Joy - Pastor's Pen for 7th December 2025

Otuihau Whangārei Falls

Apostle Paul manages to write from prison in the early 60s CE his most joy-filled epistle to the Philippian Church. Being in prison sounds like a bit of a downer to me, but Paul has this waterfall of joy flowing out as he urges his readers to always rejoice.

The source of his joy is the Lord, and his hope of Christ's return, at a time of God's choosing. He encourages the believers to keep their hearts and minds on the important things of faith, with words like this in Phil 3:20-21:

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,  who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."

Theologically and practically, there is no real difference between the Church at Philippi and us, we live in that hope-filled space between the first and second advent of Jesus. The approaching Christmas season reminds us we have a living saviour, and the Holy Spirit active in our midst so that we are able to give testimony to what God is doing, as we pray, worship and minister together, seeing green shoots here and there and encouraged about the future.

Shalom