New Year, New You 2018-12-25 - Alpha Banner 2019

These words often seem like flimflam. Easy to say and hard to do. There is only one fundamental way to be new, and that is to be born again. 

We are so use to ageing that it is easy to forget how human existence is always new. Every moment new people are being born. The are being born again made out of the DNA of their parents, for (almost) everyone this is the DNA of one woman and one man. 

The DNA is combined. The two become one flesh. This is remarkable and wonderful and the kind of every day miracle that we can just 'get used to', until you are present at a birth, of course. 

But how can you be born again? We are only born once (of woman) and then to die. As 'Israel's Teacher' says 'Can I enter again into my mother's womb?'. This is not an option. Not even in our advanced scientific world. 

We are facing a question that no one through science can answer - how can I be born again? We are ageing and facing death - how can this new year be truly a new beginning? The answer is simple and profound. It is as uncomfortable and uncompromising, as when Jesus spoke to 'Israel's Teacher', Nicodemus. 

A New Year is a reset, of sorts. It is where we begin again our circuit around The Sun. We've done one lap, so here goes another. Summer and Winter, Seed time and Harvest. Around and around. Again and Again. Is this what being born again means? 

Well, it might be, if reincarnation was true. Instead, we have the first born of a new creation who tell us otherwise. The Lord Jesus himself, who taught us that we must be born again. Not of flesh (this time), but of Spirit. 

We need to unpack this two words a bit. This world thinks of flesh as the real thing. And real it is, but not lasting. While, this world thinks of the Spirit world as insubstantial, yet the deep and enduring secret of the Spirit world is that it is eternal. It lasts. The earth will pass, the universe will be rolled up like a cloak, and yet spirit World will still be. You can be born again of the Spirit. You can know life eternal. Not one endless round, but a life ready for eternity, where 'no ear has heard, no eye has seen, no mind has imagined' what God has prepared for those who love him. Are you ready for this? Would you join us in getting ready?

This Spring we are running the Alpha Course. We have seen life after life transformed though this simple and deep experience: Eleven sessions with time over a meal, an awesome TV programme and then 40 minutes of discussion where you can say what you like and ask any question you want. 

Starting in the last week of January we are looking to distribute the course across different homes in and around Ashby. If you would like to register your interest (without commitment), please go to trinityashby.net/alpha and leave your details. We will only contact you about this course.

Please consider joining us. May this be a truly Happy New Year.

Tim Phillips