New year resolutions

As the year closes out many are preparing for a better new year, looking forward too a better tomorrow making resolutions and hoping to see a brighter future than the days they just came through.

Some of us will make resolutions to loose weight, be financially free, get in better shape, finish our education, the list is endless on the things people resolve too do year after year. While it is grand to have goals and to work at them our goals should not be just about us.

I would challenge each of us too make a resolution that we are unable too do on our own, that without God’s help we will definitely fail.

The 1st part of that resolution would be this.

Love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, your soul and your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.

This  will take God’s help for us too seek Him and lay aside our agenda daily.

To love God this way means we need to seek Him in prayer, in His word, in fellowship, in how we work, rest, and play, in our relationship with others, how we serve Him, how we live our lives moment by moment, responding to whatever comes our way in faith, living in His truths and walking in His ways, doing all things to bring glory to His name.

And then to love our neighbors as ourselves, this means that if someone has a need and your able to help them you should, starting with caring for their soul. 

If you’re up for the challenge to lay aside selfish ambitions and pray to God to renew your soul and let Him do great works in you and through you this year will be the grandest year of your life.

Be the light that shines through the darkness this new year, be the beacon of hope people need to see. In an age where everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes, let them see God’s grace, hope,peace and love in us.

““You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:14-16 CSB

“He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Matthew 22:37-40 CSB

“He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

2 Timothy 1:9 CSB

Be free from the curse of sin and death

Sin, like aging we get used to we do not even acknowledge it in our day to day lives. But God in His holiness and righteousness sees it and hates it.

It is time we take serious the cost of sin, because of sin we have sickness, death, poverty, slavery, hate, brokenness loneliness, despair, terrorism, war, droughts, famine, earthquakes and other natural disasters, murder, adultery, fornication, drunkenness, abortions,rape, anger, liars, lust, gossip, bigotry,the list goes on.

These things entered the world because Adam sinned against God, and we continue in his foot steps.

But the good news is we do not need to be held in the grasp of sin and death because of Jesus Christ, and His work on the cross. Come be free today, repent of your sin, and be washed in the blood of the lamb for He alone has bore the wrath of God for you and I.

Titus 3:1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people. 3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another. 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us -- not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy -- through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out this Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by His grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life. 8 This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone. 9 But avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning, 11 knowing that such a person is perverted and sins, being self-condemned.

What is truth?

Absolute Truth has been declared politically incorrect, morality is defined by politicians instead of God in our society today.

But there is a cry today in out families, our churches, and our communities for moral authority.

We need to turn back to the Bible , the Bible is and always has been the source to which we can look and say with confidence, "This is right," or "This is wrong."

You and I need authority in our lives.
And as we live among foriegners, we need it more than ever. I believe the Bible the Word of God is that authority we need. It is infallible. Even if others who call themselves brothers or sisters fall away we who believe must be steadfast and immovable when it comes to God's word. It's precepts give us a place to stand, and a foundation for right living that is unshakeable and true.

2Timothy  3:1-7, 9, 12-17 HCSB
But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people! For among them are those who worm their way into households and capture idle women burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions, always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. But they will not make further progress, for their lack of understanding will be clear to all, as theirs was also. In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.