12-28-14 Christmas Gifts: The Gift of Good News

From all of us here in the First Covenant Church family, let me wish you a Happy New Year!

An amazing number of our FCCers were home sick this Sunday, including my own wife and son, so if you’re reading this because you couldn’t be here due to illness or some other physical problems, please know that we prayed for you in the service.

In fact, 2014 has been kind of a hard year for a lot of our FCCers, but it’s also been a tremendously fulfilling one as well.  Next Sunday--January 4, 2015--we’ll be offering the opportunity for people to share a testimony about what God has been doing in their lives this year.  I’d encourage you to join us and share what’s going on in your life--or even just come so that you can support your fellow FCCers as they share what’s been going on in their lives (or, for that matter, just come to catch up on what’s been going on in everyone’s lives).  It’s always a meaningful day of praising God and loving one another well, so we look forward to seeing you here, if you can.

But before then, we’re hosting our annual First Covenant New Year’s Eve Family Game Night on Wednesday evening.  Bring some munchies, a board game, card game, or something else that people can join in with, and a fun-loving heart, and join us for an evening of quality family time.  At the end of the evening, we’ll even spend some time praying and ringing in the New Year with God and one another.  And bring a friend or two with you to join us.

In fact, that’s not a bad thing to do on a regular basis here at First Covenant.  If you love the Lord and you love your church family, why not share that wealth with others? 

As we ended our Advent series on “Christmas Gifts” this week, we looked at the gift of “good news,” which we not only can share with those around us, but should share with those around us. 

Between the nightly news, the internet, and most school classes we’ve ever taken, we’ve been kind of trained these days to let massive amounts of information passively wash over us--we’ve been trained that news is simply stuff that you “know,” not stuff that you do anything about. 

But God has called us to be ambassadors to the whole world, sharing God’s “good news” to a lost and fumbling planet.  How can they be saved unless they believe in God?  And how can they believe in Him unless someone tells them about Him?  And how will that happen unless people like you and me are willing to share what we’ve heard?

The shepherds just naturally considered the “good news” that they’d heard on that first Christmas Eve to be something that they should act on and share with everyone around them. 

To whom can you reach out this week?