Need for a Savior

Hello Everyone,

We hope that you are enjoying your New Year and that you are learning and growing in your faith and love for God. As many of you know we are expecting our first son in early April. We are so thrilled about the opportunity to love and raise our Son. As new parents we are both nervous and thankful for the changes that are taking place in our lives. In preparation for him coming we have been studying and reading about being parents. Which in turn can make you feel even more unprepared for parenthood. So as we are about 11 weeks away from his arrival we are beginning to focus our nervous thoughts into prayers. One of the prayers we have been praying of our son and any future children the Lord may give us is for them to see their need for a Savior.  This means that their lives will be full of challenges and that they will have to find their way through troubling seasons. They will have to venture through their own unique stories of sin and repentance. Through all of the seasons in their life that may bring them pain, our prayer is that they find their hope and their joy deeply rooted in their Savior.

As we pray this prayer for our children, we also pray it for our family and friends.  That we would all be like the woman in Luke 7:47, who washed his feet with her tears. She saw her need for a Savior and she loved much. Because she saw the depths of her sin, she could hope in his forgiveness and righteousness. We pray this same prayer for the people of Italy. That their eyes and hearts would be open to the Gospel and that they would see their need for a Savior. Our hope is that in seasons of hurt, but also in seasons of great joy that we would bring the light of the Gospel to those around us.

Three prayer requests:
-prayers for ease of transition back to Italy (renewing our visas, finding a home, & setting up doctor visits)
-prayers for our family as a whole as we learn what it means to be parents
-prayers for our family in the states that their faith would be refined and their love for God grown as we are far away


With love,
The Mcghins

New Year, New Light

This new year we have been looking at the Gospel of John with our church Sojourn Heights. Every year it is refreshing to take a look into this Gospel because it shows us the historic reality of what Christ accomplished and the implications that John is talking about for our daily lives. Look at this passage from John 1.

"The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him." (John 1:10-11)

The Scriptures say that Jesus, the true light came into the world. This historic fact has something to do with us whether we want it to or not. The lives that we live each and every day have been affected by this one event. This event has changed the world completely. This light that John speaks of is the "true" light of the world. Now, I don't know about you, but there are many "lights" out there that promise us hope, happiness and success. This is why the Jews did not recieve Christ because they put their hope in the Law and tradition for their light. John is calling us back to what and who the true light really is. John goes on by saying...

"But to all who did recieve him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."(John 1:12)
Will we recieve Jesus as the true light of the world this year or will we look to other lights for our joy?