Well 2025 didn’t turn out as I expected!

My wife broke her leg in January and couldn’t weight-bear for a couple of months. After that the process of recovery is slow as muscles are brought back to strength.

So I became chief cook and bottle washer. I developed a cake-making skill, just about managed to keep us alive with cooking skills, and lost some weight. And for the first six weeks I had to give her an injection every day! I’d add that to my CV, but I don’t feel particularly called in that direction.

Looking back at my plans for the year, one thing I did do was to read the Bible all the way through. What did I learn? Several things. I probably wouldn’t use that plan again as there was a point where we were reading Isaiah alongside Jeremiah, which was not easy!

But in the positive side, it was a great blessing. To grasp the grand sweep of Scripture. To find those unexpected passages. To sense the presence of God in the Word of God every day.

And overall it spoke of the faithfulness, the goodness, the sovereignty and the holiness of God.

It finished only a few days ago, and I find I’m missing it. The plan included a weekly break which was helpful – even necessary!

So I’m starting another one for 2026. This one has five sets of readings per week. It looks thought out – day 1 was Genesis 1-2, Psalm 19 and Mark 1.

So here’s to 2026, and whatever it might hold!

And more posts ….

I don’t know if you’ve made any resolutions yet? Over the years, I’ve worked out that 1^st January is probably the worst time to start – which is why I waited to post this!

I’m always impressed by Paul’s prayers for the churches e.g. Ephesians 1:15-23 and Colossians 1:9-14. They speak about growth – in knowledge, wisdom and understanding of God and what he has done for us. To grow like this requires habits (they used to be called ‘disciplines’!) that help us keep God central in our daily lives.

So here are some of my plans for 2025:

The Bible in a Year

This year, at church, we’re offering a challenge to read through the Bible in a year, but not starting until the 6^thJanuary (so avoiding eh New Year’s Day issue). The plan we have in mind is a 6 day a week one, so there’s chance to catch up if we miss a day. 

However, the aim of reading through the Bible is a year is not to read the Bible in a year. That would simply be ‘tick a box’ exercise. 

Reading the Bible in a year is a means to bigger aims. These would include: 

• to increase our knowledge of the big picture of the Bible,
• to allow regular exposure to the Bible to influence our minds, countering the influence of the world around us,
• to work through the plan with others, so we can encourage and support one another,
• and, most importantly, to grow in our relationships with God as we listen to him through his written Word and respond in prayer.

Prayer

The 6^th January coincides with a week of prayer, which is becoming something of a tradition. Putting the two together creates an opportunity to develop regular habits, so we might continue the prayer habit throughout the year alongside our reading.

Scripture Memory

I still manage to keep up with verses and passages that I’ve learned. Currently that’s 125 verses! Including the Prologue to John (John 1:1-18) which I memorised earlier this year. Flushed with that success, I’d like to memorise Ephesians 1 sometime this year (but not starting in January!). It would be good to find one or two others to do this together.

And more..

I’ve got some other ideas, but I’m not sure I want to go public with them just yet!

Someone recently said that daily time with God is like eating. We eat food every day because we need to. Sometimes it’s gourmet, sometimes it’s in great company. Quite often though it’s just ordinary, but we still eat because it sustains us. Jesus said ‘man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4). His word sustains us and is necessary for living.

May 2025 be a year of growth in our knowledge of God!

In ancient times, shepherds were not very high up the social scale. They had to look after sheep day and night. The job was hard, dirty and dangerous. Their lives were spent mostly outside amongst animals. They had to take their flocks to safe pasture and protect them from predators – wild animals or other shepherds – particularly at night. They would have been a fairly rough and tough group of men, considered ‘unclean’, and so tended to be shunned by others.

It was to this group of people that an angel appeared. Angels in the Bible often appear as terrifying beings. As in this case, when a single angel appeared to the shepherds they were ‘filled with great fear’. But he reassured them and brought them a message of ‘good news of great joy’. He then described the birth of a baby, but in an unusual way. Normally when a baby is born, we say ‘John and Mary have had a baby’. But here the angel says that a baby has been born ‘to you’ – and the message is to ‘all mankind’, so the baby was born for us also.

What followed then was possibly the greatest choral concert ever seen with a multitude of angels bursting on the scene. Interestingly, this happened in the sheep fields just outside Bethlehem, but not where Jesus was, the shepherds being the only witnesses.

Afterwards the shepherds went ‘with haste’ to see the newborn baby. Now, over the years, we’ve had many babies born in our church, and the proud parents will bring them to a Sunday service as soon as they can. My observation is that, in general, the ladies of the church will flock around the new baby, while the men … well they don’t.

But here we have a group of rough men rushing to see the baby! Maybe they felt special in some way as the angel’s message was directed at them, the baby was born for them, the angel choir was for them. In the history of the Jews, there had been no word from God for 400 years, but now here was a message from God announcing a long-awaited Saviour. Whatever the reason, it was enough to make them rush into the town to look for him.

When they got to where Jesus was, it was indeed as the angel had told them. They will have seen a baby amongst animals, in the dirt and roughness of hay and straw. Exactly the same as them. This was their world. He had come as one of them, amongst them. 

They spent some time with Mary and Joseph, relating what had happened, no doubt Mary and Joseph will have told of their stories. The reality of all this must have been mind-blowing. No wonder they left praising God!

In the Prologue to John’s Gospel (John1:1-18) verse 14 says ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’. That is, the Word – Jesus – who was both God and with God, had put on flesh – become a human being – and dwelt (the word is ‘tabernacled’ or ‘put up his tent’) among us. 

The message for the shepherds was that he was born for them and that he came amongst them in their world. He identified himself with them.

But the message was for ‘all mankind’. So Jesus came and identifies with us, even today. He was born for us, for you, for me. Truly Emmanuel – God with us.

Some years ago I heard it put this way – God entered into our ‘mess’ to bring ‘shalom’, peace and contentment that comes from a right relationship with God.

Have you ever looked at the lyrics for ‘God rest ye merry, gentlemen’? Notice where the comma is. It could be phrased: Gentlemen, God rest ye merry. That’s because, when the carol was written, ‘merry’ meant pretty much the same as ‘shalom’. So this is asking God to rest (keep) us in peace and contentment through knowing him through Jesus. (see John 17:3).

So, I wish you a Merry Christmas!

I thought that was a pity. It’s as though Christmas is symbolised by our decorations – we get them out of a box until it’s all over and we put them away again till next year. Of course, much of our Christmases are like that, but the central theme of Christmas is not something to box away. We have to be careful that in leaving the season behind, we don’t leave the message behind. 

Jesus was born in humble surroundings – in a manger. But at the same time, not far away, there was a spectacular sound and light show being put on for the benefit of the shepherds. It started with the terrifying appearance of a single angel who announced the Christmas message:

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12)

Very familiar words but loaded with meaning which we can miss if they are only part of the Christmas package. (It’s interesting to read these words in the summer!)

The message is for everyone, that a child has been born for us all (not just for Joseph and Mary), who will be a Saviour and the promised Messiah. This is the fulfilment of a prophecy promising ‘Immanuel’ or God with us. It is not something we pick up once a year for a couple of weeks then put away again. 

The message in church last week was on How to Face an Uncertain Future. I suppose all our futures are uncertain, but we are much more aware of it at the moment. There’s not much that is stable or reliable. 

I sometimes wonder if God is shaking us up just so that we turn to him.

I’m reminded of the King’s Christmas message of 1939 (though I didn’t hear it first-hand!). Britain had just gone to war with Germany. The future was looking bleak. We know with hindsight that the following years of the second world war were a time of great suffering.

And he quoted a poem:

Our times are maybe not as desperate as they were in 1939, but putting our hands in the Hand of God, putting our trust in him, is the only way to find true hope and security.

After the angels had gone, the shepherds in Bethlehem did three things – they went to see, they made it known what had been said, and they glorified and praised God for what they’d seen and heard. (Luke 2:15-20)

Maybe we can continue into 2023 in the same way:

Go and see                  In spending time in the Word and prayer

Make it known            In fellowship and talking to others

Praise                          In daily acknowledgment and thankfulness to God 

Of course, the most familiar music is carols. I have always enjoyed them, perhaps just playing them once a year is enough to keep them interesting without becoming boring!

One of the signs of a good piece of music is how long it lasts, and certainly the ‘regular’ carols have stood the test of time. 

What is especially enduring is the words. Many of them recount the Christmas story, which makes it easier to remember, but many are also are rich in doctrine.

Doctrine has become an unpopular word these days, yet without it we cannot worship God in truth as it is doctrine (which means ‘teaching’) that teaches us the truth. 

Or to put it another way, the carols are rich in theology, which is the study of God. We come away with a greater understanding of who God is and that will inevitably lead to worship.

So here are three of my favourites

See Amid the Winter’s Snow

See amid the winter’s snow.
born for us on earth below,
see the tender Lamb appears,
promised from eternal years.

The traditional tune for this carol is called ‘Humility’. Appropriate, as the first verse describes the humble entrance of the Lord (‘who built the starry skies’) into our world. See Philippians 2:5-8.

He is identified as the Lamb – echoing John 1:29, which in turn is a reference to Isaiah 53:7. The theme of the sacrificial Lamb is one that goes right back to Genesis (e.g. Gen 22:7).

He was born ‘for us’ (Isaiah 9:6, Luke 2:11) in accordance with promises made hundred/thousands of years beforehand (Genesis 3:15 etc. etc. also John 5:39) even stretching back into eternity (Ephesians 1 shows how God’s plan of salvation was made ‘before the foundation of the world’).

What is great is that all that ‘theology’ is contained in just a few lines.

Similarly, and another of my favourites, is ‘O Come all Ye Faithful’. This carol is an invitation to come and worship, adore, Jesus.

The second verse…

God of God, Light of Light
Lo, He abhors not the Virgin’s womb
Very God
Begotten, not created

… is again rich in theology.

It states that Jesus is God. It takes the theme from John 1 which identifies Jesus as the Word who was ‘with God’ and ‘was God’, the creator of all things, and the Light which is the life of men (John 1:1-4).

Books have been written on this, as it is all about the doctrine of the Trinity, something which took the early church a couple of centuries to fully articulate. Essentially, everything that makes God God, belongs to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are distinguishable in their roles and persons, but inseparable in their nature and attributes.

Jesus did not ‘abhor the virgin’s womb’, meaning he came willingly (see John 10:11-14). Salvation was decreed by the Father, who sent his Son (Gal 4:4-5), who delights to do his Father’s will (Psalm 40:7,8, and John 4:34).

Neither was he ashamed to be made human (Hebrews 2:9-15). We were made in his image and though fallen Jesus still became of of us to the extent that he calls us brothers (Hebrews 2:11-12).

He was ‘begotten, not created’. This shows the divine and human natures of Jesus. There was a day when the Son of God became a man (begotten), but there was never a day when he was created as there was never a time when he did not exist.

And lastly – and I think my all-time favourite – Hark the Herald Angels Sing. So here is all of it:

Hark the herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled”
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
“Christ is born in Bethlehem”
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Christ by highest heav’n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin’s womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”

It’s all about Jesus. We barely get a mention except as recipients of God’s grace.

It picks up many of the themes covered in the other carols – his dual nature, God and man (veiled in flesh the Godhead see, the incarnate Deity), his humility in coming as a man (Mild he lays his glory by), but the overriding theme is that of giving him glory.

It truly is a worship song – not of the more contemplative style here we express how we feel towards God, but one where all the attention is on God. And it needs to be sung loudly!

Our first and foremost calling is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30)

Singing carols is a great way of doing this – We are moved by the music and the emotion of the words (our hearts), we focus fully on him (our soul, or spirit), we speak and sing truths about him which we can meditate on more fully (our minds), and we sing loudly (our strength).

The familiarity of Christmas carols can be two-edged. On the one hand we can just ‘go through the motions’ of tradition; but on the other hand, we have most of these words on our minds, so we can recall them easily and enjoy the truths they convey and focus on what God did at that first Christmas.

Paradoxically, Paul calls the coming of Jesus as ‘inexpressible’, though not meaning that we can’t describe it, but that we’ll never fully understand it (2 Cor 9:15), and Peter uses the same word to describe our joy (1 Peter 1:8)

So Happy Christmas!

Happy means Blessed. A time of Wonder, Joy and Worship