Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for morning tea.
At Christmas, we often speak about love – love for family, love expressed through gifts, love found in warm gatherings and kind words. Yet the heart of Christmas reveals a deeper, truer love than anything we could create ourselves.
The birth of Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s love. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son” (John 3:16). God did not wait for us to be worthy, grateful, or even interested. He loved first. He entered our broken world, not as a distant king but as a vulnerable child, showing that real love comes close, sacrifices and stays.
This love is not sentimental or temporary. It is a love that steps into darkness and offers hope. Jesus was born to live among us and to die for us, proving that love is not just something God feels – it is something God does.
At Christmas, we are invited not only to receive this love, but to respond to it. God’s love calls us to lay down pride, fear, and self-reliance and to trust Him. And as we receive His love we are changed – empowered to love others with the same grace we have been shown. This Christmas, may we pause and reflect: Have we truly embraced the love that came in a manger, and allowed it to transform our hearts?
With love & blessings,
Sandra
Beckenham Baptist Church 