Letter from Jon, December 2023 

 The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’)
                                                                       Matthew 1:23
 
Dear Friends
 
You will probably recognise these words as part of the Christmas story, when the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream to let him know that the baby to be born to Mary was the long-awaited Messiah; that God had not abandoned his people but was coming to live amongst them. Immanuel – God with us.  The people were desperate for a Saviour, but in a nation, a promised land, overrun by the Romans and rife with corrupt leaders and religious factions, it was easy to think that God had abandoned them.  And yet into this world of pain the angel declares ‘God with us’.
 
God is with us.  What greater good news can there be than God, the Creator and sustainer of life, is with us.  In all our brokenness and failings, fears and disappointments, in all our pain and suffering, our joys and celebrations, in the best and worst of life, God is with us.  Not only is God with us but he is for us.  He has not come to condemn us but to save us, to rescue us, to rescue all of creation from death and decay. And on the night that Jesus is born the angels declare to the shepherds ‘good news that will cause great joy for all the people’ (Luke 2:10). 
 
As we enter into this season of Advent, anticipating the birth of our Saviour, we do so as a people of ‘Good News’.  If you ever wonder what this Good News is that we have to bring, to declare to a broken world, to live by and to love by, then it is rooted in this word, Immanuel. God is with us in the person and power of Jesus Christ.  He is our hope in the midst of a world that appears, very often, to be utterly Godless.  He is here and he is bringing his kingdom to bear in us and through us.  He has not, and will not, abandon his people, his creation.  I love to see signs of his presence, his power, his kingdom in the ordinariness and messiness of life.  I look at Liberty Church, as we love and serve and worship and befriend and support and comfort and I know that God is with us.
 
This Christmas season my hope for all of us is that we would know the reality of this Good News in our own lives, in whatever situation we find ourselves in, that we would know Immanuel, God with us, and that we would live our lives out of that confident hope that he is not only with us, but he is for us, our Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ.
 
Love and Joyful Blessings
 
Jon