New Year's Thoughts - 2007

      Happy New Year! On this occasion we have to start things anew, I want to challenge you in two separate ways. First, have you ever considered the importance of having a new year? God has been so gracious to give us 2,008 years since anno domine or "the Year of the Lord." Think of the number of people who have come to know Christ in the past year. The Gospel is spreading daily and it is fully out of grace that He allows us another year to spread the good news of His Son, Jesus Christ and His atoning death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. How did you use this past year? Did you glorify God with the spreading of the Gospel? This year, I would challenge you to devote it to Christ and fulfill the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 by sharing the Good News of Christ's sacrifice with friends, family, acquaintances, and everyone that God brings in your path.

      Secondly, I want to challenge you in your Scripture reading. We are a people of the Book and we need to be devoted to reading God's Word. So often, we try to treat God as a great genie in the sky that grants us our wishes. We NEED a relationship with our heavenly Father more desparately than we need anything else in this entire world; health and money are nothing compared to not having a relationship with Him. God's very words have been given to us in Scripture. They tell us who we are as well as who He is. They are a mirror set before us to look at and see our sinfulness, God's perfection, and the redemption that we have in Jesus. Without spending daily time reading His Word, meditating, and praying it is impossible to maintain a relationship with our living Lord. I would imagine that very few of us have friends to whom we never talk, never read their letters or emails, and never think about that we would honestly be able to call friends, so why do we try to do that to God? Devote this next year to being a student of His Word, learn it and focus on it so that you can understand both yourself and God in order to deepen your relationship with Him and grow in the riches of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Grace and Peace,
Jeff Scroggs