Merry Christmas dear blessed families and friends, 

As we gather to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, we pray that you will find the gladness of Christmas, filled with the love, joy and peace that the Lord Jesus Christ has come to bestow upon our lives. May you embrace His free gift of salvation and know that you are always loved and favored.

Amen.

- Hopeful Heart team.

As the days are leading to Christmas, it has been a leading to share what has been the core heart of Hopeful Heart. Hopeful Heart started on a mundane night of August 2011 where God has been speaking much about hope unto our seasons.

Hope through Christ has been such a key message we delight in sharing to believers. When we as believers speak of hope, it resonates deeper that any earthly desires but it is an affirmation that our hope is made certain and it rests on the finished work of Jesus to bring us forgiveness, eternal salvation and reconciliation of humanity's brokenness in a fallen world. We are not left in this world to fight our own battles, Christ is the anchor of our soul, He has come to this world to be a Saviour and a secure hope in times of need and hopelessness.

Through the coming of Jesus, He has secured us hope in many ways. We are able to hope for the future; that we will be redeemed through the free gift of salvation, we could hope in the present that we are sustained, upheld and loved by a God who loves unconditionally. We are also enabled to hope for reconciliations over the scars and consequences of past mistakes; failures are no greater than God’s restorative power.
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As we were led to the verse of Hebrew 16: 20 about hope, it brought about the name of Hopeful Heart. The word Heart is derived from Proverbs 4: 23 NLT. It instructs us to guard our heart above all else as it will determine the course of our lives. So dear friends, as we anchor our hearts in Christ Jesus our Saviour and Redeemer in this month where Christ needs to be celebrated more than gifts and festive activities, we will find His Words to continually guard our hearts through the providence of insightful wisdom and deeper Biblical understanding. May you always find hope in Christ, your living hope and continue to spread His Good News. Jesus is the real reason for Christmas, it is because of His birth, we have Christmas; let Him be at the center of it.

Hebrew 16: 20 NIV
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf...

- Irene Soon

​I just want to share a short reflection after reading about what happened on 16th November to John Allen Chau - (http://www.bpnews.net/52019/crazy-or-called--missionarys-death-debated). The story of Chau probably reminded us to the story of Jim Elliot and his four other friends who died trying to reach the Huaorani in the Ecuador. But it also reminded me to a question I got from a colleague many years ago when I was still in research: Is Jesus’ death a sacrifice or a suicide?

I shared the story of Jesus at that time and one said: Supposed that Jesus did once walked on earth and went to the cross, I think He was crazy to go to the cross. It was suicide not a sacrifice. At least you serve some higher purpose if it is sacrifice, but it is suicide! Who wants to believe in someone who committed suicide? It is difficult to accept that Christ’ death is necessary for our forgiveness of sin and to take away God’s wrath.

With the controversy of his death, we do not know the impact of Chau’s story yet but one thing for certain, we know the impact of Jesus’ story. The story of Jesus’ death keeps on transforming lives including my own life. God’s way to reconcile His justice, wrath, mercy and love through His one and only Son is the most remarkable story I have ever heard and we believers have the assurance of truth in the story of Christ that transforms us daily.

If Chau’s story can stir the heart of many believers, should not the story of Jesus be even more powerful to compel us to be His witness to people who have not heard of His good news? God has called His people from every generation to be His witness. Will we learn from Jesus’ obedience and pick up our cross to share the good news of Christ in this month of December?
 
Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

- Jenni Wang