Dear Friends,

How precious is the Good News from God given to us in the Bible. What good news it is. It is good news without any catch in it, and better than anything that we can imagine. The Bible is full of this Good News from start to finish. Our Church Message for 1993 is just one expression of it, but an expression so full an clear.

The Gospel, first, is that God gives, and not just that he gives but that he has already given. The gift is already provided and freely offered. Although it is a very costly gift, so costly that no value can be put on it and quite beyond the resources of the whole world to pay, yet it is offered completely free to everyone of us.

This is wonderful news because if God had required payment the blessing would have been out of our reach. It would have still been out of our reach if he had reduced the price. It would be out of our reach as well if God had just put a token price upon it. We have nothing with which to pay God for anything. We think we have so much, but as we sort through all our supposed assets, we find there is nothing that has any value to God, indeed we realise that our assets are really an insult to God.

The gift is wonderful - it is eternal life. Everyone of us is straining for life. All we do is an expression of our desire for life. It is not sufficient to be alive. So many alive in our world today are alive, but miserable. Indeed many are in a living hell on earth. But for those of us who have a reasonable standard of life, however good, there is still this striving for life. The pursuit of prosperity, success, fame, popularity, love, excitement, wealth and all the things money can buy, is an expression of this striving for life. Every day, however successful we are, the striving continues because we know real life is still beyond our reach.

God offers this life as a gift. Eternal does not mean simply life which never ends, but quality of life which totally satisfies.

Where is this life found so that we can receive it? This life is in God's Son, Jesus Christ. God gave his Son in love to the world when he was born in Bethlehem, became flesh, became human, and dwelt among us. God gives himself, for Jesus was God and is God. Eternal Life, life which meets our deepest need, is to love and be loved by Jesus. It is to have fellowship with God. It is to live in a loving relationship with him. It is to be able to share everything with Jesus, and to know the joy of his loving presence with us day by day.

This communion of love with God, Jesus made possible, and this is incorporated in the gift of life God has given us in Jesus. Jesus was given when he came into the world to give his life a ransom for us.

Where does all our unrest, dissatisfaction, failure in human life come from. It is the result of the fact that Satan claims us as his own because we have forfeited God's acceptance, not only by the wrong we have done and do, but also because of the rejection of God which is in our hearts. Jesus was given by God so that he could pay the price of our sin, and so take away all Satan's claim upon us, and free us to belong to him. The death of Jesus has ransomed us from all our sin both in the past and in the future.

In this life our experience of eternal life is real, but not complete, because we are still in this world where Satan dominates every facet of life; but we know that we possess eternal life because we have fellowship with Jesus. We know also that the life to come will be where eternal life will be perfectly known and experienced. Then we shall dwell in perfect love with Jesus and with all who have received eternal life in Jesus. What a prospect to look forward to while the trials in this present evil world continue.

"He who has the Son has life". There is a wealth of meaning in this short sentence. It means that to possess this life we must receive Jesus as our God and Saviour, commit our lives to him, and submit to his rule and will. It means trusting in Jesus as the one who has born the guilt and punishment for our sins. In this renouncing of our self rights to our lives we find life. Jesus tells us we find rest in this servitude to him, and that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

But this short sentence tells us how to maintain and enjoy this life daily, and find it increasing in joy in our living. We can never have more of eternal life than when we first gave our lives to Jesus. But we can know greater experience and joy of it. We maintain and increase our joy in eternal life by our communion with Jesus.

So often we pray to Jesus and seek him for the blessings he gives, and the help he bestows. Our prayers are full of petitions concerning our needs. But eternal life is in Jesus and not in his blessings. Jesus wants us to want him for himself and not for what he can give. Jesus saved us for himself to have a loving relationship with him. Eternal Life is Jesus and our relationship with him.

Do we want to know the experience of eternal life, then let us seek Jesus; seek his presence; dwell in his love; praise him and adore him; come to him and love him; let him love us and embrace us with the arms of his mercy and grace. It is when we feel him by our side and in our hearts and look into his face spiritually that we know the joy of eternal life.

God has given us Jesus. Eternal life is to walk with him and talk with him and make him our own. Eternal life is when in Jesus presence he makes known to us more of his love.

May this good news be more and more of a reality with us throughout this year.

Your servant for Christ's sake,