Hi All

As we move into a further lockdown I have some news regarding our services and Christmas! I also have three simple words on my heart for us as we live, love, and shine our light in these dark days.

Kindness, Honour, & Hope

I believe in this season God is calling us to a greater measure of kindness, honour, and hope. The kindness of God is evident to us in our salvation. How kind is the offer of Salvation through the death of Jesus? God came down, descended into our mess and sin, lived a sinless life and died a sacrificial death in our place, taking every punishment for our wrong doing. That is the kindest, most generous, loving act the universe throughout history has ever witnessed. Through our salvation we are then honoured as children of God. We have the greatest honour of being the family of God! Our future is then secure. We have eternal life, a destiny of Heaven and a life lived now from the perspective of being seated in heavenly places in Christ.

Salvation is radically kind, utterly honouring and injects hope into the lives of all who receive!

God freely gives, we freely receive and then overflow into giving!

Having received kindness, honour, and hope, I believe this is the season to give it more than ever. Can we be kind to each other and the rest of the world in fresh, creative, and greater ways? Can we Honour every other person despite their opinions? Can we honour national and local government even when we don’t agree? Can we receive hope when situations look hopeless? Can we be a people who speak out of the Hope we receive?

I believe the answer to all these questions is a resounding yes! It is yes because all we are called to give we have already received in Christ. So my charge to you is call from Jesus “Freely you have received, freely give”

Lockdown

Following the government announcement of a second national lockdown we are no longer permitted to hold gathered services. We can still broadcast from our building so we will continue with our mix of online team only live stream services and pre-recorded services.

Christmas services

Our plans for Christmas services are coming together. We want to be able to meet all together for our Christmas services rather than a small number in the building and the rest online. We obviously can’t do a live Nativity or Carol Service in the current climate, so we have plans to share online services together with two great Christmas video services online. We also plan to give our streaming and worship teams a break over Christmas after their amazing effort over the last 6 months.  So on Christmas day we will produce a short video message and worship for you to connect to and 27th December will also be all of us together online.

Our next in person gathered service will be January 3rd providing there are no further government restrictions. We will open bookings for this once we know that we are again permitted to meet.

People not online

We will continue to look after our people who are not on the internet with CD’s of the word from our services, weekly updates and notes delivered each week. We will also aim to do some small gatherings for those not on the internet after the current lockdown measures end.

Good news – Advent Calendar

Live Prayer

Tash & I will be available on St Helens CLC Facebook Live again this Thursday for live prayer. We have had some amazing prayer times with people joining us from lots of different places. Please join us, bring your prayer requests and come ready to pray and share prophetic words with other people.

Protection Peace & Joy

Praying protection, peace, and joy for you as we live from a different foundation in this challenging season. Jesus is the rock we stand upon. Let us receive from Him lavishly and give generously of all that Jesus gives to us.

Love & Blessings

Craig