{"id":1536,"date":"2017-12-05T22:05:58","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T22:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/?p=1536"},"modified":"2017-12-05T22:06:27","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T22:06:27","slug":"ministers-letter-dec-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/ministers-letter-dec-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister’s Letter – Dec 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/i>In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: <\/i>who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; <\/i>rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. <\/i>And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death \u2013 even death on a cross!\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/i>(Philippians 2:5b-8 NIVUK)<\/em><\/p>\n

As we enter the season of Advent, I\u2019ve been reflecting on the cost of Christmas.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t just mean the cost of Christmas in commercial terms: although, it has to be said that an obscene amount of money is spent on Christmas celebrations each year. For example, in 2016, UK Christmas spending reached \u00a377.56 billion. To put this in perspective, the estimated cost to ensuring everyone on earth has access to clean drinking water is somewhere between \u00a37.45 – \u00a311.31 billion.<\/p>\n

The cost I have in mind is the cost on people. I fear that we buy into a rather sanitised image of Christmas: it is a wonderful time of good cheer, a time for catching up with friends and meeting with family, for smiling and laughing and being merry. And for some, this is Christmas.<\/p>\n

But for others, Christmas is an intensely lonely and difficult time: it acts as a reminder of friends and family who, for whatever reason, are not present; of distant relations; of loss. While we may be inclined to celebrate, we should not forget those for whom Christmas is a very costly time.<\/p>\n

Yet, for one, Christmas was more costly than we will ever know. Paul alludes to it in the verses above, and the same sentiments are captured in the lyrics from the song, \u201cHow Many Kings\u201d by Downhere:<\/p>\n

How many Kings stepped down from their thrones?
\nHow many Lords have abandoned their homes?
\nHow many Greats have become the least for me?
\nAnd how many Gods have poured out their hearts,
\nTo romance a world that is torn all apart?
\nHow many Fathers gave up their Sons for me?
\nOnly One did that for me.<\/p>\n

At Christmas, we remember that God the Son left His rightful place in Heaven, and entered our world: not in power and authority, but as a vulnerable baby. The God of Creation stepped into our world, and took upon Himself the form of a human being: He became one of us.<\/p>\n

The cost of giving up His Heavenly glory to become one of us, we will never truly understand. How much more did it cost Him to take our death upon Himself: even death on a cross? It\u2019s a cliched, I know, but Jesus truly is \u201cthe reason for the season\u201d.<\/p>\n

May God bless you this Christmas,<\/p>\n

Stuart<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8z2vw-oM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":893,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/letter-from-our-session-clerk-sept-2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":1536,"position":0},"title":"Letter from our Session Clerk \u2013 Sept 2016","author":"admin","date":"4 September 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When you read this letter we will be in the month of September. I am told it is a sign of getting older when the summers just seem to fly past, and I hope you all had a restful end enjoyable summer. Already the signs of Autumn are with us.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2924,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/thursday-time-with-god-lectio-divina\/","url_meta":{"origin":1536,"position":1},"title":"Thursday Time with God – Lectio Divina","author":"Stuart Love","date":"23 July 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Psalm 1 Psalm 4 Psalm 6 Psalm 8 Psalm 11 Psalm 13","rel":"","context":"In "Reflections"","block_context":{"text":"Reflections","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/reflections\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ASITS-e1585078044748.jpg?fit=960%2C439&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ASITS-e1585078044748.jpg?fit=960%2C439&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ASITS-e1585078044748.jpg?fit=960%2C439&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ASITS-e1585078044748.jpg?fit=960%2C439&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2140,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/ministers-letter-february-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":1536,"position":2},"title":"Minister’s Letter – February 2019","author":"admin","date":"8 February 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.(1st Corinthians 10:31 NIVUK) I was really struggling to find inspiration for this month\u2019s letter; but thanks to a walk, God gave me some! 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