January '18 Newsletter

​Happy New Year friends and family! How appropriate it is that the New Year is celebrated right after Christmas. Not only does our calendar start in January, but our society as a whole tries to hit the reset button around this same time.

2 Corinthians 5:16-20 implores: “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”

This writing has some great resolutions for a New Year Christian:

1. Quit looking at the world from worldly eyes, and pray for the eyes of the divine. Try to see things from God’s point of view, pay attention to the world around you.

2. Quit looking at Jesus from a worldly definition and recognize that he called you his brother and sister (Matthew 12: 46-50). If he is king, does that not give us royal duties in his kingdom?

3. Be new. You have just been hired for a new job: a vessel of God, a person with a ministry, an ambassador of God’s kingdom. Don’t come into this position doing what you did at your old job.

4. Be reconciled with God. He wants to be close to you, He has come to you. Will you let Him in?


What if instead of (or alongside) trying a new diet or exercise routine, we try this year making our goals spiritual. Let us treat the growth of our faith like the growth of a child: with constant feeding, nurturing, observing, boundary setting, training, teaching, and loving.

I hope, too, that you take the chance to join the rest of us in dedicating a year of devotions with you and your house reading from Oswald Chamber’ My Utmost for His Highest. We still have plenty of copies at the church. Imagine the possibilities if our whole church is on the same page for an entire year! Just think of how God can use us for His good and perfect will!

As always, you are loved and prayed for. Let us know if you have any specific needs, or just need someone to talk to. Church is not a building, it is us as the body of Christ. Be well.