Jesus came not to diminish life but to bring us life in all its fullness (John 10v10). So often throughout church history we as Christians have failed to signal this glorious message through our institutions, traditions and legalistic behaviour. Yet when the gospel of grace is faithfully and joyfully proclaimed and embraced in our lifestyles we find that our lives are transformed as we begin to reflect the image of Christ in all our relationships.

In the run up to Easter many churches up and down the country from various denominations are embarking on an evangelistic initiative entitled "Passion for Life". It links together the fact that in the period of Lent we focus on Jesus' passion - his suffering on our behalf which led him to die on the cross for our sins. Yet it also reminds us that the purpose of Jesus' passion/suffering was that we who turn to Christ should receive new life by God's Spirit enabling us to have a delight in all that God has so generously given to us both in creation, with all its riches, and in redemption. In other words it is precisely Jesus' passion for life which enables us to have a passion for life. Being brought back into a right relationship with the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is the key to enabling us to get rightly related to everything else so that we can enjoy the life of God's Spirit now as a foretaste of all that we will receive in the new heavens and the new earth when Jesus returns.

Under the umbrella of "Passion for Life" we have a number of events:

• Sunday 14th March - 6.30pm at St Nicholas special evening celebration with a larger music group led by Pete Gardner and with our youth minister Simon Heather preaching on "The Cross".
• Thursday 18th March - 8pm in the Undercroft - Men's Banquet with guest speaker Simon Manchester speaking on the subject "God is not the problem".
• Friday 19th March - 8pm in the Undercroft - The Great Exchange - an evening for women where each bring one or two items of good quality clothing/shoes/accessories for exchange and listen to a talk on the greatest exchange that ever took place on the first Good Friday.
• Wednesday 24th March - 7.30pm at St. Nicholas - "Creation Sings" - an evening led by Stuart Townend as part of his British tour.

My prayer is that we would not be distracted from our service of Christ and the gospel and that during this period many others would receive life in all its fullness.

Angus MacLeay