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1 John 3:8b.  ‘For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.’

This Christmas will be for some of my readers the most difficult and worrying they have ever experienced.  The threat of joblessness and poverty hangs over many families, there is the menace of increasing violence within our cities, whilst at the same time the Christian faith is become less and less tolerated by various sections of society.  This is quite apart from the equally dismal news from abroad, whether the financial crisis in Europe or the increasingly alarming events in the Arab world.

This Christmas I would like to encourage my readers to take heart.  If we are Christians then we have read to the end of the book and we know who wins.  Our Lord told us, “In the world you will have tribulation;  but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  However things may look, God is in charge of His creation and He will bring it to the consummation tht He has planned.  Not the incompetence of economists, nor the foolisheness of politicians, nor the wickedness of the devil can prevent it. 

God rest you, merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay;

Remember Christ our Saviour was born upon this day,

To save us all from Satan’s power when we had gone astray.

Glad tidings of comfort and joy!

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