Our afternoon message comes from our pastor’s second son, Rory Johnson, a junior ‘preacher-boy’ at Bob Jones University. The three truths of true forgiveness are its unlimited scope, its Christ-like attitude, and it is a mark of citizenship in the Kingdom.

We resume our study of Pilgrim’s Progress, looking at the first bit of the second part of the book. Here we find Christiana, the formerly scoffing wife of Christian, moved by his death and his testimony to enter on pilgrimage, following his footsteps. Her decision shocks most of her neighbours, but begins to influence one.

Find our study guide here and the same guide with answers here.

In defiance of our weather, we are determined to finish our Christmas series on the theme suggested by the Moravian star. We began with Creation and ‘Let there be light’; then we looked at the pagan ’soothsayer-for-hire’, Balaam and his remarkable prophecy, ‘A star shall come forth from Jacob’.

This week we come to the Christmas star and the arrival of the wise men. The passage reveals three attitudes toward the Star of Jacob: the earnest faith of seeking men, the concealed enmity of a seething man, and the dead accuracy of indifferent men. The only attitude that changes lives is that of those who seek the Saviour.

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Our pastor’s son, Duncan, preached our afternoon service this week. He brought a message from Jeremiah, demonstrating the inadequacy of trust in self and satisfaction in our own endeavours. He called us to seek true satisfaction in God.

No notes for this message.

Our second look at the Moravians is a survey of their first mission to St Thomas in the Virgin Islands. We plan to see a documentary of this effort on New Years Eve. Our study today is something of a verbal “preview” of First Fruits.

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Continuing our Christmas series after our snow-hiatus, we turn to the second passage associated with the Moravian star, Num 24.17. In this message we see how a man can have such a close relationship with God that he can be given inspired prophecy to utter, yet still be in rebellion, an enemy of God, and miss the real light of the star he sees ‘but not now’ in his prophecy.

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As an alternative, we held a small service in our home this afternoon with a few who were able to make it over. We recorded it (with an inferior microphone) but we offer it here so our folks can have a ‘virtual service’. Our daughter-in-law accompanies us on the violin, with a special of What Child is This as well.

Reactions to Christmas (Lk 2.15-20)

Our message is a brief meditation on the Christmas story and the five reactions we see to the announcement in this passage. We hope it is a blessing to you.

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That’s the Malahat at 9:15am… our people who drive over it each week for church shouldn’t take the risk, not to mention the icy streets and accumulating snow we have everywhere else.

We can be thankful that this usually only happens once a year! But we think a memo to the weatherman is in order: Here in Victoria, we don’t do snow!

In our context, this part of the Bible seems utterly foreign to us. We read through it, if we are in the habit of reading through our Bibles, because it’s there, not because we derive great insight and blessing or instruction from it.

• Isn’t that true?

My goal in preaching through these passages is to help you discover what God was saying to Israel through this ‘enacted spirituality’, these visible, physical pictures of an inner, spiritual reality. I want you to get this principle:

The externals of Judaism embody the internals of Theism.

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From our “Moravian star” Christmas theme:

One of the most fascinating stories of Church History (among many) is the story of Count Zinzendorf.

The apostle Paul said:

^KJV 1 Corinthians 1:26 ¶ For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

Count Zinzendorf and a few others are very thankful that the apostle didn’t say: “not any” — he just said “not many.”

So today for our study time I’d like to give you a bit more detail concerning the life of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

Read the notes while you listen.