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t:07949912500 w:www.newlifesalford.org e:admin@newlifesalford.org p:PO Box 480, Salford M5 3UY

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WELCOME to our Sunday celebration!

If it is your first time with us we would like to especially welcome you.

We hope that you will enjoy meeting with God and His people today!

Crèche, kids and youth work provisions are held in the rooms on the

2nd floor. All our fantastic children’s workers hold CRB checks.

Free tea and coffee is in the first floor foyer after the meeting where

we would love to get to know you and to help you make new friends.

The Welcome Desk is available for all information about the life of the

church including the all of the events listed in this Update.

This morning we have Kevin Hardwidge, who is part of our leadership

team, sharing God’s Word for us as a Church.

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Jesus Jesus Jesus FamousFamousFamous

What’s Coming Up:

Church Meetings atChurch Meetings atChurch Meetings at

Christmas & New YearChristmas & New YearChristmas & New Year

We WILL NOT be meeting together at the

INNOVATION FORUM over the Christmas

and New Year period, meeting instead on...

Sunday 26th December

at Josh and Becky’s home in Monton.

Sunday 2nd January

at various homes across Salford.

Tuesday: Church in the Home

7.00pm At Kevin and Jo Hardwidge’s home in Swinton

Wednesday: Church in the Home

7.30pm At David and Hannah Knight’s home in Langworthy

For further details please ask at the Welcome Desk...

Experience the life and love of

Jesus in our homes together...

Timely Love

By Jennie Buss

Six days left until Christmas!! Presents are being bought and wrapped,

houses decorated and final preparations for the festive season are being

made. But just as the world is counting down to Christmas, so God is count-

ing down to the fulfilment of his plans and purposes. When the Bible talks of

time however, it is speaking of a far bigger concept than the English word we

understand. In both Greek and Hebrew, there are many different words

which convey a greater richness to our idea of ‘time’, and help us to under-

stand more of what God sees ‘time’ as.

In Galatians 4:4-5, Paul writes: ‘But when the fullness of time had come, God

sent forth his Son, born

of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who

were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.’ Here Paul

uses the Greek word ‘chronos’ for time. This word describes time in a linear

fashion, and is where we get our word ‘chronological’ from. Although God is

outside of time, he works within it. The precise point in history when Jesus

was born, 2000 years ago was no accident. We can clearly see God’s perfect

timing: the Roman Empire was at its height, and an unprecedented time of

peace and law, the ‘Pax Romana’, ruled the world, creating a perfect infra-

structure in which the gospel could be spread.

In Romans 5:6, Paul speaks of God’s perfect timing again: ‘You see, at just

the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.’ In

this passage, Paul chooses to use the Greek word ‘Kairos’ for time instead.

This word refers to a fullness, or culmination of time. Rather than being

chronological, it is used to describe when things have come to a ‘head’. It is a

turning point, a season of significance. This helps us to understand that Jesus

coming to earth, rather than being a point in history, is instead the main

event on which all of history is suspended! Jesus’ life and death sent reper-

cussion into the past and the future and changed our lives forever!

God’s wisdom and perfect timing are not just evident in the incarnation, but

in our lives too. Evelyn Underhill said this about the mystery of God’s ways:

“If God would be small enough to understand, he would not be big enough

to be worshipped”. Not being able to understand all that God does, makes

Him more wonderful not less.