REV
DR MARK REID was appointed as Pastor of Maidstone Road Baptist Church
in 2007.
Mark was
previously Minister of Swaffham
Baptist Church in Norfolk after training at Spurgeon's College and
Woodberry Down Baptist Church in London. Prior to entering
full-time ministry, Mark was a teacher for 14 years.
Mark
hails
originally from Wales and has a wife, Rhiannon and two children,
Michael and Bethan as well as two dogs, Judy and Bailey.
Christmas
Hope
Dear Friends
For millions of people, the
Christmas
season means nothing more than parties, gifts, decorations, and time
off work. For Christians, however, this time of year is a happy
reminder of the hope we have because of Jesus Christ.
Let’s be realistic when we
look at
the modern Christmas. There’s so much to enjoy but sadly the
coming into this world of the eternal Son is something that sits in
the background, so that for most folk, Christmas is just a mid-winter
festival where everyone starts to look forward to the promise of a
new year bar the struggle of bad weather in January and February. But
that’s so short-sighted because Jesus Christ is more than just
a seasonal Saviour: He is the eternal hope for all men and women who
come to Him recognising their own sin and lack of a future without
God.
Christ means hope—to the
person out
of work, to the struggling single mother, to the dying believer; in
fact to all those who know Him, He is our hope in every situation of
life. Even if you're just slogging your way through the
disappointments of life, if you have Jesus, you have hope. And he is
not a false hope, a childish fairy tale that we wish will have a
happy ending. When Christ rose from the dead, that ended the
argument. Our hope in him is eternal, solid and real.
Christmas is a renewal of
that hope.
It reconfirms it for us if our vision has grown dim. It was settled
long ago, so we don't have to doubt any more. Jesus is the fulfilment
of our hope, our deepest longings come true. So this Christmas,
let’s remind ourselves of the wonderful Saviour we have, the hope
that He brings to us and ask Him to fill us with that hope afresh.
Your
life is
a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost
God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you
grew up in. He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died
like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought.
Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become
public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you.
It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from
the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a
future in God.
