A New Year

(Plasms 119:173)  “Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts.”

Today is the 1st day of a new year; something rather common for so many of us who has reached their last lap of life as time marches on. Regardless of your age, today is a new year filled with innovative possibilities. Whether it’s that same New Year’s resolution that you make every other year, just to break it, or something new; today is a day filled with promising potential, it speaks of new beginnings or so the world has programmed the masses to accept that New Years resolutions is rather the norm. It is possibly the most eventful day of the year with the tenacities of so many looking for change. Sadly old wine cannot be put into new wine skins as the container will burst. For centuries now people have endeavoured to avoid their doom, Botox and the like is only an external lie because you internal organs  will eventually run their course; with death looming for all and then the judgement. Since the beginning of time no one has cheated death but it has been mans intention from the beginning to avoid bereavement, we have an instinctive nature that drives us to live. It’s only God who has it in His power to implement such acts of mercy and there have been only a few who had never physically died; Enoch, Elijah and possibly Moses comes to mind.

Let us not keep on making the same mistakes as we mix up our application with our implementation of our faith towards God, if we are new creatures in Christ; if we have been born again by the Spirit of God, then we need to live with that mind-set and learn to put on the mind of Christ each and every day, prior to brushing our teeth in the morning, it must become our first natures and not our second; God first and not the other way around. Today is a new beginning so let us make this our resolve and it will be well with our souls. Here is a verse that came to my attention this morning, let it sink in and regardless of where you are within your walk with the Lord, whether you are a “babe in Christ” or “going on to perfection” let it change our lives; “Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts.” (Plasms 119:173) – I am convinced that God helps all of His children even when they are in the depths of the pig’s pen but we cannot continue to live there, for He has far better things in mind for us. But when and if we learn to put His precepts as our first port of call our lives will be lamps in a dark and dying world for all to witness and it will be well with our souls. And then we can stand back and watch God turn our lives around, whatever your need or your circumstance look out for God’s helping hand as the seemingly impossible becomes evident to His faithful obedient children.

God has always looked for those who would live by faith in Him. This then is my resolution; to put God first like never before and I know that He will come through for me. I beseech you to do the same…

There came a time in the Israelites journey through the Wilderness where they reach their destination and then they ate all the delicacies from the land of Canaan, which was filled with milk and honey…

Let me leave you with these inspiring words…

(Joshua 5:12) “They did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.”

“Israel’s weary wanderings were all over, and the promised rest was attained. No more moving tents, fiery serpents, fierce Amalekites, and howling wildernesses: they came to the land which flowed with milk and honey, and they ate the old corn of the land. Perhaps this year, beloved Christian reader, this may be thy case or mine. Joyful is the prospect, and if faith be in active exercise, it will yield unalloyed delight. To be with Jesus in the rest which remaineth for the people of God, is a cheering hope indeed, and to expect this glory so soon is a double bliss. Unbelief shudders at the Jordan which still rolls between us and the goodly land, but let us rest assured that we have already experienced more ills than death at its worst can cause us. Let us banish every fearful thought, and rejoice with exceeding great joy, in the prospect that this year we shall begin to be “for ever with the Lord.”

A part of the host will this year tarry on earth, to do service for their Lord. If this should fall to our lot, there is no reason why the New Year’s text should not still be true. “We who have believed do enter into rest.” The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance; he gives us “glory begun below.” In heaven they are secure, and so are we preserve in Christ Jesus; there they triumph over their enemies, and we have victories too. Celestial spirits enjoy communion with their Lord, and this is not denied to us; they rest in his love, and we have perfect peace in him: they hymn his praise, and it is our privilege to bless him too. We will this year gather celestial fruits on earthly ground, where faith and hope have made the desert like the garden of the Lord. Man did eat angels’ food of old, and why not now? O for grace to feed on Jesus, and so to eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan this year!” (Charles Spurgeon)

Signing off

Tyrone