What do two miraculous pregnacies, a bouncing baby boy, an all time hit worship song, family trouble and a sermon from a man who had been deaf and dumb all have in common? Answer - they all formed part of the series of amazing events leading up to the first Christmas. In this one-off message, James looks at the exciting build up to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and extracts some practical lessons for us as we approach Christmas.

Mary mother of Jesus gets mentioned by name less than 20 times in the New Testament but she is an intriguing character. Pete looks in a bit more detail at the life of the person who probably spent more time than anyone else with Jesus.

The incarnation refers to God coming in the form of humanity. But, why does God do so? Hebrews 1.1-4 states that it is so that humans could come to know and love God and be known and loved by God. The Son of God lays aside all advantage and takes on the vulnerability of a man in order to offer every human the opportunity to know him personally.

Moses was a great Old Testament leader who spoke face-to-face with God and is mentioned more than once in the Bible as a man of faith. Despite this, he experienced failure. In this message, Florence shows that failure doesn’t have to be final and gives six ways that we can apply lessons from this incident in Moses’ life to our own circumstances.

Vijay looks at John's account of Jesus' feeding of the five thousand . He reminds us that the point of the account is not just to highlight the miraculous provision of food for the crowd. All the details of this miracle are clues to a deeper point that John's Gospel is making. Jesus is the new Moses who satisfies humanity's deepest hunger by offering himself to them. He is the Shepherd Lord who provides humanity their deepest need. He concludes by offering a challenge. Are we open to Jesus meeting our deepest needs the way he will meet them or do we insist that he meet our deepest needs the way we expect him to?

In this second of the messages from the Transforming Encounters series, James explores how an encounter with the risen Christ completely transforms two discouraged people into a picture of dynamic enthusiasm.

Based on Matt. 22 v 34-40, we’re asked to love God with every part of our being, then love our neighbour (anyone) in the same way. Is it an overwhelming assignment?

Fiona Morrison from Tear Fund gave an inspirational overview of the work of the charity

In John 5.1-18, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath who has been incapacitated by illness. By doing this on a Sabbath, Jesus claims to be God. This is because as far as the Jews were concerned working on the Sabbath is God's prerogative. The man who is healed by Jesus responds to this amazing miracle on the Sabbath with apathy. The Jewish authorities respond to Jesus with outrage, his actions are blasphemous. Vijay asks the question: how do we who confess Jesus to be Lord respond to his claims. At least those who respond with hostility understand how remarkable the Lordship of Christ really is. He challenges us to respond to the claim that Jesus is Lord with lives that correspond with the confession

Iain talks about how true worship comes from the heart in response to our deep love for God.