Here we go again!
A new year is upon us and some of us look back and lament all the places we did not go and all the things we did not do. You make resolutions to do better next year than you did in the last in everything including diet and exercise.
If you want to make resolutions, make them about things in which you can make a difference, like being a better son or daughter, or friend. How many thank you notes did you send to the people who gave you gifts at Christmas? The question here is were you grateful? Do you think that you have an entitlement to the things you received? When you purchased your Christmas gifts this year, was the job something you just had to get done or did you put thought in each and every gift you made or purchased?
Did you send Christmas cards this year, or did you think it was too expensive? How many times this year have you stopped at Starbucks or any other coffee shop buying a five dollar coffee without giving it a second thought? If you decided not to send Christmas cards because of the expense, have you written to those people in your life bringing them up to date on you and your family? If you want to make a resolution this year, make one of being less selfish, and think of others first.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend to be somebody who’s perfect and pass judgment on other people of what they do and what they think or what they say. But I will reflect on the past year to see if there are places I can make improvements, and encourage you to do the same.
This year it seems like there has been a rash of deaths in our church family. I ask myself if I was supportive of the family and their grief? Just after Christmas we lost a good friend. And I suffered pangs of guilt when a friend of ours told us that he had talked to the one who passed about salvation, because I had not done so in all the years I knew him. What stopped me from doing something so important? I hope and pray that the words said to the man who passed got through to his heart.
How many other friends do I have in my circle that I have assumed new the path to salvation so I have not presented it to them? If I have, I do pray the WORD I shared with them will remain in their hearts until the decision is made to either accept or reject the choice set before them. I have to ask myself when I stand at the judgment seat if I will I be able to say I did my best to steer my friends toward the light of salvation? What have I done to further the Kingdom of God here on earth? I can not go to the mission field but I can pray for those who are there and for others doing the Service of God.
Some of you are reading this who don’t believe in the afterlife, salvation, or even God for that matter. Each and every one of you must walk your own path in life. It is my hope and prayer that I can be a light to many of you through the darkness of this world. Matthew 5:16 says: let your light so shine for men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven. If I were to reminisce about the year that has passed, it would be to see that I have failed doing this many times.
Some of us who have lost loved ones this past year are absolutely consumed in our grief and can’t seem to move on. But I challenge you to remember all the blessings and the good times that person gave you and the love, and know those will never go away. I was always told never look back unless that’s way you intend to go. There is no future in the past, but endless possibilities lay before us.
As parents our prime job is to train up our children in the way they should go, so when they are old they will not depart from it. Are we raising households full of children who have no respect for elders, including teachers, law enforcement, or other people in authority? I don’t think that’s what the Scripture had in mind when it gave us those instructions.
We as writers make the afterlife a spooky creepy place where people walk through walls float in the air looking very ethereal. The reality is we will all be waiting judgment day and depending on decisions we made each and every day of our lives on whether we live in eternity or the consuming fire that awaits many. Are you willing to leave either place to chance?
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Hebrews 9:27 – 28
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father is in heaven. Matthew 5: 14 –16
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6