Dear Friends,
Today we hear of the wonderful truth of God’s saving work being by grace alone, not by works. Of course, such good news is not to be kept to ourselves! We can have confidence that the grace of God not only has brought us to life in Christ, but also prepared us for good works that he works amongst us. So, we can enter into the Christmas season with confidence that God will equip us for the extra hard work of bring the gospel to others. Thank you for all who have signed up to help with the practicalities of Christmas services, thank you to those who are praying for our outreach and thank you for all who are delivering invites. As Paul urges the Roman church: “How will they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15.
So, this Christmas we want our efforts to be truly beautiful in bringing the good news to those who have not heard it. We long for people to hear the good news. This can happen in three main ways: 1. Pray that God empowers the preaching of his word and draws people not only to hear it but to have the spiritual illumination by the Holy Spirit, to believe in Jesus Christ. 2. Invite people to come to our services where the gospel will be preached. Our invites are now available. Do take a bundle if you are able to deliver it. Better still, do deliver them during the day (preferably the weekends) and personally invite people to our services. Best of all, whilst doing this you could initiate conversation so that you may be able to explain why you are a Christian or leave them with the gospel in tract form. In other words, it is a great privilege that I can preach at these services, but we are all able to evangelise, to speak because we believe. There is great joy in the Spirit in being able to share this, even with strangers. 3. Thirdly we can invite people to those things where they are most likely to be able to hear the gospel message over a significant period of time. This may be by reading the Bible 1:1, it may be by people attending Christianity Explored or by coming to the “grill the vicar” event on 18 January at the Cricketers pub.
May we all be beautiful in spreading good news!
Love, John.