Christmas.

This month, I've been following a Christmas bible plan. It's been awesome. I've been directed to Isaiah (which I still find really difficult to spell) quite a bit, and have discovered all these incredible Old Testament prophecies that point straight to Jesus. My mind has been well and truly BLOWN.

Today, I was told to dive back into the gospels, with a passage from Luke. For anyone who doesn't know the story of John the Baptist's birth, go look it up now! It's found in Luke 1, and is another one of those mind-blowers. The Bible is well and truly packed with them. The passage I read today tells of the priest Zechariah (again, tricky spelling) prophesying over his newborn son John. 

"And you, my little son,
      will be called the prophet of the Most High,
      because you will prepare the way for the Lord.
    You will tell his people how to find salvation
      through forgiveness of their sins.
    Because of God’s tender mercy,
      the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,
    to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
      and to guide us to the path of peace.”    - Luke 1:76-79

Now I've read this passage before, quite a few times I think, but I'm not sure how I just skipped over it. "Because of God's tender mercy" <- How amazing is that? Because of God's tender mercy, he sent us Jesus. Not just his mercy, but his tender mercy. He is loving, he is kind, he is our Father. 

For me this was a reminder, that Christmas is about God having tender mercy on us, sending us Jesus. He freed us from sin, from judgement, he gave us an escape to something glorious. God was so lovingly merciful that he intervened, he came down to Earth in his own creation (again, MIND BLOWN) so that he could be reconciled to us. That's our cause for celebration, the reason for the season. The morning light from heaven has broken upon us!

And that's so stupidly exciting, I had to write about it, end of. I've also been watching The Nativity on the BBC, it's still on iPlayer, and if you haven't seen it you need to! I've cried twice already and I still have the final episode left. But then, after all, it is the greatest, most important, most beautiful story ever told.

I hope you have an amazing Christmas.

p.s. Jesus really loves you

An Update, and Some Project 125 Stuff..

So once again I must start a blog post with an apology. I'm just not very consistent with posts. Some people update every other day, and I can only admire and be absolutely baffled by them. But hey, ho!

In case y'all hadn't noticed, IT'S CHRISTMAS! A very good time of the year. Yet, with my first AS exams looming in January, I get a feeling that this Christmas isn't going to be quite as care-free as previous years.
Nonetheless, I am determined to enjoy my holiday amidst revision. Two of my favourite people will be returning from uni, the tree is going up this afternoon, it's my second Christmas with Christ, family are coming to stay with us, the next few weeks of church, lots of giving and receiving of presents and, of course, the Dr. Who Christmas special to look forward to. I'm so excited that I may even try my hand at cooking again, having found a yummy recipe for 'Christmas Bread' by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, whose name is positively spectacular.

Also, come the new year, Beth Rutland and myself will be raising money for Project 125 in a Doctor Who related way. We will be competing to see which sucker lucky person will be able to eat the most fish fingers and custard. Yep, I wrote that right, fish fingers and custard.

For those of you, who aren't Doctor Who fans (although why you wouldn't be is beyond me), you will need to watch this clip for full understanding:



The idea is that hopefully kind people such as yourself will sponsor us, and we'll make a beautiful video as proof that we did indeed eat the fish custard. This is all for the girls dormitory in Serenje, so please sponsor us! If you want to, just leave a comment on this post, or donate on the JustGiving page leaving a comment of 'Fish Custard' so we know that's what it's for.

If I don't get a chance to blog again, although fingers crossed I will, HAPPY CHRISTMAS :)

p.s. You know you want to sponsor us