So this is Christmas - tinsel, presents, food, holidays but most of all, hopefully most of all, for Christians it’s about Jesus. God’s gift of a Saviour to a lost world. He is our hope, our forgiveness, our salvation. Imagine the world without Him, imagine your life without Him….

Jesus gives life, meaning and purpose, He brings us into a right relationship with a holy God, whose just and righteous wrath against sin must be satisfied. God’s call to each of us is to have faith in Jesus, to believe in Him that His substitutionary death on Calvary’s cross might make us right in God’s sight.

My prayer for you this Christmas season is that you might have personal experience of knowing God and be right with Him by believing in His Son, Jesus Christ. This, above all else, is the true meaning of life and God’s intended purpose at Christmas.

To all those holidaying and travelling we pray you will have a safe and restful holiday. We look forward to all that 2010 has for us as a church.  In January we will have a sermon series that focuses on God’s desire for relationship with each of us as His creation. No matter who we are or what we’ve done, God wants to restore us to relationship with Himself.

Our service times over the Christmas period are as follows:

• Christmas Eve 7pm
• Christmas Day 9am
• Sunday 27^th 10am (no evening service)
• January 10am & 6pm

May you enjoy God’s richest blessing at Christmas and may His plans for your life continue to be revealed throughout 2010.

Brian.

Our sermon series, “How To Sin & Get Away With It” has now concluded and this week we begin a much briefer but very important follow up series called, “How To Be Forgiven Because We Can’t Get Away With It.” (How’s that for a succinct series title?) The fact is, we can be deceived into thinking our “secret” or “respectable” sins are not so bad compared to the more “serious” sins of others. God is offended by all sin however, no matter whether we categorise some sins as being more serious than others. Hopefully our recent series has helped to highlight the reality and seriousness of all sin.

So when we recognise our sin what do we do? How can we be forgiven? Thankfully God doesn’t just point out our sin then leave us to wallow in self condemnation and guilt - not at all! He has graciously and mercifully provided us with a Saviour, whose long awaited arrival changed for all time the reality and permanence of God’s just forgiveness. Through Jesus Christ we can be forgiven and experience the freedom and joy of knowing and walking with God.

The provision of a Saviour, in Jesus Christ, is God’s grand plan of salvation for the human race. It is a plan that has taken millennia to unfold and be fully revealed. Amazingly we live in a time when we can look back on God’s purposes throughout history and His trail of raising up prophet after prophet who have spoken of and given clues to the identity of the coming Saviour. We have the privilege of being able to follow those clues, and recognise the Saviour’s final arrival in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago.

A couple of things become very evident when we reflect upon God’s provision of a Saviour. One is that God loves us dearly, more than we can fully comprehend. The second observation we can make from God’s grand plan of salvation is that God is certainly not in a hurry. All is done according to His will and His timing - not ours. When you are eternal time has much less significance.

I encourage you to reflect in this Christmas season on the wonder of God’s plan of salvation and the provision of His Son our Saviour. The privileges we enjoy as Christians know no bounds and all because He loves us so much.

Forgiven in Jesus,

Brian

I’ve noticed there has been a rumour going around that I recently had a birthday. Some have congratulated me on turning 60 but I thought 40 was closer to the truth. I rang my mum just to clarify my age but being 95 she couldn’t quite recall? Some, acting on the rumour, were quite insensitive to my circumstance and sent me disturbing cards reminding me that I had entered a new phase of life called old age and becoming a senior. I am still in denial about the whole experience and can’t wait for Christmas to have something else to think about and celebrate because I see nothing celebratory, if it’s true, in being half a century old! Just as well I’m not a grandfather because then I’d really be having a crisis!

Hilery was however sensitive to my circumstance and secretly, at least to me, organised a surprise holiday for my ‘special’ birthday - a week in Bali. It was a great week away, very relaxing and refreshing. Bali is certainly a beautiful country with magnificent coastal scenery and friendly, relaxed people. It took us a while to unwind but when we did the only effort required was to ride our scooter to another restaurant on the beach for a $3 meal of fresh prawns or steamed fish in banana leaves followed by an hour massage or a sleep by the pool. Ah what a life, maybe getting old is not so bad if we get to do this more often!

There’s always a downside to a holiday however as the airline pilot implied as we touched down in Adelaide, “welcome back to reality.” Our reality here in Adelaide is very rewarding however so it is good to be back and I am looking forward to church on Sunday and the privilege to fully and freely worship our great God with our church family.

One thing that I did not enjoy on holiday was the predominance of idol worship with small offerings being made to various gods. The small offering parcels of food, in specially made flax baskets, were left everyday and everywhere; in doorways, on the footpath, on the road and on the beach. Our reality of believing in the One, true and living God is incomparable and a privilege worthy of our deepest devotion.

Considering early retirement,

Brian