A New Beginning
We are now already quickly advancing forwards and find ourselves well into a brand new month, and a brand New Year, 2016, and the days are starting to flash on by as the year presses us forwards with all its demands and wants, Christmas and New Year Celebrations are quickly sliding into the past as the important things of this new year press on in with; Kids back to school, school books, school uniforms, back packs, shoes and all that rush. Then there is the starting of University, finding a new job for school leavers and so much more press in from all fronts, Christmas Holidays gone so it is back to work and all the challenges of what has happened, or not happened during the year end closedown, sorting out the mess that things are in, in the work place, from the rush and year end closure.
The Newspapers and TV News press us with more troubles on so many fronts; we can often wonder just where we can turn for some stability. Maybe “The Rock of Ages, cleft for me,” having the surety of Jesus Christ would be the very best option. We have these promises as found in Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Or Malachi 3:6a “For I [am] the LORD, I change not.” God does not change, we might, and we just might wander far away from God, but Hebrews 13:5 “[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
God is still there on his Throne, so he just needs your permission to gain and to maintain direct access into your life so that he can continue to work his wonders of redemption, direction and support, for without your permission, God has very limited scope for intervention, which gives the opposition a very big advantage to cause mayhem as Evil always pushes on in without even your permission, and is content to over ride your wishes all the time, we just need to continue to block and lock him out and to give God the full and complete permission to operate in our lives.
We have this new year, so why not back a real winner, Jesus Christ, and dump the looser that has been totally unreliable, untruthful, and any benefits offered up by him are normally just disasters, if you can actually call them benefits, because the “wages of sin,” is next and that is surely an undesirable end, when even one day of Eternal Life is worth way more than many decades of sin. We have this angle in Hebrews 11:24-25 “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;”
Backing the wrong team is not very wise, both long term and for the short term, as this world is not that lasting and beneficial, but then there is no next life for sinners, so that makes backing the wrong side extremely short term. We have this in Matthew 16:25-27 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.”
This is a new year for doing and for decisive actions, so here is an interesting
Quote that I came across; “Another year has passed into eternity. Yet we are just a few days into a new year. If you have in any wise neglected your duty, repent before God, and return to the path from which you have wandered. Remember how brief the period of life allotted you. You know not how soon your probation may close. Say not presumptuously, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain.” God may have different plans for you. Life is but a vapor, “that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth.” You know not how soon your hand may lose its cunning, your step its firmness. There is peril in a moment’s delay. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” {RH, 23/12/1902} (Adapted)
A term from “Black Smiths” was this, “Strike while the iron is hot.” This term was valid as you had spent time and effort with the iron in the fire until it glowed, now that it is on the anvil, hit it with the hammer, get shaping and moulding it as it is so easy when it is hot and most difficult when it is cold. You cannot fix a year in December, so while it is hot in January, let us each strike and forge the pathway ahead. It was once said, aim at the moon and be but One degree off and you will miss it by thousands of miles, so let us aim and keep re-adjusting to stay on track.
Please make 2016 the “Year of Priorities” and the getting of Eternal things in “First Place” as in this verse in Matthew 6:33-34 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.”
