As Jesus starts His teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, He starts by telling us how it is that we enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is by recognising our own sinfulness, and realising our need for Him, that will get us into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Colossians 3:12 tells us that we are to clothe ourselves with PATIENCE. As James writes to the Christians who were scattered, he concludes his letter by talking about patience. In this passage, we have three examples of patience; The Farmer, The Prophets and Job. Each one gives us an insight into how we can grow patience in our lives and how God is working in the midst of our waiting.

God gives us joy and peace, but not humility. He does give us plenty of opportunities to practice humility and it is a choice we need to make ourselves, with God's help. How do we get humility? By imitating Jesus in everything we do.

Colossians 3:12 tells us that we are to clothe ourselves with COMPASSION. Here in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells the religious expert that he is to show the same COMPASSION that the Good Samaritan shows. When we show COMPASSION to others we are sharing with them the COMPASSION that we have received from Jesus.

In today's message, we are considering the JOY that surrounds the Christmas season and looking at an unlikely person to show JOY in meeting Jesus, it is the unborn baby, John. John was already filled with the Holy Spirit and so was able to recognise who Jesus truly was, and that caused him to leap for JOY.