Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we get closer to celebrating Christmas, do you get feeling of dread or joy?

I think there is so much hype around this time of year which is not directed to the original celebration of Christ’s birth that many people are now dreading this time of year.

My prayer for today is that we are filled with the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ as we focus on what Christmas should be about rather than the world’s greed.

Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit

When we give out food and hot drinks after our church service, it is not so much to encourage people to come to a church service but to show them our love as a church.

We do not ‘do church’ to make sure we have food and drinks; we meet together to worship our Saviour and to allow others to see church is more than just a meeting.

Heaven is going to be the ultimate ‘church service’ where we will be with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit as well as with all those who wanted Christ as their Saviour too.

Proverbs 15:15 All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.

The more we live our lives against God, the more we will find out how bad things can get.

The more we live our lives with God, the greater our peace and pleasure in living with Him.

“But what about those rich people enjoying themselves?” you may ask. We cannot see inside their hearts and cannot understand the fears they have to face…

It is better to have a poor life where we know what is coming and know God as our protector!