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the sacrifice of his Son’s life would make this possible.

      Jesus Christ would die on the cross, accepting the punishment that you and I deserve for our sins; the death of Jesus would be the perfect sacrifice that God needed to forgive our sins.

      When you ask God to forgive your sins, God can forgive you because Jesus Christ has already accepted the punishment for your sins when he was crucified.

      Christmas has become a frenzied festival of overindulgence: giving and receiving gifts has lost its meaning.

      The best gift that you can receive is God’s forgiveness.

      And this forgiveness was only made possible by the gift that God gave us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 - NIV)

      Church

      Many people confuse the word church to mean a big building where people meet to worship God.

      Actually, the definition and use of the word church is more confusing than you might think.

      The word church comes from the Greek word kuriakos, which can be translated as, belonging to the Lord.

      However, the word that is used in the original language of the Bible, which has been translated as church, is not kuriakos, it is ecclesia.

      Ecclesia can be translated as the called-out people.

      The word ecclesia was used in Greek society hundreds of years before the beginning of the first Christian communities; ecclesia was used to identify a body of elected people who had been chosen, or called out, for public service.

      Ecclesia originally had nothing to do with religion.

      Some people who translated the Bible into English used the word church to replace the word ecclesia.

      (Some early English translations of the Bible do not use the word church.)

      English translators of the Bible replaced the word ecclesia with the word church to identify the people who had been called out from the Roman and Jewish systems of the day, and who professed that they now belong to the Lord.

      The word church in our English translations of the Bible identifies these groups of people as living independently from the rule of kings and governments; these groups of people were ruled by God’s Holy Spirit, and served Jesus Christ, not the Roman Emperor, (which is one of the reasons why the early Christians were persecuted by the ruling Roman authorities).

      What this all means is that the modern biblical use of the word church represents a body of people who accept God as the ultimate authority: they do not accept civil government as the ultimate authority.

      If we can scrape through all this translation business, the key point is that a church is not a building, nor is it an organization (like the Roman Catholic Church, or the Anglican Church, or Presbyterian Church, or whatever).

      A church is a body of people who have accepted Christ as their Savior, and who respond to the teachings of the Bible.

      Regularly attending church services does not make you a Christian. Giving generously to support church funds does not make you a Christian. Contributing to church activities and meetings and events does not make you a Christian.

      You are a Christian when you believe in the gift of salvation that was achieved for you by the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made when he died for you on the cross: by this sacrifice God can forgive your sins.

      However, regularly meeting with fellow Christians is healthy. Church is a family of Christians, and it is good to be an active participant of that family: actively contributing to the health and welfare and growth of the family, caring for each other as brothers and sisters, sharing in sorrows, sharing in joy, praying together and maturing in Christian understanding together.

      ‘Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his [Christ’s] return is drawing near.’ (Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 - NLT)

      Paul describes the wider community of Christians in terms of a temple erected to the glory of God:

      ‘This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You are no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone.

      God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.’ (Ephesians chapter 2 verses 19 to 22 - MSG)

      The church is the body of Christ

      ‘Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.’ (1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 27 - ESV)

      The church is the living body of Christ here on earth.

      ‘The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

      But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” (1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 12 and 13, 18 to 21 - NLT)

      In the same way in which each part is essential to the health and full functionality of a whole human body, so it is with the church: Each church member is essential to the health and full functionality of the church, the body of Christ.

      You may have a highly visible role or responsibility to perform within the church, or you may have a simple or unnoticed role: whatever role you perform, be aware that you are essential to the overall effectiveness of the work of the church.

      The church is the body of Christian believers who gather under the Fathership of God.

      And the church is the living embodiment of Jesus Christ, which is active in the world, working as a united body in the service of God.

      ‘We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.’ (Ephesians chapter 4 verses 15 and 16 - NLT)

      Circumcision

      This was a sensitive subject of great significance to the early Christians; they relied on Paul’s enlightened wisdom to clarify the matter.

      Men are born with a protective hood of skin that covers the end of their penis; circumcision is the removal of this loose skin so that the end is left permanently exposed. In some cultures circumcision is still practiced, traditionally performed on baby boys at eight days old.

      About 1,900 years before the birth of Christ, God made a covenant with Abraham. God told Abraham that he would make him the ancestor of many, many people, and that the whole land of Canaan would be an everlasting possession to Abraham’s descendants.

      God told Abraham that, “Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.” (Genesis chapter 17 verses 10 and 11 - NIV)

      However,

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