Advent. It’s a season where we enter into a time of waiting and anticipation. Like God’s people in the Old Testament awaiting the coming of the Saviour, Christians today look forward with the same anticipation to Christ’s return. In the midst of uncertain times, Christians have a living hope, because God is faithful to His promises.

Psalm 1 shows us that true and lasting happiness is attainable in this life. This happiness is deeply rooted in the delighting of God’s Word and the righteousness that Jesus provides through His death and resurrection.

Submission is a muscle that every single Christian on planet earth is called to flex. Jesus has a design in mind for those entrusted with leadership, and it is not that of cattle-ranchers driving a herd from the back, but shepherds leading their flock by example from the front. When humility flavours both the way elders lead and the way Christians follow within a local church, we get a foretaste of our eternal future.

The local church is not a spiritual event to attend, but a community of ‘sent-people’ to belong to. Every Christian has a story to tell and a space to invite others into. When we remember that once we were strangers to God, and through Jesus we’ve been given a seat at the table, we begin to open up our lives and live on God’s mission with courage, warmth, and good news to tell.

The Apostle Paul shows us that a Spirit-led church is one marked by relational gentleness and financial generosity. Because Jesus bore the ultimate burden of our sin on the cross; we, by the Spirit’s power can embrace our responsibility to bear one another’s burdens.

Right thinking about Jesus (gospel-doctrine), should lead our churches into a right experience together of Jesus (gospel-culture). In John 13:34-35, Jesus connects the believability of our message with the beauty of our relationships. The presence of biblical non-negotiables in a church — like love, humility, and patience — will either validate the message of the gospel or vandalise it.

We are a church that is passionately committed to the centrality of Jesus, in every part of our lives. The truth of the gospel is really good news and is the message through which Jesus has promised to liberate and transform people’s hearts. The Bible is a wonderful gift for us, but it is not about us. It is all about Jesus, and therefore, so are we.