No.13 - Blessings to all

Hark! the herald angels sing, Glory to the new-born King.

Verse of the Week

"I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed"

Genesis 26:4

Thousands of years ago God promised Abraham and then here his son Isaac, to bless all the nations of the earth. What an incredible promise. God didn't just promise to show favour to one specific group of people. He promised to bring blessing to all the nations of the earth. What a gracious God we have. And praise the Lord we can see, even more clearly than Abraham and Isaac, how God has brought and will bring blessing to all nations through Christ.

Encouragements

I have been really encouraged to hear about how God has been working on different members of our Church family throughout their lives. It has been such an encouragement to see how God has kept them trusting in him despite many challenges.

Earlier this week I had the joy of spending some time reflecting on the power, gentleness and happiness of Christ with a member of our church. If was just an encouragement to see more of Christ's glorious character.

This week has also been filled with rather a lot of carols. It has been a real blessing to have our spirits lifted and hearts warmed by some of the incredible truths we have been able to sing throughout this week.

A Little Update

Here are a few things we've been up to and some of what we've got coming up.

The Past Week

• Enjoyed meeting up to encourage members of our church family

• Sunday mornings - Helping with JTD Kids

• Lead a group of men in studying a Christian book

• 17th Dec - I spent some time helping an our evangelistic Tots Group

• Spent an evening studying a christian book together

• 18th Dec - Youth Ministries planning meeting

• 19th Dec - Last Christianity Explored Evening

• 21st Dec - Led our Church Carol Service

The Next Few Weeks

• Meeting up to encourage members of our church family

• 22nd Dec - Attending the St Helen's 6pm evening service

• 25th Dec - Christmas Day!

• Visiting family

• 8th Jan - Attending a 'Preachers and teachers' training evening

• 9th /10th - Attending a 2 day training event at Cornhill bible college in London studying the whole book of Psalms

• 15th - My TEAM bible training course starts back up for the Spring

• 7th-8th February - Joining the St Helen's 10am weekend away

  
  

Prayer Requests

We would really love prayer that:

• God would keep our minds at peace as we reflect on the last 3 months, rejoice in Christ's birth and think about how we can glorify God more in 2025.

• God would enable us to rest well over the next two weeks so we may continue to give all that we can to serve God in the spring.

• God would help us to love our family well over Christmas.

(We will be having a break next week, but plan to resume sharing bible encouragements, ministry updates and prayer requests within the first week or two of January.)

It has been a real joy to share these last 3 months with you. We hope you have a truly wonderful Christmas. What a glorious thing that God would come down to earth as a baby to reveal himself to us, take the wrath we deserve and grant us eternal life with Him.

Love and prayers to you all and

a very merry Christmas!

Joshua & Luci :)

P.S - Bonus present - We are encouraged to be reminded that God is 'faithful through it all'. We hope you find this song a helps you see more of God's glory <3.