Merry Christmas

John 3:17 // Original photo from The Collective Quarterly

Why are we celebrating? Do we ever really stop to think for long? Today we celebrate God breaking into this troubled world with a plan to save us from ourselves. He stepped into human history; a real living, breathing, feeling man, destined to live the perfect life we couldn't and pay the price we should have. What an amazing truth to celebrate! Have a very Merry Christmas however you're spending it and I'll leave you with some words from my little bro who puts all this far more eloquently than I'm capable of. 

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happy easter

It's Easter! This may well disappoint but this isn't a post filled with eggs, bunnies, chocolate, fluffy chicks or a mixture of the above. This is a canvas that I designed that hangs on our wall all year round to remind us that Jesus has risen! 

We remember this at Easter but really we can give thanks every day that Jesus conquered death once and for all on the cross. God loved us and blessed us but rather than acknowledging our maker, we have all turned away from him. Our selfishness has ruined the earth we live on and created a massive barrier between us and God. Instead of getting what we deserve he showed us amazing love and grace in sending his Son to live the obedient life we never could and dying the death that we deserve. He took our punishment even though he was betrayed, mocked and ridiculed all the way to the cross. 

Jesus wasn't just a good man; he was either the son of God sent to save us or a total nutter who voluntarily died an excruciating death for no reason! Who do you think he was? On Easter Sunday we remember how he rose from death and offered us new life in him. God always had a plan to save us from ourselves and on the cross all those promises came true. He longs for you to accept that you can't save yourself but instead put your trust in Jesus. Through him you can be forgiven and enjoy a relationship with your creator! This is the best news you'll ever hear because there is no way we can earn favour with a perfect and holy God. Even our kindest actions are tainted by selfishness. 

Too often we are looking all around us, desperately trying to find hope, happiness and fulfilment in the things of this world but it doesn't take too long before we realise these things never deliver the satisfaction they promise. But Jesus does and if our trust is in him alone, we receive an inheritance that lasts forever. Without Jesus we all deserve eternal punishment for how we've rebelled against a loving God but with him we have also defeated death and will live on in a world made new. This time there will be no sin to mess it up and we will give God the worship he deserves! Everything thing will be as it should.

If you'd like to make your own canvas you can download the artwork here and send to any canvas printing company. I used My Picture as it was really reasonable.

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hello shepherd's bush

If you’ve read my blog for a little while then you might well remember this post, written just before moving to London to set out on a bit of an adventure. God very obviously guided Nick and I to Shepherd's Bush to be a part of Trinity West Church. Reuben and Louisa Hunter, started the church from scratch in 2012 and by the time we were able to move to TW, it was a group of 22. Nick has been working as an intern for the church since November and we’ve both LOVED getting more and more involved in our new church family and are excited about our vision of reaching the local area with the good news of Jesus. It’s not without challenges but it has been really encouraging to be part of God's work so far. After launching publicly in January this year, God has already brought quite a few new people to join us, which is awesome!

Yesterday our new website was launched, so take a peak right here. Nick has spent hours getting the site up, running and looking slick. Seeing the end product you wouldn’t think this was his first time building a website! I worked on the above artwork for our current sermon series in Luke’s gospel and another fellow creative among us worked on a lot of the photography, the video and Exodus series artwork. 
If you live in the area and want to come along and join us on a Sunday morning, whether you’re a Christian or you’re just intrigued then please do. We’d love to have you. Jesus really is a saviour for ALL, no matter who you are, where you’re from or what you’ve done!

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merry christmas

In amongst all the frills and thrills of Christmas day it's easy to lose sight of what we're celebrating, when in fact it's the best news ever to hit this world. God came to this earth as a man, giving up the glory of heaven for a humble life as a human named Jesus. He shone his light into this dark and corrupt world on a mission to save us. By nature we have all rejected and rebelled against God, but in Jesus at Christmas God sends the remedy. He restored the relationship that we broke and gave us new life in him if we just believe.


Photograph sourced from Bonjour Tristesse

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it's in the name

This has been a long time coming! Every year I say I'll make some Christmas cards that are about Jesus and what we're really celebrating, but I've never got around to it. If you're a Christian then you might well struggle to buy Christmas cards, as lets be honest there aren't many decent ones out there. Most of the token 'religious' cards in the shops look like they're stuck in a different decade! As a result many of us younger folk end up gravitating towards the cards with cute reindeer, cozy mittens or jolly little snowmen on the front. They look nice but they don't celebrate Jesus coming into the world to save us from our sins. 

These may not look typically festive, but i thought I'd offer some free printable cards for you to download. Simply download, print onto A4 card and cut and score. Each one has the full bible verse on the back. 

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