Well, it’s nearly here! Merry Christmas for Wednesday!

There won’t be a normal Refill next Sunday, so thank you for being part of The Sunday Refill this past year and especially for all your little encouragements about articles or links you’ve found helpful.

So, for one last time in 2019, here’s your seven up…

1) After a bruising year, Christmas offers lessons in unity, healing and reconciliation – Loved this Christmas reflection from recently re-elected MP and Christian, Tim Farron.

2) Christmas Carols Radio – If you’ve not come across Christmas Carols Radio, you’re missing out! Sick to death of Christmas cheese? Tune into a glorious selection of carols interspersed with Christmas Bible readings and bitesize engaging Bible reflections on the nativity. A great site to share with those who might appreciate this playing in the background…

3) 19 Pieces of Goodness in 2019 Pop Culture – Enjoyed this comprehensive round-up of the good, true and beautiful in popular culture this past year.

4) Frozen 2 – Review – Amy from Faith in Kids reviews the Frozen sequel. Oh, and if you haven’t seen Faith in Kids’ video on ‘Saving Christmas’, it’s a brilliant one for playing at this week’s carol services!

5) If God Can Show Up in Bethlehem – This helps us to reflect on the surprise of that first Christmas.

6) How Emotions Drive Unbelief – Nothing really particularly Christmassy about this, but Andrew Wilson gives us a fascinating look at a new book on unbelief from church historian Alec Ryrie – a subject which is of course interesting to reflect on at a time of year when lots of people grace church buildings with their presence, but ‘struggle to believe’.

7) Chewbacca Does Silent Night – For something a bit different, this has to be seen to be believed…

Sharing is caring. Know someone who might find these links interesting? Why not forward it on?

If you subscribe to the weekly blog round-up email but also would like to receive daily (Monday-Saturday) Advent email devotionals from the book of Ruth, you can subscribe to those separately by following this link.

If you want to catch up or get a flavour of previous reflections from Ruth chapter 1-2, you’ll find the links at the top of yesterday’s devotion here.

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Seven up…

1) Christmas: The Fairy Tale That Must Be True – Loved this from Scott Sauls. As Pascal said, communicate the gospel in such a way ‘that good men wish it were true’.

2) Hope does not disappoint – the way forward after the election – Gav Calver, CEO of the Evangelical Alliance, shares his reflections after Thursday’s UK General Election.

3) Pastors & Burnout: A Personal Reflection – Because if there’s a time of year where pastors feel the pressure, Christmas is it – or perhaps as we collapse in a heap after Christmas.

4) New Music – Thought I’d share a few new tracks that have caught my eye recently: Alanna Glover from EMU Music has written Saviour in a Manger, perfect for Advent & Christmas. CityAlight and Colin Buchanan have teamed up for a new track, Jesus, Strong & Kind, which seeks to be a song all ages can cling to through different seasons of life. And I also loved this new arrangement of Sovereign Grace Music’s Behold Our God, with international voices and languages – a moving glimpse of the Revelation 7 picture of people from every tongue praising God.

5) Accusations emerge online that shocking depiction of Jesus in a manger was ‘staged’ by his mother – Can you believe it?!

6) Preaching at Christmas – Ian Paul and Glen Scrivener share their reflections on preaching at this time of year. Actually, Glen managed to get a second article out on preaching at Christmas here!

7) 52 things I learned in 2019 – For something a bit different, as lists go this is pretty eccentric – but fascinating too!

Sharing is caring. Know someone who might find these links interesting? Why not forward it on?

Dark Clouds on the Horizon?

As we look forward to 2020, it’s hard not to be troubled by all that goes on in our world. There’s so much on our TV screens and newsfeeds that is deeply unsettling. And yet sometimes I find the closer I look into my own heart, that state of unsettledness gets even worse!

If that’s anything like your experience, then let me invite you to spend some time in the book of Lamentations as you begin this new year.

The truth is that Lamentations is a book of the Bible that doesn’t get a lot of air-time.

I can’t recall ever hearing a single sermon, never mind a sermon series, on this book. There’s a famous verse in the book’s middle chapter about God’s mercy being ‘new every morning’ – and this tends to get plastered on Christian art, calendars, you-name-it. But in all honesty, I would have struggled to tell you much more about the book’s content or it’s relevance for Christians today.

And yet I’ve been discovering that Lamentations gives us a unique and powerful insight into responding to life in this fallen world, through focusing in on a devastating moment in Bible history.

Diving Deep, Feasting Well

Recently I had the opportunity to write a series of ten daily devotions going through the whole of this often-missed book of the Bible – you can pick them up in the January-March 2020 edition of Explore, a set of quarterly dated Bible-reading notes which aim to “help you read, understand and apply the extraordinary truths of God’s word, every single day.”

In fact, not only do you get ten Bible devotionals on Lamentations, you also get eighty others (i.e. enough to last you three months) on Proverbs, Hosea, 1 Corinthians, and a really interesting series on New Year Resolutions, and more besides. All for just £4.24 – bargain!

You can pick up a copy here. Or download the app and pay through that.

What’s Your Plan to Read Your Bible This Year?

If you’ve not come across Explore before, it’s well worth checking out. Spending a little bit of time reading and praying through the Bible each day is a brilliant rhythm to get into – even if it’s just five minutes.

Do you have a plan for how you will help yourself to read the Bible and spend rich time in God’s word this year? Why not try Explore?

And whilst there are lots of ‘daily Bible reading notes’ out there, one of the things I especially love about Explore is that it aims to push you into the Bible, rather than just skimming along the surface. There’s questions and comments to help you dig in for yourself. You get the wood, the trees – and even the flowers too!

There’s also an Explore Facebook group which is a community of people who use Explore to study the Bible each day. 

You can hear a bit more about the vision behind Explore from Carl Laferton, the Senior Editor, here: