This week as Christmas draws near and life gets very busy we reflected on the fact that this Christmas celebration exists because of Jesus. When God created the world it was perfect. He walked with the man and woman He created in the garden in the cool of the day. But sin destroyed this as they disobeyed God and were driven from His presence.

God gave a promise that this would change. In Genesis 3:15 He said One would come who would destroy the power of Satan, who would restore what had been lost. This was Jesus. Throughout the Old Testament God continued to give promises about this Saviour. God called Abraham to follow Him in faith and told him he would be the father of a great nation, that through him all people would be blessed. This happens because Jesus is a descendent of Abraham. God said the Saviour would be from the tribe of Judah, from the family of David. God promised in Isaiah 7:14 that Immanuel would come, God would be with His people. Jesus fulfilled the promises of God.

We see just as God kept this promise at great cost to Himself so we can trust Him to keep all He has promised to us. As Romans 8:31–32 says What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? And we can affirm as Romans 8:38–39 says For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This Christmas celebrate the God who keeps His promises and loves each of us so completely .

God bless
Pastor Margo

Mark 4:30–32 NIV
Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

The parable is not about the seed, but the growth process from small to large over time.

God sent His Son into this world. He planted the Lord Jesus in the insignificant soil of a backwater province of Rome called Israel. He grew up there; He lived there and He died there. He was resurrected their.

In the beginning there was just Jesus and a few ragtag followers. His followers consisted of some uneducated fishermen, a few revolutionaries, some women and a traitor. By the time the Day of Pentecost came around, there were still just 120 devoted followers of the Lord, Acts 1:15. It wasn’t many days until the church in Jerusalem is said to have numbered some 50,000.

Matthew 13:33 NIV
He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Yeast is a small, micro-organism. Spreads throughout the dough. Transforms, changes, making the batch something other than it was. It adds potential

Yeast is not about taking over or controlling, but quietly (unobtrusively, subversively?) expanding influencing.

Positive effect.
1. The Kingdom does not come to externally conquer and rule over the world.
2. The Kingdom comes to each individual where they are to transform them from the inside out and spread like leaven, to spread throughout the world so that, instead of being converted, it is transformed.

Not to huddle up, but to spread out. Not to take, but to give. Not to press down, but to expand.

The Kingdom grows from one small seed and transforms the world.