Today’s song is a very familiar and much-loved carol: ‘Joy To The World’. This is a typically Rend Collective quirky video, with Christmas jumpers and props galore! The truth, however, that Jesus is our joy is one we need to keep with us at all times. So many people feel that Christmas ‘is the season to be jolly‘, without necessarily having any reason to be jolly! For them, the pressure to be happy at a particular time of year is stressful. The joy that God gives us is not at all the same as artificial manufactured jollity, nor is it the same as transient happiness.

Christian joy is rooted in who God is and in what He has done: ‘Joy to the world, the Lord is come!’ Our joy remembers the historical facts of our faith and looks forward to the fulfilment God has promised, secure in the fact that God does not change and therefore ‘if the joy-producing acts of God are characteristic of our past as God’s people , they will also be characteristic of our future as His people.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Journey’, P 85) Joy can co-exist even with hardship, troubles, heartache and difficulties. Many people find Christmas difficult because the commercialised happiness promoted as the expected norm at this time of year is so alien to their everyday experiences. For God’s people, however, Christmas fills us with joy because we remember that we who had no hope of ever making it to God have been handed a lifeline, the arrival of God Himself into our world. Laughter and hope become our experience as we realise we’re not on our own. Our God rules the world with truth and grace; He is still firmly in control. He is our joy!

The Disney hit film ‘Frozen’ features the song ‘Do you want to build a snowman?’ Mark looked at the subject of snowmen last night:

We saw the tallest snowman (122ft 1 inch):

… and the smallest (created in a laboratory):We looked at happy snowmen:

… and ones that were not so happy!

Mark reminded us that there are certain similarities between us and snowmen. We are both unique. Each snowflake is different, so each snowman is different and that is the same with all people. No two people are totally alike, not even identical twins!

All snowmen are built and designed by someone. We too are designed by God the Creator. We are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps 139:14). Nonetheless, we wouldn’t expect to see a red snowman! Is 1:18 reminds us that our sins are red like scarlet, but God can make us as white as snow. As we ask for forgiveness, He is able to wash us and make us clean (Ps 51:1-7) so that our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west. (Ps 103:12) As we consider the crisp whiteness of snow or the beautiful whiteness of clean laundry, let’s remember that God can make us pure and clean and give us a fresh start with Him.

Once December arrives, people start getting into the festive spirit!

Our family service last night looked at the theme ‘Whiter Than Snow.’ This included a quiz all about cleaning products, where we had to identify key brands or finish slogans to do with cleaning products (Mr Sheen, Fairy Liquid etc.)

The prizes were suitably relevant: Diane’s feather duster (above) and other cleaning products to ensure Christmas remains a spotless affair at home!

We also had to name the Christmas songs which featured snow in their lyrics. How many could you name?! Songs included ‘Let It Snow’, ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and ‘In The Bleak Midwinter.’

This morning’s sermon from 2 Pet 1:3-9 continued the theme begun in our Bible studies about how it is God’s life within us which overcomes the world (see 1 John 5:4-5). As Paul says elsewhere (2 Cor 5:14-21), we are new creations in Christ Jesus and whatever our biological or natural DNA (where our old nature is tainted by Adam’s sin, as Paul makes clear in Rom 5:12), He has made Christ who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. As a result, He is offering us His own nature, allowing us to be stamped with that divine nature and transformed from the inside out so that we have everything we need to live a godly life, to escape the corruption of the world and to overcome the world by our faith in Him.

God’s nature involves all the attributes which make Him who He is. He is omniscient; He knows everything. (Ps 139:1-6; Job 42:2; Acts 2:23; 1 Tim 1:17) He is omnipotent, all-powerful. (Gen 17:1; 35:11; Rom 13:1; 1 Tim 6:15; Rev 19:6) He is omnipresent – everywhere at once, not restricted to time or space. (Mk 5:10; Jude 6; Rev 20:1-3; 1 Ki 8:27; 2 Chron 2:6; 6:18; Isa 66:1; Acts 7:49; 17:27-28; Ps 139:7-13) He does not change (Mal 3:6) and although He is invisible (Ex 33:20; 1 John 4:12; Col 1:15, 1 Tim 6:16), He chooses to reveal Himself to us (chiefly through Jesus, see John 1:18) so that we know many things about His character. God is love (1 John 4:4, 8), merciful and compassionate (Ps 103:8), good (Rom 2:4, Ps 119:68). holy and righteous (1 Pet 1:16, Job 37:17, Ps 129:4) God is just and always does the right thing. (Is 45:21, Gen 18:25) We can depend on His faithfulness, for Paul reminds us that ‘if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.’ (2 Tim 2:13)

As we grow spiritually, the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) is manifested in our lives, reflecting God’s nature. The list of qualities in 2 Pet 1:5-7 also reflects what God is like, but we do not ‘buy’ these qualities from a shop or strive to become ‘good’ in our own strength. Instead, we enter into partnership with God, whereby we receive by faith all that He gives us and all He requires from us is our trust and obedience. When we believe in Christ, a divine exchange takes place. Our natural DNA is replaced, so to speak, with God’s DNA. ‘Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God.’ (2 Pet 1:3, The Message) John reminds us  ‘If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.’ (1 John 4:15-16) As we allow God to live within us, His life flows through our veins and He is able to shape the kind of people we are and the kind of people we become, not limited by our own imperfections or weaknesses, but shaped by His divine nature.

The truth of Christmas can be summed up in the title of today’s song: ‘God has come to earth.’ No other religion has this momentous truth! – they have prophets and holy men, gurus and mentors, but only Christianity talks of God actually becoming man: not simply visiting earth, as the Greek gods did according to legend, but actually taking on human flesh: ‘clothed in a garb of flesh and blood’, as the song says. The song takes this theme and incorporates the chorus of ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ as our response to all that God has done!

‘All praise to You, eternal Lord,

Clothed in a garb of flesh and blood,

You chose the manger for Your throne,

While worlds on worlds are Yours alone.

Once here the skies before You bow

A virgin’s arms cradle You now

And angels who in You rejoice

Now listen for Your infant voice.

They sing ‘Glory in the highest’,

For there’s no other name by which we can be saved.

Glory in the highest.

Heaven and earth forever will proclaim,

‘God has come to earth.’

O little child, You are our guest,

That weary ones in You may rest.

Forlorn and lowly is Your birth

That we may rise to heaven from earth.

O come let us adore Him.

O come let us adore Him.

O come let us adore Him.

O come let us adore Him.’ (‘God Has Come To Earth’, Aaron Shust)

Last night was the ‘Churches Together’ community carol service at the parish church in Goldthorpe. Our church – minus several members who were ill – provided the music for the evening and setting up the instruments and projector screen is always a challenge!

The service began outside in the darkness, symbolising our journey from darkness to light (Is 9:6-7).

Members of the Salvation Army represented Mary and Joseph’s journey with baby Jesus:

During the service, Alison from the Salvation Army spoke about the message of hope we have. Each person was invited to write their hopes and prayers on a gift tag which was then hung on a Christmas tree, which will travel around the local churches during December so that we can pray for all these requests. A collection at the end of the service raised £88.16, which will be divided equally between the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal and the missionary work of the Maris Convent.

This was the final ‘Churches Together’ event of this year, but as we look back on all God had done through these gatherings and on the excellent relationships being developed between local churches – people from the parish church in Barnburgh and the Methodist churches in Bolton-on-Dearne and Great Houghton attended, along with people from the Goldthorpe parish church, Salvation Army and Pentecostal church and the Maris convent in Goldthorpe – we are grateful for all that God is doing in our local area and look forward with eager anticipation to the next ‘Churches Together’ meeting on Saturday 17th January at 7 p.m. at Furlong Road Methodist Church.