Having looked at many of the battles in the Old Testament which can teach us so much about living a life of faith, today’s message looked at the fact God is a God of blessings too! Ps 115:12-13 reminds us that God’s natural inclination is to bless, and in the NIV the verb ‘bless’ features 389 times and the noun ‘blessing’ 94 times, vividly illustrating the fact that every good and perfect gift comes from our Father in heaven (see James 1:17). For many of us, however, the battles of life and the difficulties we face at times make us question God’s goodness and love. Sometimes we have absorbed wrong ideas about God, believing He is ‘out to get us’, willing us to fail. Charlie Cleverly says, ‘Many feel uncertain and find that they have developed a kind of Achilles’ heel in this area, so need daily doses of realisation of the constant covenant love and good intentions of God for them.’ (‘Epiphanies of the Ordinary’, P 130)

Achilles was a Greek warrior who was full of valour and strength and loyalty… but who had one point of weakness, his heel. The story goes that his mother wanted to make him immortal and so dipped him into the river Styx, which would supposedly ensure he would live forever; unfortunately, she did not realise that the heel with which she held him as she dipped him did not get covered by the waters and so this became his vulnerable point, the place where he could be defeated. Ultimately, in the Trojan War, despite all his courage and skill, Achilles was killed by Paris, the brother of Hector, whose poisoned arrow landed in his heel, the only part of his body which was mortal, and he died. We can be like Achilles in many ways: strong in so many areas, brave in so many regards, and yet vulnerable in this one area when it comes to believing God is who He says He is.

The Bible makes it clear that God is for us, that He is on our side (see Rom 8:31-32). Eph 1:3 affirms that God has blessed us in the spiritual realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus – not a future blessing, but something He has already done. Our task is to learn to have confidence in who God is, to define blessing in Biblical ways and to focus on what God has already done for us so that we can enter into the blessings and victories He has for us. We need to spend more time looking at God than we do at our problems and have our vision and attitudes shaped by the truths we find in God’s Word.

Advent is the time in the Christian calendar when we ponder the mystery of Christ’s arrival in Bethlehem, when we meditate on the mystery of Almighty God taking on human skin and leaving the glory and majesty of heaven to come to a smelly stable as a screaming baby (those of you who know me know I struggle to identify with the little Lord Jesus who made no crying, as I had a son who screamed the place down for quite a few months when he was born and cannot believe in the myth of a perfectly silent baby!) It’s a time when Christians pause from the frenetic busyness of modern life to gaze at the stories we have concerning this arrival of life to a fairly obscure town at a frantically busy time of year (a gathering for the Roman census) and marvel at God’s planning, precision and provision. It’s a time when, as we shop as though there will never be another opportunity to do so and party as though there’s nothing else to do, we need to stop and take stock of God’s ways of doing things, which, as Isaiah reminds us, are vastly different to ours. (Is 55:8-9)

Over the next few days, therefore, I will be doing my Advent musings here, and, thanks to a prayer meeting Garry led at the beginning of last month when he challenged us to pray for our country and spoke about abortion in particular, I will be thinking particularly about the sanctity of life. Christmas is, after all, about the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We cannot celebrate His birth without thinking about birth in general, and this year, I shall be thinking very specifically about my granddaughter’s birth, on Christmas Eve 2016. There’s nothing quite like a birthday in December for connecting the dots about life in general and eternal life in particular! This birth was special, as all births are, partly because my granddaughter shares her birthday with my father, her great-grandfather, and so there is a sense in which life cycles have been very much on my mind lately. As I thought about my grandmother welcoming her son into life a month early on Christmas Eve 1940 and waited impatiently throughout the day for my granddaughter’s arrival at 7.38 p.m. last December, I have also been thinking about Mary, waiting for this treasure, conceived by the Holy Spirit (Matt 1:20, Luke 1:35). May we too unearth treasure this Christmas, not in the shops or parties we attend, but in the person of our Lord Jesus.

Alan has taken some wonderful photos from Friday:

Inside the church building, it was a busy time too!

The hot chocolates were very popular!

Stall holders working hard:

Biscuit decorations were popular with the children:

Despite it only being November, people were wearing Christmas attire!

Black Friday is now over and the race to buy Christmas gifts has started in earnest, but that makes us question why Christmas is so important (and why giving gifts is so associated with that celebration.) Dave spoke tonight on John 3:16, one of the most famous verses in the whole Bible. Salespeople use superlatives and hyperbole all the time to sell their products, but it is no exaggeration to say that God’s gift of Jesus is the greatest possible gift.

1. The Greatest Possible Love – God’s love is divine love, not fallible like human love, but perfect, pure and holy. His love is all-encompassing, reaching everyone. He hates sin, but loves the sinner and loves everyone in the world.
2. The Greatest Possible Gift – in giving His one and only Son, God gave the greatest possible gift (Gal 4:4, 2 Cor 9:15). Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being (Heb 1:3) and the very best that God could give. Matt 21:33-46 reflects the heartache it cost God to have His Son killed by those He came to save, but God’s love for the world meant this was a willing sacrifice.
3. The Greatest Possible Plan – we are saved by believing in God’s Son, and this is encouraging since we all know how to believe and trust to some extent, and therefore the means of salvation is available to all people. We do not need to pay for salvation or earn it through good works; instead by believing we cross from death to life. (Jn 5:24)
4. The Greatest Possible Deliverance – God’s gift is so that we do not perish, a word that is used in Matt 5:29 to describe an eye plucked out or in Matt 7:25 to describe drowning or in Matt 9:57 to describe wineskins bursting or Matt 2:13 to describe murder. Perishing in the natural sense of the word is not pleasant, but in the spiritual realm, it describes separation from God and an eternity in hell. 2 Pet 3:9 reminds us that God does not want anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance. God’s deliverance promises us both immediate and eternal safety.
5. The Greatest Possible Possession – we are not only promised protection from perishing, but can receive God’s gift of everlasting life. This life is remarkable in quantity (it is unending!) but also in quality, for we have access to the life of God (1 Jn 5:12).

Stephen spoke this morning from Phil 1:3-11, reflecting on mistakes he had made during the week which turned out to be sermon illustrations today! New light bulbs fitted in his lounge were ‘daylight’ mode and turned out to be extremely bright – indicative, perhaps, of how we are called to shine brightly for God, reflecting His light to others. Paul’s prayer for the Philippians highlights two key factors needed if we are to continue growing and progressing in our Christian journey instead of stagnating and remaining static. We need both passion and infection!

We are called to be passionate people, passionate for God’s honour and glory and passionate in our prayers for other Christians. We are also called to be infectious people, spreading God’s love wherever we go. Far from being seen negatively, God wants His love to so infect us that we cannot keep it to ourselves. Paul prays for the Philippians’ knowledge of God’s love to ‘abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight‘. All knowledge, insight, strength, growth and fruitfulness ultimately come from the extent to which we receive and nurture God’s love within us. The power of love is indeed a force from above, but it is a force that needs to burn within us so that we can make forward progress, moving forwards within God’s love, and spreading the word of this love to the whole world.

As the photos show, it was a busy time inside GPCC yesterday! We are grateful for all the volunteers from different churches who gave so freely of their time and money to put on such a great variety of stalls and activities and for all their support of the event. You’re brill!

Congratulations to Abbie, who won the food hamper. She was the closest to guessing its value (£62.99).