What a great Christmas Eve we had at church today! In the evening we had a meal together before getting together for an informal carol service. As usual, there was heaps of good food and everybody enjoyed themselves. The highlight of the evening was a present that Sevi received - a cowboy hat with Holy Ghost tongues of fire as decoration. That hat would have to be one of the best presents she’s ever received! I’m sure it will make a repeat appearance, so keep your eyes peeled for Cowgirl Sevi!
The morning service at BCF was also great. Sue bought us an excellent message from Col 1:15-16. As we delved into this scripture, we were again reminded that Christmas and Easter are inseparable - you can’t have one without the other.
The message Alan brought us was the 4 R’s of Christmas from Phil 2:5-11.
We have the Relevance of the birth of Jesus. The birth of Jesus is the most relevant and important event in the history of Earth. Time is divided around the birth of Christ.
The second R is the Reality. Jesus became a man so that He could identify with us. He was a normal man just like us and went through what we go through - He was born, grew, tempted, suffered and died just like we will.
Reason is the third R. Jesus came to die. He demonstrated God’s love. He came and rescued us from our sins so that we could have eternal life (Rom 6:23). There was no other reason for His birth. We can’t pay for our own sins because the wages of sin is death, so Jesus paid our debt for us.
The 4th R is result. The obedience of Jesus in going to the cross resulted in Jesus becoming Lord. He humbled himself, died and was given the highest place of honour in the universe.

Jesus is Lord. We can now live a victorious life, believing that He has everything under control. God is good and He will take care of us when we give our lives to Him.

At the Christmas day service, we heard a Christmas story that related to sharing the love of Christ. When we obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we never know what might happen. The lives of a soldier and minister crossed in this story, and because of that, the lives of both men were changed forever. This Christmas, share the love of Christ. Follow the promptings of the spirit and watch God work in your life and the lives of people around you!

This morning Alan brought us a communion message based on the song Majesty, by Delirious. As we reflected on the simple truths of the song words, we entered into a beautiful time of worship.
This lead us into the message, brought to us by Tony. Tony talked about the Redemptive power of Jesus. Lev 25:45-49 tells us how slaves can be set free only be somebody who is a relative - a kinsman. Jesus became our kinsman, human like us, in order to set us free. He redeemed us from the curse of the law (Gal 3:13) and redeemed us from satan’s bondage (Col 1:13-14). Satan’s authority over us and in us is broken. We are now a new creation (John 14:30). Everyday we need to remember and declare this truth. The devil has no power over me, no claim on me and nothing in me belongs to him. Hallelujah! We are free. That’s worth getting excited about!

In the evening service we again had a great time of worship. Pauline then talked about the Christmas miracles. As we read through the Christmas story in Luke 2, she listed some of the miracles surrounding the birth of Christ and explained how we can apply them to our lives today. God moved the empire and held a census so that Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem for the birth, therefore fulfilling the words of the old testament prophets. God moved mountains and empires in the days of Jesus and He can still do that today for us if anything stands in the way of His purposes being fulfilled.
The shepherds became evangelists as soon as they heard the story of the birth. They took the story of Jesus and shared it. We need to take the story of Jesus and share it and take the joy of Christmas and share that for the entire year, not just around Christmas.

As we come into the Christmas season, celebrate the miracle of His birth, but also celebrate the miracle of His redemptive and restoration power. Continue the miracle of Christmas all year round. Go into the new year expecting something wonderful to happen.

Today we heard an encouraging message from 2 Cor 1:18-20. God is faithful. He will do what He says He will do. If we align ourselves with the purposes of God, find out what He is saying and come into agreement with it, we will see God move in our lives, our church and our city. There is a move of God happening that has never been seen before. It will be a move that brings miracles and manifest answers to prayer. Find out God’s will, then go ahead and declare that and watch God move! Say amen to the promises of God!

We also launched a prayer strategy for one our newest members, Grace. As a church we are standing and believing that Grace’s thumb, not formed properly in the womb, will be totally and perfectly formed. This will be a miracle that only God can perform - the best the doctors can do is remove the thumb and create a makeshift thumb from another finger.

Now for some SOAP!
SOAP is about getting stuck into the Word of God every day and applying it to our lives.
S - Scripture: Read the scripture for the given day.
O - Observation: Note down any scriptures/verses that speak to you.
A - Application: Apply those scriptures/verses to your life.
P - Prayer: Pray through and declare what you have just applied to your life.

As we complete SOAP daily, we will see individuals grow in God. God will use this to transform lives and bring glory to His name.

What a dynamic and inspirational day we had last Sunday!
A great time of praise and worship in the 10.30 am service was followed by a brilliant, inspirational and prophetic message. Pastor Alan was in full flight as he took us through the book of Zephaniah, which he said was not only a prophecy for the kingdom of Judah, but showed us what God is doing in the church.
We saw a pattern of judgment, followed by purification, then restoration. We saw firstly the judgment of God on all idolatry, on those not wearing the “Robe of Righteousness” and on complacency.
We then moved to the next phase, which was purification, in particular the purifying the “lips of the peoples” – our language. We saw that God is particularly removing judgmental attitudes, gossip and criticism from his church. Alan made particular note of the incredible change that has taken place in our fellowship in this regard over the last couple of years. As God works in us to “purify our lips”, our language changes from criticism and gossip into praise, worship and prayer. We take on attitudes of sacrificial service and “shoulder to shoulder” unity. We become ready to move into the next stage, which is restoration.
We read about how God wants to restore his people. We saw so many wonderful promises of forgiveness, integrity in the church and rejoicing. God, it says, will rejoice over us with singing. How awesome is that! We also saw promises of justice, the wounded being brought in, God’s people being honoured and their fortunes restored.
In the evening meeting, Alan continued on the recent theme of healing. He showed us from 3 John 2, that God’s desire for us is that we may enjoy good health. He showed us that healing was secured at Calvary, but that God can, for a time, use sickness for his higher purposes. He then outlined some things that can block our healing, in particular not “discerning the body of the Lord”, in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. We also saw that healing for believers is set within the context of fellowship of other believers and the instructions given in James 5:13-16 on how to deal with sickness. He also made the point that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit and it is not good care of the temple to fill our bodies with junk and then expect God to heal them.
All in all, a great Sunday, with a tremendous “spirit” in the church. We are moving forward in God.