Even as his enemies tried to arrest him, Jesus put his life on the line to call them and everyone else to find true satisfaction and joy in him.

Ruth and Naomi came to Bethelehm looking for favour, for grace, for help, in a desperate situation. Like us, when we come to God looking for help, they find more than that - they find a redeemer who will look after them in a way that takes care of their deepest needs.

When Jesus speaks, his word sets us free from bias and predjudice, helping us to see the truth and really know it - as he says,

'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ - John 8:31-32

He was willing to risk his life to speak this teaching even into the lives of those who were willing to kill him, because even they could be set free by it. And when he speaks into our lives, it sets us free.

This beautiful psalm was given to help us when we have done wrong, when we have ruined our own relationship to God with what we have done. God What to do when we ruin our own relationship with God. God is always ready to forgive when we come back to him confessing what we have done.

Sermon by guest preacher Nathan Mackay

The story of Ruth starts with grief, but it is a story of love, and joy, and hope, and how God uses ordinary people to bring good to the world, and above all, it is a story of the unbreakable loving-kindness of the God who loves sinners and failures and brings them back to himself.

Who is Jesus? In the famous words of C.S Lewis,

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. 

In John 7, Jesus himself makes that clear - he claims to be everything, to be our Lord. Will you stand with him?

Jesus is willing to be very blunt with us - we need him, need him absolutely, need him totally. He is the one who gives true life, and we need to come to him for that life, to rely on him just as we rely on our daily food, to ‘eat and drink’ his body and blood.

The truly ‘blessed’ - or ‘happy’ - life starts with being fully forgiven by God. That is the doorway to contentment and a rich relationship with him.

Jude helps teach us how to keep going - and keep growing - as Christians, even when life is difficult or painful.

We look in so many places for satisfaction, for life, for what we need - but Jesus, the bread of life, offers us what we really need, and what will really satisfy.