There are prophecies of the Lord’s coming scattered throughout the Old Testament. Many of these are well known: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…” for example. But the first prophecy of the Lord’s coming is much more obscure and less well known. It is spoken by Jehovah to the serpent in the Garden of Eden:

I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her Seed;

He shall trample your head,

And you shall batter His heel.

Not your usual Christmas cheer perhaps, but this prophecy describes the purpose of the Lord’s coming: to confront the selfishness that rises like a serpent within each of us and trample it down until we can be saved from it.

To kick off our Carol Sing we will begin with a worship service in the church for the whole family. The news of Christmas was not just for a few people, but for all people, no matter who or where or when. Although “all people” covers a lot of diversity, we are all united when we come to the Lord together. We get a taste of this when we sing joyfully about the Lord together: all our individual voices are joined into one voice, united in our common love for the Lord.

In two of the Gospels the Christmas story is told in the familiar way: Jesus was born to a virgin, Mary, born in Bethlehem, and visited by Shepherds and Wise Men. Yet the Gospel of John tells the same story in a far more enigmatic way: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:1, 14)

What was this “Word”? And what does it mean for it to have become “Flesh?” These details tells us something important about the Lord’s coming into the World, and even about how we still relate to Him today.

Hard times will come, no matter how prepared we might be. We cannot avoid them. What we can do is put our preparation to use, so that we can persevere through the hard times. In fact, through this perseverance we are strengthened in both love and wisdom, and may come out the other side better people. Even if we feel that we are inadequately prepared for the challenge, the Lord always provides what we need in order to get through it.

We have a tendency to think that whatever we are going through right now is how things will always be. But whether you are going through a time of blessings or of hardship, this too shall pass. In this two part series we will look at how we can prepare for hardship in the good times, and persevere through hardships to get back to the good times.

In the western world we tend to value individuality above almost anything else. The freedom of the individual is sacrosanct. The Lord also values individual freedom. Without the freedom to make personal choices we would not be able to choose heaven over hell. Yet that does not mean that all freedom is equal: one kind of individual freedom leads to hellish anarchy while the other leads to heavenly order. If we want to follow the Lord, we need to spend time distinguishing between the two.

Right at the door, right at the passage from our homes out into the world, lies a choice. It is a good choice!  A choice we get to make every single day.   Join us as we look at what is at the door or maybe, who is at the door.

We all want to be good: but how do we decide which good things to do? No matter how much we do, there is always more to be done. When faced with just how many needs there are in the world we can become overwhelmed. We cannot possibly do it all. In order to be good we have to constantly make a judgment call about what good things we will do, and just as importantly, what good things we will not do. We’ll talk about how to make those choices this Sunday.

Our Story is about a Raven sent to feed Elijah. Why a Raven? This bird is a scavenger. It feeds on dead creatures/carrion. Yet today, it is a choice bird that the LORD uses to take care of Elijah. Is there more to the story than meets the eye?

In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ first miracle consists of turning water into wine. While this miracle is powerful in it’s own right, it also represents a spiritual process that we all must go through: just as Jesus turned simple water into good quality wine, the Lord can transform the basic ideas we know into a way of life. What were once simple truths can become the good habits that lead to heaven.