DECEMBER 2004 GRAPEVINE

IT’S CHRISTMAS (Groan). WHAT IS THE POINT?

I am a Christian. I get fed up with all the fuss and bother at Christmas. I also get fed up with all the temporary and apparently false friendliness that seems to crop up.

So why do bother celebrating?

One of the fundamental principles of Christianity is that God is love. What that means in everyday language is that He cares about each one of us personally. He cared enough to send a part of Himself, His only son Jesus, to live on this Earth and be crucified so that we can have a direct relationship with Him.

Here’s a little exercise anybody can do to illustrate this point. There is a famous piece in the Bible where Jesus says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and Only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have et8rnal life.’

Say this aloud to yourself. Now say it again but instead of saying “the world’ substitute your own name and say the phrase again, aloud, as follows; ‘For God so loved * your name * that he gave his one and only son, that if I believe in him I shall not perish but have eternal life.’ Now say it again, aloud. Think about it.

This is why Christians celebrate Christmas. Not so much that Jesus was born into the world, but because 33 years later he died and rose from the dead so that you and I might have eternal life. Not only that, but a relationship with Jesus does bring the “peace on Earth” that you here about in those traditional Christmas carols.

Whatever else you do this Christmas, don’t miss the point.

~ KENTON SMITH - Mooney’s Print & Publishing 0115 932 0643

Dear Friends, ‘

The other day I came across an extract from a book, by Dr. Richard Selzer called

‘Mortal Lessons’. Dr. Seizer retired from practicing surgery and teaching at Yale Medical School in 1986. In his book he describes an experience he had after operating on a young woman. The young woman had had cancer in her’ face, and to cut it out a nerve had to be severed. Her face now disfigured.

Her young husband with her, the woman asks the Doctor, Will my mouth always be like this?”. The Doctor says it will be. The husband says “I like it. It’s kind of cute”. H

And unmindful he bends to kiss the crooked’ mouth, twisting his own lips to accommodate hers. To show that he still loves her., , , ~, In that moment, Dr. SeIzer says, he saw something of, the divine.

In a similar way God. accommodates Himself to fit our world through the birth of a tiny baby. He gave all the glory of Heaven and came to us. Later He allowed’, His body to be twisted on the cross in the shape of our twisted and ‘deformed world to show that despite everything, He still loves us.

The way Christrnas itself is celebrated can sometimes seem to be twisted and distorted from it’s original meaning. Yet at it’s heart the truth remains. It is in a sense, God’s kiss to the world.

The hymn writer William Rees picks this up in the lines of his hymn:

Grace and Love, like mighty rivers,

Poured incessant from above,

And heaven’s peace and perfect justice

Kissed a guilty world in love. ‘ , ,

Angy and I would like to take this opportunity of wishing you all a very merry Christmas and happy new year.

,And whatever way you celebrate Christmas this year~ I pray you will feel God’s kiss.

Geoff. Boxer

The jottings of Mrs. F.E. Whyatt

I can do nothing about tomorrow. Can know nothing of it’s delights or disdain. Yesterday and it’s, sorrow or regret is past. Today is here and is mine - and with God’s help I can make it a blessed day.

So trust in Him and lets go forward .

Use what little talent you posses.

The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the nightingale.

Honour God -just think of’ all the God jokes He’s had to listen to!

FE Whyatt

Just to help you through the winter and to give you something to look forward too

Spring Gold

Gold is the colour that lights up the springtime. Painting the moors with the sun coloured broom. Waking the gardens with daffodil trumpets. Crocus and Primrose dispelling the gloom.

Buttercups wink in the green of the meadow, Irises raise their gold spears to the dawn.

Lanterns are lit on the leafless forsythia, Dandelions glimmer in border and lawn.

Yellow marsh marigolds glow by the water. Globe-flowers shine where the reed warblers sing. So many blossoms reflecting the sunlight. Warming the earth with the glory of spring.

Christmas a Time of Giving

Have we remembered everyone, have we got Aunties present, did we send that card to the neighbours. Have we forgot .anything, what about the turkey. Yes, the hustle and hustle of Christmas, a time to celebrate. But so many are to busy with the preparations to know what we are celebrating, that Christmas is the time when we~ celebrate the birthday of God’s most wonderful gift Jesus the Son of God, born in a stable, because there was no room for Joseph and Mary in the Inn, today so many have no room for Jesus because they are to busy with the celebration to know what they are celebrating.

It is soon over, the decorations comedown, the wasted food, is thrown in the dustbin, and all is forgotten for another year, and still so many do not know that they are celebrating at Christmas, the birth of the Son of God’s, Gods most wonderful gift to all

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. So that everyone who believes in him may not die, hut have eternal life” John 3: I 6.

As members of God’s Church arc we putting the tinsel, coloured paper. the decorations away after Christmas, and forgetting that as a part of our growth in our faith we should celebrate all the year telling others about Jesus Christ

How absolutely marvellous the Gospel is. How liberation, what balm for troubled days, what stimulation in times of confusion, what truth! What intense love is poured into our hearts, how thoroughly, perpetually exciting it can be and at times frightening! From a letter sent to members of Through Faith Missions by Daniel Cozens

Let‘s not put the message away in the cupboard with the decorations and all the other trimmings, but let all know the wonderful message.

‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers arc few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest held” Matthew 9:37-

Have a wonderful Christmas full of God’s love and warmth. Eddie.

The Fallen Angel Cake

Having been to a few Church Christmas Bazaars, in the last month, I am reminded of the story ‘The Fallen Angel Cake’ At the risk of being a bore I feel I must repeat it for those who have not yet heard it.

The ladies at church each promised to supply a home made cake for the cake stall at the Christmas fair.

One lad3i just could not find the time to keep her promise. So the day before all the cakes were due in she came up with a plan.

She squashed a too roll and iced it, it looked as lovely as any other she had baked in the past. She instructed her daughter to go straight to the cake stall and buy it, which then could be thrown away and nobody would be any the wiser. Unfortunately her daughter arrived at the cake stall just in time to see it being bought by somebody else.

Two days later our lady went to a Bridge evening, during the evening the hostess brought out a lovely iced cake. Our lady was just about to own up to the fact that it was her cake when a guest said,” oh what a lovely cake”.

“Yes”, said the hostess, “1 made it myself”.

Folks like you

There’s a list of folk I know, all written in the book

And every year at Christmas time, I go and have a look

And that is when I realise that these names are part.

not of the book they are written in, but of my very heart

For each name stands for someone. Who has touched my life sometime

And in that meeting, they’ve become etched forever in my mind

For once you have known someone, the years cannot erase

The memory of a pleasant word or a friendly face

So never think my Christmas cards are a mere routine

Of names upon a list to be forgotten in between

For when I sent a Christmas card that is addresses to you.

It is because you’re on the list that I’m indebted to.

And whether I’ve known you many years or even just a few

In some ways you have had a part in shaping things I do.

So every year when Christmas comes, I just realise anew

The biggest gift that God can give, is knowing folks like you.

Measure life’s riches in happy memories Rather than in gold.