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Advent calendar 2023

Christmas Day!

Happy Christmas! How’s your Christmas Day going? Good, I hope. But you know there’s always something that does’t quite go to plan. Maybe it’s an underwhelming amount of sprouts at the dinner table, or the day runs late and you miss a TV show you’d hoped to see, or maybe the snow fails show (actually…

Advent calendar: Day 24 – Lack

In a world that is so focussed on possessions, we can often feel like we’re lacking. More than that, there are many that struggle to put food on the table and pay the bills — maybe that includes you. But Jesus is not unfamiliar with our struggles, for He wasn’t born in a palace, but into a…

Advent calendar: Day 23 – Salvation

The Bible tells us that Mary knew she needed a Saviour. And in the weeks after Jesus was born, a man called Simeon declared (as He saw Jesus), that He had seen God’s salvation. Indeed, it seems like almost everyone recorded in the Christmas story knew that Jesus was the Saviour of the world. But King Herod…

Advent calendar: Day 22 – Christmas food

What are you looking forward to eating this Christmas? Maybe it’s the first taste of the turkey on Christmas day, or a few pigs-in-blankets from the Christmas buffet at work. Maybe it’s working your way through yet another box of chocolates. These things are certainly an enjoyable part of this time of year. But have you noticed…

Advent calendar: Day 21 – Herod

The Christmas story is certainly one of joy, and good news. But there is one dark moment should still cause us to shudder — and that is how King Herod, having been informed of Jesus birth, and realising that the wise men had not returned to tell him the exact location of it, ordered all…

Advent calendar: Day 20 – Sin

While we hope Christmas will be a happy and easy time, our sin — and that of others — is often evident to see; whether it’s a drunken endeavour at the Christmas party, the overflowing tempers at home, or the desperate scenes as people fight (sometimes literally) for the bargains in the shops. It might…

Advent calendar: Day 19 – Love

Talking about love is no bad thing, of course. But at Christmas, it seems there is an increase in the number of films or songs that talk about it. You only have to watch a hallmark Christmas movie to get that impression. But the good news of that firstChristmas was the love that God showed in…

Advent calendar: Day 18 – Christmas gifts

What are you hoping to get for Christmas? That’s what some will ask you. And it’s what many of us are thinking about. But as enjoyable as Christmas presents can be in the moment, the excitement is short lived. But there’s a different kind of gift that is far greater than anything you can wrap…

Advent calendar: Day 17 – Wise men

It’s rare that you don’t see three wise men as part of a nativity play, or TV drama. However, there’s a lot that gets mistaken — they almost certainly rode horses, and not camels, they arrived up to 2 year after Jesus was born, and not the day he was, and there were significantly more…

Advent calendar: Day 16 – Death

Death somehow seems more tragic this time of year. Yet it is always tragic. And Christmas can be hard, no matter how long it’s been since we lost a loved one. But the good news of Christmas is that death will no longer be the winner in all this. Because Jesus came to earth as…