We all like receiving free gifts. Probably the best news we could ever hear is that we have been given the gift of righteousness without having to do anything for it.  All our own efforts to become righteous are in vain. What we could not do, God did for us by sending His Son to die for us.  The Bible calls it a free gift: we don’t deserve it, we cannot pay for it, earn it or work for it. The only thing we have to do is believe it! Righteousness means right standing with God. It means that we can stand in His presence clean and without sin because the blood of Jesus has washed us.  But we have to receive it. Romans 5:17 says, “those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through Jesus Christ”. The more we realise that we are righteous, the less we will want to sin. Paul exhorts us to “Awake to righteousness and sin not!” God has given us power over sin so we need to unwrap this gift, examine it, use it – apply it to our lives and enjoy it!

We use the phrase, “forgive and forget” but we must make sure we complete the forgiving first otherwise we will find we are unable to forget. Remembering past hurts is a sure sign that we have not really forgiven.  It’s good news to know that even God forgets – not that He has a bad memory but He chooses to forgive and forget our sins when we confess them and repent.  “I even I am He who blots out your transgressions for my sake and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25). It’s wonderful that we can come to God with a clean conscience and enjoy our relationship with Him. When we keep seeking forgiveness for past sins we grieve Him because we are not putting our faith in His ability to forgive, cleanse and forget. Sometimes we keep repenting of the same thing because we cannot forgive ourselves. He wants us to repent once and for all, forget and move on.  As Paul said in Philippians 2:13 “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal …” That’s a good verse for this New Year.

There is a passage in the Bible which says that “eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Then we stop and say how mysterious God’s ways are and we cannot know them. However, the very next words of that passage say, “but God has revealed them to us through His Spirit”. Verse 12 goes on to say, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God”.  This is good news! It means that if we are born again and have the Spirit of God we can know and understand what God has prepared for us. Verse 14 says the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit but we are not just natural – we are also spiritual, and so these things will be revealed to us by the Spirit of God.  Let’s remember who we are and what we have been given so that we can be in the know.

This is a word we all welcome. Most of us hate being estranged from others, whether it is family or friends. Rifts in relationships are unpleasant and upsetting but they sometimes last for years because of pride or blame. Neither party is willing to step down and initiate peace. God’s relationship with man was broken when man disobeyed God’s command but God did not wait for him to apologise. He immediately declared that He would restore it, though it was not till thousands of years later that He sent Jesus to reconcile us to Himself. The way He did it was full of love, grace and mercy: “reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them …” This means He did not even lay the blame at our feet. He did not go to any lengths to remind us of our sin but just opened His arms in love toward us. More than that, He has also given us this ministry, this ability to lead others to become reconciled to Himself. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”. (Romans 5:18-21). That’s good news!

There is a verse in Isaiah (52:7) which is quoted in Romans (10:15) that says “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace …” Have you ever thought that bringing the good news of Jesus makes your feet beautiful?  In Romans 10 Paul reminds us of the need for preachers. A few verses previously the way of salvation is clearly described. The verses in Isaiah go on to speak about a time when the Lord “brings back Zion” and “redeems Jerusalem” and “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God”.  These seem appropriate verses to proclaim particularly at this time of conflict in Israel.  There may be much more conflict to come yet but when we read the Book we know the end of the story. We are living in momentous times. Israel is God’s prophetic clock and the hands seem to be drawing nearer and nearer to midnight. Let’s watch and pray and continue to proclaim the good news whenever we have the opportunity.

Poppies

This past weekend we have been remembering those who died in the First and Second World Wars and many other wars since. It is important to remember and honour those who voluntarily gave their lives for their country so that the freedom of its citizens might be preserved.  During the 2^nd World War the nation of Britain was under grave threat. It was nothing short of a miracle that we were spared invasion. While remembering these heroes let’s also remember the Man who gave His life for all of us, the One who died a most cruel and agonising death on the cross so that we could walk free from sin and enjoy the prospect of eternal life.  The death of our war heroes contributed to our earthly freedom, but only Jesus’ suffering and death could obtain our eternal salvation. “He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above all other names” (Philippians 2:8). The sacrifice those soldiers made is a reflection of the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made which still avails for us today.

Empty Cross

Did you realise that before you believe in Jesus you are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1)?  We are not just ordinary people who need to believe so that we can go to heaven one day. The good news is that when we believe, God “makes us alive”. A good friend of ours said that when he saw us before we were saved we looked like “death not even warmed up”. When we believed we received a new kind life into our physical bodies that is much more powerful than the physical life we already have. It’s the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead! (Romans 8:11) That ought to make a big difference in our lives! People who don’t believe in Jesus don’t have this life. Those who do believe may become so used to having it that we forget it’s there or we allow it to lie dormant. Have you noticed the difference? Are you aware of the life of God flowing through you today? If you haven’t got it you can receive it today! Christ in us, the hope of glory!

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:12)

Feast of Tabernacles London

It was an honour and privilege to be asked to film the Feast of Tabernacles celebration hosted by Joseph Storehouse Trust in London last weekend. This was held Friday evening and all day Saturday at the Emmanuel Centre, Westminster. Around 1,000 people were packed into the auditorium with standing room only. The Moriah music group together with the Sh’ma Kingdom dancers led us in joyfully celebrating one of the most important biblical feasts of the year, already celebrated a couple of weeks ago in Israel.  Messages brought to us by Lance Lambert, Malcolm Hedding and Barry Segal all conveyed a sober warning of greater trouble to fall upon the nation of Israel which will affect the whole world. We were warned of the dangers of deception from the news media and the consequent need for us to watch and pray like never before. We rejoiced that God is still on the throne and His plans and purposes will be worked out for Israel and the nations. This was perhaps one of the most significant events to take place in the UK this year and we encourage you to order the DVD set and listen to the messages.

Part of our vision is to “teach others also”, what the Lord has taught us, as Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2v2. Last Thursday we had the pleasure and privilege of visiting a home school group near Chippenham for the day.  We were asked to go along and teach their seniors how to make videos – a lot to do in one day! We decided to teach them how a news programme is made.  In four hours we managed to put together a 6 minute report on the Birth of Jesus. All ten children played their part: some reporting, others on sound and camera.  They learnt some basic principles of filming, sound, lighting, scripting, editing and what amazing things you can do with a green screen and autocue.  We hope they were inspired to use this powerful medium for the gospel and the Kingdom. You can see the finished product on our You Tube channel. Of course it’s not quite up to the same standard as our other clips but it shows what can be done by a group of novices in a short space of time with a little help! Well done ACESpace West!

Did you realise that before you believed in Jesus you were “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1)?  We weren’t just ordinary people who needed to believe so that we could go to heaven one day. The good news is that when we believed, He “made us alive”. A good friend of ours said that when he saw us before we were saved we looked like “death not even warmed up”. When we believed we received a new kind life into our physical bodies that is much more powerful than the physical life we already have. It’s the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead! (Romans 8:11) That ought to make a big difference in our lives! People who don’t believe in Jesus don’t have this life. Those who do believe may become so used to having it that we forget it’s there or we forget what life was like without it. Have you noticed the difference? Are you aware of the life of God flowing through you today? Christ in us, the hope of glory!

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:12)