Celebrate the birth of Jesus with us!

When was Jesus born? Nobody knows! However, we can remember the birth of Jesus and how that can have an impact on our lives.

We invite you to join us to remember why Jesus was born, in a warm and friendly atmosphere.

Starting at 10:30am, our Christmas Day service (December 25) will include a mixture of songs, Bible readings, a short talk, and other activities. It will be suitable for a range of ages. The service will be for about an hour, and will be followed by light refreshments.

Summer trading hours

It is planned that the shop will close at 2pm on Friday December 23, and will re‐open at 10am on Monday January 16. The centre will still be open for our usual services on Sundays over the summer break.

Bible Explorers’ end of year BBQ & games

Join us at the Dandenong Park (corner of Foster St and Princes Highway) on Sunday December 11 at 1:00pm for a special end‐of‐year BBQ breakup for the Bible Explorers. All are welcome, especially if you have children up to around 12 years of age. After the BBQ there will be games, with plenty of fun in the open space of the park. There will be treats for the children too. It is expected that the activities will be finished by approximately 2:30pm. This is a great opportunity to meet some of the children and teachers for those who are considering bringing their children to Bible Explorers in 2012.

New Life Class topics

(11:30am–12:30pm)

Bible related topics for the coming weeks are as follows:

Dec 4: Current events lead to the return of Christ
Dec 11: Repentance
Dec 18: Does it matter what you believe?
Dec 25: Christmas Day service at 10:30am

Still time to buy gifts

A large variety of gifts is available at the Dandenong Bible Education Centre. Monday to Friday 10am–2pm.

What’s on?

• New Life Class: 11:30am, Sundays
• Bible Explorers: 11:30am, Sundays
• “What is your question?”: 10:30am-1pm, Mondays
• Learn English Class: 7pm, Tuesdays
• Happy Faces playgroup: 10:30am, Wednesdays
• Questions and Answers: 8pm, Wednesday Dec 7
• DVD “I once was blind”: 8pm, Wednesday Dec 21
• Ladies’ Bible study: 10:30am, Thursdays
• Intermediate course “God and you through Jesus”: 7:30pm, Thursdays
• Bible readings: 12:45pm, Monday to Friday
• Bible Explorers Picnic: 1:00pm, Sunday Dec 11
• Last day shop open for 2011: Friday December 23
• Christmas Day service: 10:30am, Sunday Dec 25
• Shop re‐opens: Monday January 16

All our plans are subject to God’s will

“I once was blind” DVD—8:00pm Wednesday December 21

“I Once Was Blind” explains the Bible’s message through a story of conversion. In this DVD Dwight Kindred explains how he grew up as a Christian, decided to be a minister, and attended a seminary while specializing in Hebrew and Greek studies. He tells how he eventually lost his sight due to a congenital cornea failure. His loss of vision prompted him to listen to the Bible in a new way. Through the course of this program, Dwight encourages the viewer to join him in looking at the Bible with new eyes and consider its real message.

Join us on Wednesday December 21 at 8:00pm to watch this compelling film. A light supper will follow.

Never the same again—a Christmas meditation

As every parent knows, the arrival of a child makes a huge difference to the things a family can do, the way they eat, sleep, rest and play. But it’s all very worthwhile when you think about what has happened. The new arrival gives the family a focus and real hope for the future.

It was every mother’s dream in Israel that her son would be the Messiah that God would send into the world. It was Mary who was chosen to be the mother of Jesus, when God’s Holy Spirit power overshadowed her (Luke 1:35) and for Mary life would never be the same again. At the time she had no husband, though she had a marriage arranged with Joseph. Imagine how difficult that would have been in a small town like Nazareth, when Mary was found to be pregnant before their marriage.

If Mary had to bear the burden of village gossip and spiteful innuendo for all her years at Nazareth, it would have been the same for Jesus. Have you ever thought that this unpleasantness was completely avoidable? If Jesus had been born in Herod’s palace, instead of in Bethlehem, nobody would have questioned the circumstances—they wouldn’t have dared. And if he had been reared in a palace his life would have been much more comfortable and far more protected. Instead he spent thirty years in a small out‐of‐the‐way town working as a carpenter. He would have been at everyone’s beck and call, working with his hands, struggling to make a living for his parents and their large family. When Joseph died, then the responsibility for the family would have fallen on him, as the eldest child in the family. And all of this happened as Jesus was waiting for the right time to begin his public ministry, in which he would invite men and women to follow him in the service of his heavenly Father.

God Always Knows

Of course it was no accident that resulted in the choice of Mary to be the mother of the Messiah. God knew exactly what was necessary to shape and mould His Son. He wanted him to identify completely with ordinary people: the very ones who would later be willing to follow him and lay down their lives in faithful service, if needs be. Jesus was not cushioned from the hardships of life: he knew them from inside the struggling working‐class family of which he was a key member.

Not for him kings’ palaces, or a sheltered upbringing. He has been where we have all been and has shown that it is possible to do a decent day’s hard work and to make it part of a dedicated life of service and satisfaction. Jesus could so easily have protested at being lumbered with the responsibilities of family life, when he had come to do a much greater service for humanity. But he did not. The apostle Paul summed up his position in just a few words when he wrote that Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient” (Philippians 2:8). It is a fine example for each of us to follow.

Never the Same

Since the birth, the life, the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ everything has changed. Things will never be the same again, for he has given us the perfect example of how to live and has shown us what humanity can achieve, with God’s help. It wasn’t that his birth just changed one family in Nazareth. It has changed family life itself.

For the work of Jesus was designed by God to make it possible for people like us to become adopted members of the family of God. We were not born in the same way that Jesus was born. But we can be reborn, by believers’ baptism, to become God’s children, because of what Jesus has done for us:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. (Romans 8:16-17)

Taken from the “Glad Tidings” magazine (abridged).

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