I'm Rhys Lamont, this website is an online catalogue of my writing and content for the benefit of others built with [Obsidian Publish](https://obsidian.md/publish). I live in Invercargill, New Zealand, and am the pastor of [Woodlands Grace Church](https://woodlandschurch.co.nz/) of the [Grace Presbyterian Church (GPCNZ).](https://www.gracepresbyterianchurch.org.nz/) If you need to contact me you can do so via email using [[email protected]] The featured logo on this website is the crest from my paternal [Scottish Lamont Clan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Lamont) heritage. The text says "Ne Parcas nec Spernas" meaning, "Neither Spare Nor Spurn". Personal links: [Facebook;](https://www.facebook.com/imrhyslamont) [Instagram;](https://www.instagram.com/rhyslamont/) [X (Twitter;)](https://x.com/lamont_rhys) [Strava;](https://www.strava.com/athletes/39878638)[SolaWeb;](https://www.solaweb.co.nz/) [The True And Better Podcast;](https://thetrueandbetter.com/) My latest sermon transcript: [[Sermon 37 Matthew 8.1-17 He Took Our Infirmities]] The 'Romans Road' of salvation: **Romans 3:23** – "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." **Romans 6:23** – "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." **Romans 5:8** – "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." **Romans 10:9–10** – "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." **Romans 10:13** – "for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”" A Christmas message: There's an important word in the Bible that you need to know; it's the word gospel. The word gospel is not a complicated word; it simply means good news. Christmas is a time we remember the birth of Jesus Christ, the one in whose person and work this good news of God is found. We all understand something of what good news is, don't we? If you lose your wallet and find it the next day, that's good news. If you have a family member who is in a car accident and you get a call from the hospital or the clinic saying that they're going to be okay, that's good news as well. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is in its own category of good news altogether. We all know that there is something deeply broken in the world that no politician, no election, no amount of new laws or carbon credits is ever going to remedy. We have this sense that things are not as they ought to be. A newspaper editorial once published an article titled, "What's wrong with the world?" A well-known writer named G.K. Chesterton wrote in response to this editorial, "I am." You see, this brokenness has at its root cause our individual human sin. That is our rebellion against God's laws, his way, his nature. Sin in the human heart is why all things must be made right and new. We can't fix ourselves or our world. Jesus comes to deal with that problem of our sin so that in him all things might be set right and made new. The coming of Jesus marks that definitive moment history awaited when the dawn of the new creation, the kingdom of God, cast its light over the world in the person of Jesus. And this is good news. While mankind has earned God's judgment, instead in Jesus we see his hand of reconciliation, mercy, and grace extended. Will we believe upon him?