Month: December 2025

My power throughout the universe displayed, yet You gave Your Son to die for me, I scarce can take it in.

“ I have always been for you, even in the darkest hours, My attitude is one of love demonstrating it through My grace to each person I have created. Yet there are many who have turned their backs on me and ignore me. Now, at the beginning of a New Year, My power and my love are focused on all those who have responded to that love. So, no matter what obstacles and difficulties you may encounter this coming year, remember I am a good God and if I am for you who can be against you effectively. I have demonstrated this in giving my Son to die on a cross – I am fully committed to the point of death.”

As the prospect of a new year opens up before us, I have decided to share Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1:9-14 that I used for my sermon on Sunday with you all, as it seems so appropriate and immediate for each one of us.

Firstly Paul brackets the prayer with a description of the gospel in vv 13,14, which he has mentioned earlier, The prayer is aimed at asking God to help each one of us to live the authentic Christian life and he wants to remind us that we cannot live this life authentically unless we are true Christians. He speaks about power in the prayer and that power is only available through the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, once we are born again.

He starts the prayer, with a plea for knowledge. Knowledge which is not merely book knowledge, or head knowledge, but knowledge which is accompanied by wisdom and understanding, iow heart knowledge. This type of knowledge very definitely requires the input and presence of His Spirit. Furthermore in vs 10 he returns to the theme of knowledge saying that true Christianity is always accompanied by a growing knowledge.

Now friends, we can ask God to help us acquire knowledge but we need to do our share in this. We need to seek knowledge. To place ourselves in the position to receive that knowledge. The main source of the knowledge God is speaking about is His word and the onus is on us to continue to grow in our understanding of his word. A real challenge for this coming year.

He then prays that we may live a life, worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every good work. Notice he doesn’t lay out a list of rules to follow. he is speaking of a way of life. That way of life, to be pleasing to God must arise from our ongoing dynamic relationship with Him. it starts at the beginning of the day by having the right attitude to God and His kingdom work. It is fostered by spending time in prayer and reading His word at the start of every day. If we are listening to Him he will lead us to the good works he mentions here.

The sign of a true Christian life is not how many meetings you attend or books you read, but in the fruit you bear. Real Christianity is always demonstrated by fruit. Your changed life must impact others in the community. Some may be physically limited, but even they may pray and encourage.

Then we come to the real heart of the prayer. He prays for power for each Christian. Not a power to do miracles but a power to endure hardship with patience and demonstrating joy. It is easy to be joyful when everything is going well. But when the storm clouds come up, we need the full power of His glorious might to be able to endure the storm with patience, joyfully. This joy is not a frothy joy, just a deep sense of peace and love for God even in the darkest valley.

To be able to do that it is easier if you regularly practice by giving thanks in all things on a daily, if not moment by moment basis.

So friends, thank you for enduring by staying with me in the blog this past year and as we go into the new year. Here is my challenge to each of you. Make it a practice to start each day, as you wake up, with thanksgiving and to end it by using your last words in thanksgiving again before you go to sleep. And persevere with this the whole year. May God bless you all into 2026.

It’s almost as if, in a way the world has become hushed, as it gets ready to remember the beginning of the most important event of all time.

”I am gathering the thoughts of My people who really care, together so that there will be a new and powerful impetus taking My kingdom forward. So many are involved with side issues though and have lost the sense of urgency that should prevail as you all wait for My return. To many of my children, to My sadness, this is something they rarely contemplate and act on. Continue to make the spread of My gospel your priority at all times and especially now on the day that has been chosen as My birthday, so that many, many new people can experience My love which remains the same powerful force which launched the life of My son Jesus.”

Last week we remembered Jesus as the baby destined to become the most powerful King of all time. Let us today become quiet and contemplate the fact that our king is a king that is totally humble. He does not force himself on anyone and acts by serving rather than ordering. Start by reading the well-known passage in Luke 2::8-20.

Who would have thought of an entry into the world like this. First the fact that there was no room for Him. Priority would normally be given to make room for the arrival of an important figure like a king. Being laid in a feeding trough as a cradle, He commences His life as the lowest of the low. Then the great announcement of His arrival is given to a group of shepherds out in the fields.

Not the religious hierarchy or the politically important. In this way He was identifying with the lowliest people, on their own level. No ordinary king would have done that. No wonder people had such difficulty in identifying Him as the expected Messiah.

And so his whole life has shown this topsy-turvy upside down route, focussing on statements like the first shall be last and the last shall be first. And, of course His signal statement in Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many”. Being in very substance God but not claiming the rights to that position.

Considering this amazing picture there is no room for ourselves to have pride and think of ourselves as any better than anyone else. We can and should just be so happy to serve like our Master did and is still doing.

May all you dear people have a blessed Christmas, and do pray for our outreach service on Christmas morning, as we seek to share the gospel with whoever God brings in to us.

The king is coming, the king has already come, yet He is coming again.

”You are understanding the position of the world, of My creation. I have come – as a helpless baby, born in the most menial environment, dying in shame and disgrace. Many have said and will say – is that really a king? Can that be the King? The time is coming soon when all doubt will be removed and I will appear in all My glory. Every important person, king, ruler, Pope, judge, whoever, will have vanished and my glory will fill the world instead. So be patient – enjoy the foretaste of My Kingly rule as you celebrate My first coming at this time.”

As Christmas rushes up on us, I have decided to look at the passage I am going to preach on on Christmas Day today. So please read Colossians 1:15-22. I will be focusing on the potential that was wrapped up in the little, helpless baby, born under the most menial conditions. I believe many people will be stuck on the baby part and miss the fact that this was only the beginning, a most inauspicious beginning.

There are 4 things I will be emphasizing.

1 He was and is God: vs 15 “He is the image of the invisible God. Vs 19, God was pleased to have all His fulness dwell in Him.” When this truth first hit me it changed who I was. Jesus, not just a great and holy person, but actually God Himself, in human flesh.

2. He created all things and sustains all things. Note the repetition of all, 6 times. This means from the furthest galaxies, thousands of light years away down to the tiniest atom or particle present here on earth. (As an aside, are you aware that each tiny atom is a picture of the stellar system, a nucleus with particles rotating around it?) Notice also in vs 17 In Him all things hold together. He is holding the strings of the whole world together. Nothing is out of His control!

3. Twice He is called the Firstborn vss 15, 18 This doesn’t refer to some sort of birth, it refers to His position of authority. He has authority, firstly over all creation and secondly of the “body, the church.vs 18.” Our church does not have a Pope or bishop or head of Synod as its head. There is only one head and that is Jesus Himself. We are made part of that only because we have been born into it, not by choice of membership.

4. What did He come to do? He came with a specific purpose – “to reconcile all things to God, whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross” vs 20. He has dealt with our alienation and enmity to God and brought us into a relationship, based on His bodily death on the cross. Vv 21-22.

Friends, as you read this passage it should shine and sparkle like the most beautiful jewel and fill you with absolute wonder. What a God we serve. I do so pray that every person who will be at our service next Thursday will catch a bit of a glimpse of who this little baby really was and is and that it will transform their lives. Will you all pray that God will make His word come alive at that service. God bless, till next week.

I will trust in You alone and Your endless mercies will follow me and lead me home.

“That Is what I desire from you, complete trust. I have put Myself out there and demonstrated My power, wisdom, love and grace in so many ways, even sending My Son to the Earth so you could see and meet Me in the form of a person. Yet all the time My actions and emotions towards you have been unseen – operating in the heavenly realms – so it calls on you to trust – to trust in that which I have told you about in My word and to give yourself completely to Me, in love to serve and follow Me till you join Me in glory. Make the most use of this advent season to share your solid belief in Me with others who will benefit from it.”

We read the short but very important piece in Romans 3:27-31 today. The subject of the law comes up again. Now remember last week we were told that God has given us a righteousness through the work of Jesus on the cross. Vs 24 emphasised that this justification came freely by his grace. Surely then it is obvious that there is no other way to acquire God’s righteousness than to receive it as a gift by faith? So what is the problem?

The Jewish believers had, for centuries believed that they could attain righteousness by following the law. So the law was held up as the means to entry and citizenship of God’s kingdom. We know in retrospect that it is impossible to keep the law to the perfection that Jesus did. The Jewish believers that would receive the letter of Paul in Rome however would still feel that the law plays a vital role in making them righteous.

What is the problem with adding a bit of their ability to keep the law to making or keeping them righteous? The problem lies in the little word boasting. You see obtaining the righteousness God gives focuses on Him and Jesus completely. Any contribution they may have felt they had made by keeping the law makes Jesus work and God’s grace void. If they feel they are succeeding in adding to God’s righteousness by obeying the law it could lead to them boasting that their effort had supplemented His grace, effectively nullifying it. Paul uses the same argument in Ephesians 2:8,9: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works lest we should boast.

But what does this have to do with us, we are not Jews? Our culture is so steeped in God’s law that every one of us is aware of at least certain aspects of it. The older generation was very focused on keeping the law as a way of life. Unfortunately often missing the real point, like focussing on keeping the Sabbath, instead of building relationships based on love. The danger lies in a subtle mindset that says that keeping the law makes us more acceptable to God. If we manage to perform according to the standards we have set for ourselves in our own minds we are ready to pat ourselves on the back, if we fail we feel awful, a failure and condemned by God. It is so important to focus on God and the completely free gift He gives through faith and not to rely on our own performance at all.

Is it not important to keep the law then you may ask? Of course we need to keep God’s law especially as it is redefined by Jesus. But we do that as a response to God’s love and acceptance of us in Jesus, not to try and gain His approval and perhaps make our salvation more certain. The focus should always be on God and His Son Jesus, not ourselves and our ability to keep the law, lest we may boast. We either serve God completely or mammon.

God bless till next week as Christmas approaches expectantly.

Oh mighty Cross! His sacrifice on Calvary has made that mighty cross a tree of life for me.

”Life – life In its abundance – true life is what I chose to bring to a world dying in its own squalor of sin. Against that dark background I raised a cross – a cross on which hung my beloved Son, His blood streaming down as He took the burden of the world’s sin upon Himself. That cross had and still has the power to bring life, true life to everyone who would look up at it and call out to Me. My promise is confirmed by the sight of an empty tomb 3 days later. In the same way I will give eternal life to everyone who believes. In the meantime there is abundant life in Me here on Earth as you wait and hope for eternity.”

Today’s passage – Roman’s 3:21 -26, is perhaps the clearest description of what Christ did on the cross in the whole of Scripture.

Let us take a step back to 1:17, the great statement of the gospel by Paul at the beginning of his discussion. It is all about righteousness. (For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last.) For two and a half chapters Paul has shown how every person on earth is unrighteous. So the question is, “How do we become righteous”? Paul’s sneak preview in 1:17 is that there is a righteousness from God which has been revealed. We now come back to that statement in 3:21.

That righteousness is apart from the law and has now been made known V 21. Secondly it is from God Himself but comes to us through faith in Jesus to all who believe v 22. Remember 1:17; the righteousness that is promised is by faith from first to last.

Then Paul reiterates the universal need “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. But now they have been justified. (The word for justified is the same as righteous, in other words to be justified is simply to be made righteous) v 23. This comes as a free gift by God’s grace v 24.

It is so important to grasp the concept of God’s grace at this point. Nothing we have done or can do affects how God applies His work to us – it is truly free depending on His huge attitude of love towards all of us. Our part is simply to believe and receive.

Now the key verses: (24,25) we are made righteous by an act of redemption (this is a transactional statement that Jesus has bought our freedom through His death) which came as a result of God’s act of presenting Jesus as a sacrifice on the altar of the cross. Now the NIV uses the word “atonement” which does not carry the full power of the Greek word which means “propitiation”. Propitiation is powerful word describing a turning away of the wrath of God from us onto Jesus. V 25.

Now comes the great revelation. The next vv show how God has always had this method in mind in dealing with those who had faith in Him in the past. There is only one way to receive God’s righteousness and those who died before Jesus’ life and death on earth were also all forgiven in anticipation of Jesus’ death in the future. He has always been just and this is the only way of giving His righteousness to any human being. This goes a long way to explaining what happened to all the saints in the Old Testament.

Now notice, this righteousness is imputed to us. In other words it is placed as a description of our state in the eyes of God. It is not necessarily a description of how we will live our lives from that moment on. The aim of God is that we start learning to live righteous lives from then on and the rest of Roman’s is going to help us understand what that means.

We can only marvel. Our plight is as black as the night until the morning sun rises with Jesus to bring our redemption and not only freedom and forgiveness, but full membership of God’s family, adopted as sons and daughters for all eternity. Wow!

God bless you all as you enjoy this advent season in anticipation of Christmas day.