The encounter of the shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem records first encounters between man and God since the birth of Jesus Christ. This 'Christmas' encounter commences with the power of God moving emperors and governors to bring to fulfillment the prophecy of Micah, that Jesus would be born at Bethlehem, continues with the presence of the angelic host bring down the Glory and fear of God and draws the Shepherds to eoncounter the person of God in Jesus Christ. 

Dr J Stewart Gillespie

Iain Jamieson presents the gospel at the Bridgend Gospel Hall from Jeremiah chapter 38.

Subtract Jesus from religion you are left in the hands of the men of John chapter 8, at the mercy of stones. Here with the woman caught in the act of adultery religion at its cruelest sees the life of this woman as expendable, as a mere means to attack Jesus. It is certainly true that all of salvation hinges on the Lord Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life. Neither the religious world nor the world in general have any room or any place for Jesus but by the end of John 8, grace is poured out to this woman burdened with sin and a place is found finally for Jesus, a place in our heart and life. 

Dr J Stewart Gillespie 

www.GraceinChrist.org

John chapter 3 records the story of the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus who came by night. He was religious and well taught in the Bible but despite knowing much and commitment to the Jewish religion, Nicodemus had not even begun on the path heaven. Nicodemus had to be born again, as all of us must. He must be born of water and of the Spirit, as Ezekiel had written, washed from sin and given a new heart born of God. 

Dr J Stewart Gillespie

Sometimes we do not grasp how empty and unhappy we truly are until we find real deep joy and peace and satisfaction. This is the story of the woman at the well in John chapter 4. To many she was 'just' a Samaritan women but to the Lord Jesus she was the sheep, the soul He was seeking for, searching for until He found her. At Jacobs well, connecting back through the centuries of time to the age old prophetic expectation of a coming Saviour and Messiah, Jesus meets her at a well. Here would be a place of not only physical water and satisfaction but the spiritual satisfaction and joy that had been meissing from her life for years. With a personal encounter with Jesus she not only heard God speak into her life but God Himself in Jesus stepped into her life revealing everything about her. 

Dr J Stewart Gillespie

Meeting Jesus changes lives! The paralysed man of Mark chapter 2 encountered Jesus in a most unexpected of ways! The very problems he faced, designed to keep him from Jesus, became the very means of him coming to Jesus. Dr J Stewart Gillespie