" And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.."
- Phil 1:6.
Praise God for the calendar! Not just so that we can see a deadline coming up, like the one for this report that should have been done a lot sooner than it is, but so that days don’t just run into weeks and weeks into years. There is a definite break in our schedules and…well life, as we say good bye to an old year and hello to a new one.
We measure a lot of things after a year has gone by, and quite often we see that the promise the old year had when it was new was… well promising. It might promise many things as we look with excitement; the arrival of little ones into the world, the beginning of school, two people beginning a life together, becoming one, and looking excitedly at what that means in the context of a God ordained marriage. Some look ahead to starting a career, some to finishing one, some wondering if they’ll have a career after the dust settles with the way the economy is going. Some looking ahead, hoping the New Year will bring better things than the old as sickness, tragedy, and sorrow prevailed.
Thing is, everyone, even in a small church like ours, everyone, is affected by all of the above. This past year I talked with moms and dads about their children leaving for school for the first time, I performed weddings, visited the sick, officiated funerals, no one is immune.
The old year is over, it has left some with many dear and cherished memories, some with bitter heartache, and as promising as this New Year looks, it too will be old oh so quickly. But again, this division gives us an opportunity to take a breath and look at every New Year with hope, hope that this will be a good year.
I can honestly say that this will be a good year, every day a good day and every week a good week because I truly believe that Paul wrote Romans 8:28 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for us to hold unto the truth; “that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are the called according to His purpose.”
And as Proverbs 16:9 says; “man [we] purpose in his [our] heart[s], but the Lord directs his [our] steps.” I have found these two verses so comforting and reassuring as I live my life, trying to follow His will as best as I can, knowing that it will be good for me, whatever comes my way.
We will be sad; we will be hurt, we will be sick. But, we will be overcomers only as we look, and continue to look to Him, the Author and Finisher of our Faith. We have a God who is faithful, He was faithful in the past, He is faithful now, and He will continue to be faithful in the future. Always faithful, faithful to His promises and that’s what I’ve seen in the Old Year, that’s what I expect to see in the New; God’s faithfulness to us as we simply continue to do what He has called us to do.
And we know that He has called us to be a Christ-like, Christ-exalting people who are going out into this lost and hurting world with the message of the Gospel; that we have rebelled and need forgiveness and He has paid the price and we are forgiven. We know that we are to love Him and follow Him and bring His message of love, hope, joy, and peace, to the world.
To do that with a renewed passion we need, more than ever, a fresh outpouring of His Spirit upon us, let’s pray hard to that end and watch in amazement at what the Lord will do with this great little Church!
I know this isn’t much of a “report”, I’ll leave the reporting to all the other capable Ministry and Committee Leaders and just call this an encouragement to grow our faith and expect good things in 2010.