsible for your mistakes and your wrong doing and mine too. God in Christ came to live and to suffer and die as a human being to take on the punishment that we deserved all because of our sin. That’s why he came, and Jesus is just what you and I needed.
So, what are you going to do with this gift? This saviour? If you ignore Jesus and right off the whole season of Christmas as over-commercialised and just something religious to be celebrated once a year, you’ll have returned the most expensive gift you’ll ever get without even looking it over. If you say, “I don’t need Jesus”, then stop and think how you would feel, if you gave someone a personal, costly gift, only to have them treat it the same way? We should consider again what the angel said, “to you is born a saviour”.
We Remember in Prayer:
† The mission of God’s word, that it may go out to the whole earth.
† The faithful who are aged - that God would keep them in faith and that their example encourages the church.
† That the children of the church would grow in faith and in God's wisdom.
† Married couples who are going through difficult times.
† People who are hurting because of family problems.
† Families in our congregation - that they may learn to pray together.
† People who are waiting on God; the ill, the suffering, the troubled, those who would receive his deliverance.
† Those who are travelling during the Christmas period.
The time after Christmas is where people usually take their gifts back: wrong size, wrong shape, wrong colour, made a mistake, simply does not suit, etc. I read somewhere recently how there’s usually over one billion dollars in unwanted gifts; that’s staggering! And what’s more, it never ceases to amaze me how shoppers will wait in line (even in the dark) not even 24 hours after Christmas Day just to grab a bargain on Boxing Day.
But the day after Christmas is also a good day to think about what you’ll do with that big gift you got; you know, the one that fits – the expensive one. The one that’s just right and exactly what you needed. I hope you don’t take that back the original Christmas gift – Jesus! He is God’s gift to you!
Jesus means saviour from sin, and since God in Christ, became one of us, it means he became personally responsible for your mistakes and your wrong doing and mine too. God in Christ came to live and to suffer and die as a human being to take on the punishment that we deserved all because of our sin. That’s why he came, and Jesus is just what you and I needed.
So, what are you going to do with this gift? This saviour? If you ignore Jesus and right off the whole season of Christmas as over-commercialised and just something religious to be celebrated once a year, you’ll have returned the most expensive gift you’ll ever get without even looking it over. If you say, “I don’t need Jesus”, then stop and think how you would feel, if you gave someone a personal, costly gift, only to have them treat it the same way? We should consider again what the angel said, “to you is born a saviour”.
We Remember in Prayer:
† The mission of God’s word, that it may go out to the whole earth.
† The faithful who are aged - that God would keep them in faith and that their example encourages the church.
† That the children of the church would grow in faith and in God's wisdom.
† Married couples who are going through difficult times.
† People who are hurting because of family problems.
† Families in our congregation - that they may learn to pray together.
† People who are waiting on God; the ill, the suffering, the troubled, those who would receive his deliverance.
† Those who are travelling during the Christmas period.