• Christmas is only 21 days away! Scary? Exciting? But where has another year gone?! The ‘speed’ at which Christmas comes around should make each of us remember again the fleeting nature of this earthly life. How many more Christmases might you see?
    • So, let’s make Christmas count. No, I don’t mean necessarily spend heaps of money on presents or stress out over ‘everything being just right’ for Christmas lunch/dinner. No, but as TGS women heard at last week’s Christmas event: ‘Are you ready for Christmas? Are you ready for Jesus?’ Your answer to the second question is your answer to the first question. i.e., if you are ready this December for Jesus, then you ARE ready for Christmas.
    •  So, are you ready to thank the Father for sending his Son to grow up and save us? Are you ready to thank the Eternal Son for humbly and lovingly being ready and willing to come and live as one of us, showing us how us humans are meant to live? Are you ready to thank the Holy Spirit that after the baby completed his mission (life, death, resurrection, ascension, pouring out the Spirit) that you have God’s Spirit— if you’re a Christian— to enable and help you live for Jesus?
    •  Are you ready to invite people to next Sunday night’s Carols? Have you thought and prayed about who to invite, when you’ll invite them, and what words you’ll use to invite them?
    •  Have you thought about going to the Regis Whitfield Carols on December 20? You can help people to focus on Immanuel this month. Do you know someone at Regis Whitfield you could go to the Carols with?
    •  Are you ready to invite young families/children to the Kids Extravaganza? Many children (& adults) not only have lots of fun, but hear a great message about Jesus. They could be your next-door-neighbours, grand-children, your children’s or grand-children’s friends, etc. A puppet is back this year!
    •  Are you ready to invite someone to the 11pm Carols & Communion. They might be a person who appreciates the tradition of seeing Christmas in at church. You might be able to provide transport for them, making it easier for them to say, ‘yes’.
    •  Will you finish having a ‘cracker’ of a Christmas this year by rejoicing at church on Christmas day? This is not only a wonderful celebration for us, but in our culture it is still one of the days that church ‘irregulars’ are most likely to accept your invitation to come. So, let’s give Christmas ‘22 a great ‘crack’!

Cameron