Newsletter December 2007

Dear friends,

                         Christianity is a religion of redemption. Many of you may be familiar with the story of the Exodus. The people of God were in great trouble in the land of Egypt, their situation seemed hopeless, they were being treated very badly and they cried out in anguish. Some would say they screamed and their cry was heard.  The way that God responds to their despairing cry is quite astonishing. ' I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt,and have heard their cry, I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them'. God gets involved with people in their pain and in their plight. He comes down in person and power to rescue and redeem them - to give them a new and a better life.

 

Our world is crying out in pain and in anguish. Wars and suffering afflict many. Children are without bread, but violent men never seem short of bullets or bombs! If God is there - he must surely see! If God really cares - he must do something.

 

This may surprise you - but God has already responded. He has seen - he has heard and he has come down to earth in the person of his Son Jesus Christ.

 

He came down to earth from heaven, who is God and Lord of all:

And his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall:

With the poor and mean and lowly - lived on earth our Saviour holy.

 

God in Jesus became vulnerable,visible,audible,available and touchable!

Jesus entered into every aspect of human experience - poverty,pain,and suffering.

He experienced in his own body and soul the pain of rejection,loneliness and death.

Jesus came as a baby,born in Bethlehem,he died like a criminal on a Roman cross.

 

This may also surprise you - through the death of Jesus you can be redeemed from sin and rescued from evil. God has intervened in the person of his Son. Salvation is by faith in Jesus. Believing in Jesus brings joy to the human heart and peace into the human soul.

 

We wish you true peace over Christmas and in the New Year.

Eddie Jones (Pastor)