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Guest Post by Dave Griffiths God does a lot of things - many of them seem strange to our admittedly limited perspective. Without a doubt, the single most unsettling, irrational thing He has ever done is to come to earth as a baby. A baby is totally helpless, and, the birth - well there’s blood and sweat and mucous and screaming. The whole process is uncomfortable, to say the least. It’s unseemly. It’s unsanitary. As much as we may not want to admit it, birth - for all it’s wonder and amazement - is a messy process, yet, this is how God chose to enter the world. He could have chosen any way He wanted, but He chose the ordinary way. He could have chosen a major city with doctors, nurses or midwives and their sterilized equipment, and clean linen. Instead, He chose a barn with nothing but a carpenters rough and calloused hands to usher Him into the world. There were more animals than people looking on. It doesn’t make much sense to most people. A young couple, unable to find a decent place to sleep, are forced to spend the night in a barn when she goes into labour. She wraps the baby boy in strips of cloth to keep Him warm and places Him in the feed trough. This story doesn’t make much sense to us. Some shepherds were outside watching sheep, when God showed up with a message. Well shepherds were not highly regarded in those times. It wasn’t a very noble profession living with animals and constantly coming into touch with… animal stuff. Shepherds were considered unclean. An angel spoke to them: Fear not, I’ve got good news for everybody - even dirty shepherds like you. God is going to do something about the mess in this world. He’s sending someone. You can see Him now and here’s how you’ll know Him when you see Him. He’ll be wrapped in rags, lying in a feed trough, surrounded by stinky animals. When you see Him you’ll find Him in the middle of a big mess. Be careful where you stand, cows do their business standing up, often while eating. Then reason this is good news to those shepherds then, and to us now, is that we’re all messed up people, and the world got a little bit messier today. We have messed up every area of life, relationships, finances, work, families, and the environment. There’s not a single place we haven’t managed to mess up. The good news is that God is not afraid of your mess. It couldn’t be messier than His was. He was born in a mess - wrapped in rags - laid in a feed trough - and died in a mess - stripped of His rags, and hung on a cross. He had spent most of His time with messy people. We make Christmas very pretty but it actually wasn’t. The prophet Isaiah gives us a more encouraging view that Jesus…

by Luke KincaidA few weeks ago I experienced what was one of my favorite moments of being a dad. Seth really wanted to go for a walk but I was feeling quite tired. Eventually we set off up the road, hand in hand, and began our little adventure. We chatted and investigated various parts of the route, and then, out of nowhere, I felt his little arms wrap around my leg and heard him say: "I love you daddy." I embraced him and told him that I loved him too and we continued walking around for some time. This moment is so special to me because my little boy wanted to let me know that he loved me and I can't put down in words what that meant to me. I have said numerous times in these blogs that God has taught me so much about how I can be relating to Him through my interactions with Seth. The truth is that God the Father loves us, He truly does, and He is never too busy to spend time with us. I could have missed out on this beautiful moment with Seth if I excused away the opportunity to go for a walk with him but God doesn't do this with us. At any moment of any day we can call out to our Father and He will be there. So why don't you take a few moments to sit in God's presence and ask Him to reveal a sense of his love and acceptance of you, as you respond in telling Him what He means to you and how much you love Him?  Much love, Luke

by Calven Celliers As long as we’re alive, there is progress to be made! One thing that really excites me is that God will ultimately bring us as believers to a place of perfection, a place of completeness, a place of wholeness, a place where we will lack nothing spiritually, emotionally, relationally, physically or otherwise. Yet for now, we are far from perfect. Not one of us can honestly say we have already "arrived". We all wrestle with personal flaws, weaknesses, and hang-ups. There are areas of our lives that need to be changed or improved. But don’t despair. We are all on a journey of spiritual growth and progressive transformation, as He creates in us the likeness of Christ. In his letter to the Church at Philippi the apostle Paul declares, “12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”(Philippians 3: 12 – 14NLT) These words have inspired Christians from the day they were penned. As followers of Christ, we are called to strive to be like Christ; a process that the apostle Paul describes as a race with a heavenly prize at the finish line. According to Paul the race requires focus. The race requires forgetting the past. The race requires forging ahead in the strength that the Lord provides. The apostle Paul perceives himself to be a runner with one goal in mind: to finish the race and to win the prize. He was laser-focused on the race, the goal, and the finish line. He pursued the goal with the intent of capturing it. Like an Olympian runner, he would not look back at his failures. Paul, who was Saul, once persecuted the church violently. He played a part in the stoning of Stephen, and he could have let guilt and shame cripple him for that. But Paul chose not to let the past hold him captive. He looked forward resolutely toward the finish line where he would see the face of Jesus. The Christian life is a dynamic one. It’s always moving. We are ever learning, ever growing, and ever moving forward. Whilst we can, and must, learn from the past, we cannot allow ourselves to dwell, or even get trapped, in the past. So, be encouraged by Paul's emphasis here on forgetting the past and straining forward to what lies ahead. Don't let yesterday’s failures derail you from the goal of your upward call. Press on for the prize until you meet the Lord Jesus at the finish line. The race also requires forging ahead in the strength that the Lord provides. The direction of…