12 BLOGS of CHRISTMAS: Day 2

Have you ever noticed how many times angels tell people connected to the Christmas story: do not be afraid'?

·       When an angel told Zechariah he would have a son who would prepare the way for the Messiah he prefaced what he said with: 'Do not be afraid' (Luke 1:13)

·         When an angel appeared to Joseph to tell him Mary was pregnant with the Messiah he told him: 'Do not be afraid' (Matthew 1:20)

·         When an angel told Mary she had found favour with God and was going to give birth to God's Saviour Son he said: 'Do not be afraid' (Luke 1:30)

·         When the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce good news of great joy they said:  'Do not be afraid' (Luke 2:10)

However, there is more to this than an angelic catchphrase. 

'Do not be afraid' is a message for us all, which this brilliant 3 minute 'spoken word' video from Dai Woolridge beautifully explores. Grab a coffee, sit back, and enjoy...

Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RTyb26EC6U

12 BLOGS of CHRISTMAS: Day 1

I don't know if you've noticed, but we have a tendency to give names to days at this time of the year.

Some of them are traditional: Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, News Eve, New Years Day. 

Some are fairly modern: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Panic Saturday. 

And some are frankly ridiculous: at the beginning of December the singer Taylor Swift sought to trademark the term 'Swiftmas', which is a word her fans use to describe the random acts of kindness she makes, such as giving them unexpected presents.

But there is one day nobody has suggested we rename (yet): Christmas Day.

Until now that is.

The term Christmas originates from a mash up of two Old English words. Once a year, medieval churches would hold a special service - a Mass - to celebrate the birth of Jesus. They called this 'Christ's Mass'. Over time this turned into 'Christmas'.

However, the original meaning of 'Christmas Day' isn't clocked by most people today. And as an evangelical Christian, I have more than a few issues with the Mass. So how about a new nickname for Christmas?

This year Christmas Day is on a Friday. If you had to add an adjective to 'Friday' to sum up the message of Christmas what word would you use?

HAPPY Friday? CELEBRATION Friday? JOYFUL Friday? NATIVITY Friday?

Here's my suggestion: BRIGHT Friday.

Describing the birth of Jesus, the Apostle John wrote:

'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.' (John 1:5)

The sad fact is we are all in the dark when it comes to God. We refuse to listen to his Word and shut out his light. But when Jesus - the Word made flesh - was born, our world was flooded with light. 

And he has the power to do that in our lives as well, if we put our faith in him.

This Christmas - let in the light.

May today be BRIGHT Friday for you.

O Christ, our Morning Star,Splendour of Light Eternal,shining with the glory of the rainbow,come and waken us from the greyness of our apathy,and renew in us your gift of hope.Amen (The Venerable Bede 672-735)

12 BLOGS of CHRISTMAS

I started doing the '12 BLOGS of CHRISTMAS' four years ago. Christmas is an extended holiday season for many and so it's an ideal time to rest, reflect and reconsider. So I thought it would be good to provide something helpful to prompt thought and reflection each day.

Most people have come across the 12 Days of Christmas today because of the famous song about someone receiving lots of presents from their 'true love'. However, to get to the song there had to be the days to start with!

The 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas Day and last until the evening of the 5th January - also known as Twelfth Night. They have been celebrated in Europe since before the Middle Ages and were traditionally a time to remember saints and other religious figures who each have a day dedicated to them. (Fellow Worcesterites  will be interested to know that they 6th day, 30th December, is in honour of St Egwin from Worcester!).

However,  my 12 blogs are designed to encourage devotion to one supreme person - Jesus - and to stimulate a desire to live for him more wholeheartedly in the year ahead.

So while they will have Christmas flavour, they will increasingly become a prompt to look forward and prepare for the year ahead.

They start on Christmas Day. Look out for them. I hope you find them helpful.

Ready for Eternity? Woodgreen Booklet on Giving

For the last couple of Sunday mornings at Woodgreen we've been looking at Jesus's radical teaching about how a Christian should view money.

As promised, here is the booklet we give to all new Church Members at Woodgreen entitled 'What should I know about cheerful giving?' I shared the first part of this in a series of blogs recently, but the second half was written by our Finance Team Leader, Steve and contain some helpful practical tips to help think through individual giving.

If you would like to know more how to give to Woodgreen, feel free to get in contact with me or any of the other Elders. You can do that through the contact form on the church website (HERE) or my contact details are on the church noticesheet which is given out each Sunday.

You can download the booklet as a pdf HERE.

You can download a copy of a Standing Order form so you can start giving to Woodgreen HERE.

Why doesn't God stop the Suffering? VIDEO and E-BOOK

Woodgreen Church was used as a polling station the day of the General Election. After people had cast their vote we gave them the opportunity to vote for the question they would ask God if they could and we said we would answer it one Sunday.

The overwhelming winner was 'Why doesn't God stop the suffering?' and so we looked at that question on Sunday.

If you want to listen to the talk, a link to it will be available HERE as soon as it is online.

At the end of service we said that if people wanted to investigate it further we would make two different resources available on this blog. Which one you need, will depend on how you want to follow up the talk and what it is you're looking for.

VIDEO: If you're looking for an accessible, but deeper and more philosophical exploration of the question, then the video is for you. This tackles the question of why a  good and loving God can allow evil to exist. If you want to explore the question of evil and suffering in more depth - this is a great start.

E-BOOK: However, if you're looking for personal examples of how the truths we looked at on Sunday work out in practice, then the book 'Why Me?' is for you. This contains 8 biographical stories of people who have suffered, all in heartbreaking ways, but who who have found and/or proved God through it. If you want to know how you can find God in the midst of suffering - this is the place to start.

After watching or reading the resources below you may want to explore the Christian faith further. We run a free short course called 'Christianity Explored' at Woodgreen and we'd love to welcome you along. More details about the course and how to book on to the next one can be found HERE


VIDEO: How can a good and loving God allow evil?

E-BOOK: 'Why Me?' (by Roger Carswell)

You can download this e-book HERE

Many thanks to www.10ofthose.com for making this available free of charge

Capturing the Heart: Talk Notes

We had a guest speaker at Woodgreen this morning (28th June): Julian Hardyman, who is Senior Pastor at Eden Baptist Church, Cambridge. He spoke on the subject of 'idols' under the title: 'Capturing the Heart'.

We tend to think of idols as wooden or stone statues worshipped by unenlightened people of a bygone age. However, as Julian showed us so clearly, we each struggle with idolatry, because an idol is anything that has replaced God as primary in our hearts. An idol is something we trust, serve and love more than God. And while we might not recognise it an idol, we all have them. Julian helpfully reminded us that we all have surface idols which are shaped by deeper idols of the heart. It is only as we identify and deal with these deeper idols that we can know true joy.

Wonderfully, Jesus fulfils all the longings of our hearts for comfort, security, power, approval and control, which so often shape the surface idols we adopt.

One of the most helpful things Julian pointed us to in his talk, were three diagnostic tools - three sets of questions - we can ask ourselves to help identify our deeper idols. Why not carve out some time to work through these tests for yourself, slowly and honestly before the Lord?

We each need our hearts to recalibrated to worship God and love Jesus. Julian gave us a great introduction and some very practical tools this morning to help us do just that.


You can download the  slides from Julian's talk HERE as a pdf

You can listen to Julian's talk HERE

You can buy Julian's book on idols HERE

BOOK REVIEW: The Treasure Principle

Peter Barham, one of the Pastors at Woodgreen, reviews a little book with a big message that taken seriously would not only transform church finances but also our lives...

If you like small books, you'll like this one. If you don't like books that challenge your lifestyle, don't read this one!

The book's dimensions are just 16x12cm and only has 120 pages but the subtitle says it all. It's about 'unlocking the secret of joyful giving'. If we are true to ourselves we know that talking about giving for some reason makes us uncomfortable, and even Pastors can feel reticent to preach on the subject! Randy Alcorn (he's an American if you didn't know by his name) did not write this book to give us a guilt trip about giving but to reveal to us the joy of giving.

The book is very readable with insightful illustrations, many of them personal, but in particular he challenges us by pointing to what the Bible says and especially Jesus' view on the subject.

When thinking about Jesus statement to 'store up treasures in heaven' he says:

'You'll never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul. (That's a removal van to us in the UK) You can't take it with you but you can send it ahead...If wegive instead of keep, if we invest in the eternal instead of the temporal we store up treasures in heaven that will never stop paying dividends'

'My heart always goes where I put God's money. God isn't looking for donors for his kingdom. God wants your heart. He says show me your chequebook, your credit card statement, your receipts'

He tackles the question of whether we should use a tithe as a measure of how much we  give and says:

'I detest legalism... Every New Testament example of giving goes far beyond a tithe. However, none falls short of it...It's unhealthy to view tithing as a place to stop but it can still be a good place to start'.

One particular quote that struck me is 'God prospers me not to raise my standard of living butto raise my standard of giving'.  How perceptive is that. He asks why God has entrusted  America with so much, and tackles the practical question of how much we intend to leave the kids as an inheritance.

Randy Alcorn finishes by suggesting we fill out a 6 point 'Giving Covenant' backed up with some helpful questions we should ask God about our giving experience. Here's one of them:

'Father, what's the eternal downside in giving as much as I can give to you now? In contrast, what's the eternal downside of minimising my giving or delaying giving until later? Is there really a danger in giving too much too soon? Or is the true danger giving too little too late?'

Read this book if you want to to see giving as an investment in eternity. Read it at your peril if you only live for today and tomorrow.

Get your copy of the book in Woodgreen's online bookstore HERE