Stephen spoke this morning on the gift of giving, looking at the shepherds and wise men who brought their gifts and worship to the baby Jesus (Luke 2:15-20, Matt 1:1-2). We often think about giving at Christmas because of these gifts, but really God was the ultimate Giver in giving us Jesus. Paul reminds us that giving should be done generously and not grudgingly, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7) and in giving us Jesus (that ‘indescribable gift‘), we can then have access to all that Jesus gives (hope, love, security, peace, new life, eternal life and so on.) Jesus is effectively God’s total package!

James reminds us that God is a generous giver (see James 1:2-17) and we know that whatever we need, God can and will supply. All His gifts are highly personalised! At Christmas, we think a lot about giving (and receiving), but the shepherds and wise men did not come expecting anything in return. We too need to learn to give as generously and selflessly as they did, for Jesus is God’s ongoing gift – the gift that keeps on giving.

One of the things we forget in our Western obsession to create the ‘perfect’ Christmas for our families is that God is kind. He is not the slave-driver we sometimes make Him out to be, and He is certainly not the one demanding spotlessly clean houses, gourmet-cooked meals four times a day for a whole week, hours of entertainment for all the family and argument-free households! Sometimes, we need to press the ‘pause’ button and relax.

God made the Sabbath for us as a reminder that there’s more to life than work. We need rest, recuperation and time to be with Him. God knows who we are; He knows how we are made. (Ps 103:14-18) As we approach the Christmas holidays, let’s remember that God is kind and rest in that kindness.

Have you ever wondered where the tradition of giving gifts at Christmas originated? Maybe you’re in that frantic state today of having to buy all your Christmas presents on this mad Saturday before Christmas and you wish that no one had ever started the tradition of exchanging gifts. It can be so very difficult finding the right gift for the right person at the right price. Many of us feel overwhelmed before we even start. We want to be whimsical and original, but in our consumer-driven society, it can all just feel too much.

We give gifts ultimately because Christmas is about the biggest gift of all: ‘thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!’ (2 Cor 9:15) God gave Jesus to us: the perfect gift. Gratitude for gifts is not difficult if we receive something we really want or need, and Jesus is the perfect gift to us.

If you don’t find that perfect gift for Great Aunt Lizzie today, don’t fret too much. We often place unreasonable expectations on our shoulders and are sucked into the consumer lie that Christmas is all about presents. It is in some ways: it’s all about the present God gave us in His Son. All the other gifts are nowhere near as important as that.

It’s always good to get updates from the children we support in other countries. This month, we have had letters from Bedline in Haiti (who will be 10 in 2020) and from Innocent in Uganda.

Bedline asks for our prayers for the forthcoming year, especially for her progress at school. She talks about the weather in Haiti, which is a mixture of rain and dry weather.

Innocent (who is 15) writes of his interest in sport (basketball and baseball) and dancing. He talks about new teachers at school and their celebrations of Independence Day on 9th October.

Please continue to pray for these young people, and for Amshika in India, and don’t forget to continue to save change and give donations to help pay for their schooling and healthcare.

Have you ever had a bad day? Some days start badly (the alarm clock fails to go off; you oversleep; it’s a constant rush from the minute you get up) and then progress from bad to worse (everything seems to break down; the milk is off; the car won’t start; the kids are arguing). Some days seem like a nightmare from which you cannot wake up.

Most of us are familiar with that scenario, but the good news is that God never has a bad day! God never gets grumpy or irritable. He is never exhausted from lack of sleep or worn down by squabbling. He is never moody or capricious. God never changes, and because of this, we can face today with a sense of relief and security and stability. No matter what goes wrong, no matter who shouts at us, no matter how bad the news gets, we can rest secure in God’s unfailing love and know that His mercies are new every morning. (Lam 3:22-23)

Acts 8:26-40 gives us an overview of the gospel, though it is described very briefly as ‘the good news about Jesus.’ (Acts 8:35) Philip starts with explaining the verses the eunuch was reading from Isaiah 53, showing us the importance of Scripture in explaining the gospel. Scripture is the foundation on which we build and makes us wise for salvation (see 2 Tim 3:15). He obviously covers a great deal in his conversation, because when the eunuch sees water, he stops the chariot and asks to be baptised. (Acts 8:36) This is another record of water baptism in the early church, and in this instance, the fact that he went down into the water and then came up out of the water (Acts 8:38-39) gives us more details about what form baptism took.

In our church, we baptise those who believe in Jesus Christ by full immersion. Going down into the water represents Christ’s death for us and thus the removal of our sins and rising up from the water represents Christ’s resurrection and victory over sin and death (see Rom 6:3-14). We long to see more people baptised, because this is part of the fulfilment of the Great Commission. It’s telling that even in this relatively short encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, so much theological ground is covered. May we be as effective in communicating the good news as Philip was!