Looking Ahead

It is the night BEFORE New Year's Eve, and we are all anticipating a brand new beginning when the calendar changes to January 1. Many of us will make New Year's Resolutions (i.e., lose weight, go to the gym, start a new business, etc.) But why is it that our resolutions don't last too long? Do we get bored? Lose interest? Give up too easily? 

Human nature merits that we get excited about New Things. But when those New Things grow Old, we lose interest. We lose excitement.  This sadly happens not only in things but in people.  New relationships suddenly become boring, unsatisfactory, stale, outdated, and soon we are on the prowl for someone else. 

God has better plans for all of us.  But we do not have to wait until 2016, because we can make it up in our minds tonight to change direction. 

We can experience new things everyday! God is all about recreating, renewing, and transforming the useless into the useful.

Consider these passages of Scripture:

"See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.” - Isaiah 42:9

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" - 2 Corinthians 5:17

REMEMBER .... GOD WANTS YOU!!!!!

Amazing Grace

I am truly amazed at the Grace of Almighty God. The Bible tells us of a man named Saul from Tarsus who was a religious leader known as a Pharisee. Saul hated Christians, and he wanted to do everything in his power to eliminate them from the earth. 

In various texts of Scripture, we see that Saul was a very violent man, who dragged off Christians to prison, beat them up physically, and separated their families. He was also described as a blasphemer (someone who speaks evil of the divine name). In that case he would have been speaking evil of Jesus Christ. And yet even after all of these evils perpetrated against God's people, the Lord had mercy upon Saul, appeared to him from heaven, and told him that he needed to go into the city to see a man name Ananias. From that point forward, the rest is history. 

Saul converted to Christ and he become an apostle of Jesus. He then went on to write half of the New Testament. Look at what God did in this man's life! And if God can show that kind of mercy upon someone who did all of that evil, surely we who profess to follow The Lord should be willing to share mercy to those who have wronged us. 

"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus."

I Timothy 1:12-14

Let us marinate on the story of Saul of Tarsus, and the great things that God can do in the life of someone who has really blown it and whom everybody else would have written off and thrown away. God can use anyone He wants to, so we should remember that about ourselves and about other people. 

Remember ... GOD WANTS YOU!!!!!!