Taken in isolation Christmas doesn’t warrant the attention it receives. Without Easter, the event in Bethlehem is no different to the celebration of any human birth.

It is when we link the divine announcement to Mary of her miraculous conception and the subsequent history of events in the life of Jesus that his birth becomes significant. Christianity is an experience of the soul that changes man's very character making possible “goodwill toward men”.

Only “Immanuel”  (God with us) is able to transform man’s nature. The church, as an institution, has no transforming  power to change man's character, and, sadly, we see examples of that in society.  

Writing of his personal relationship with Jesus, John, the apostle, declared of Jesus, “to all who received Him, who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God”.  

Personally, this is my 83rd Christmas, and 70th as a committed Christian, it is also my final Christmas as Pastor of the Glen Innes Church. In the words of a carol we sang last Sunday evening, let’s make Christmas a real celebration.   

Let your love show, Let your faith grow that everyone will know Christ.