Week One, 2025

At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Jeremiah 31

Well, believe it or not, a new year is here. 2024 is history and 2025 is a blank slate. What are you going to write on it?

January is the month of “resolutions”, many of them. People make more resolutions in this month than in all the remaining ones combined…. Loose weight, quit bad habits and the list goes on. More gym plans are sold this month than in all of the remaining ones.

People focus on worldly and personal resolutions more than on spiritual ones, yet those are the most important. Remember that God makes resolutions as well. We, as believers, are His people and He will guide our paths and watch over us. But what will we resolve for Him.

First, as we are His people, He wants us to resolve that He is our God. Resolve to be in His word daily and to pray to Him for all things in our lives. He also wants us to be a part of His community. But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.” I Corinthians 12:18

The Swiss are famous for their precision watchmaking. Generations of highly skilled craftsmen assemble many different and essential parts to make their timepiece. Even the smallest gear, if not installed at the right spot, will render the watch inoperable.

It is much the same in other facets of our lives. The right combination of employees performing their specialties makes the company run smoothly. A family whose members function as God intended runs well. A community must have all its departments and leaders on the same page to serve their citizens.

And God has equipped the church to have members who come together like a finely tuned watch in order to further the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Some are gifted as teachers. Some are administrators. Some are givers. And so on.

Just as watchmakers look for the right parts in the right place; just as a family fulfills its roles; just as a community serves its people; so also, the body of Christ, when believers fulfill their given gifts in the right way, functions as God ordained.

Resolve to get to church, find your gift, you are needed.

Resolve to get spiritually and morally straight and become a functioning part of the family of God.

Sometimes True Stories

God’s Will for Our Lives

To love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength

To love your neighbor as yourself

To flee evil

To be joyful and give thanks in all circumstances

To praise Him and worship Him

To dwell on all that is good and pure and true

To go therefore and make disciples

To daily put on the full armor of God

To daily take up your cross and follow Him

To pray continually

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At some point in our lives, we begin to think about what we will leave behind, for our family, our community and beyond. We go through careful thought about our physical assets. Which of our children should get particular items of sentimental value? How should our money be distributed? Should we leave something to charities or the church?

It’s not just our assets that are our legacy. What kind of world are we leaving? Have we cared for and preserved the value of life that was given to us by our parents, including a government that enables liberty and prosperity to grow?

Those may be good things to think about, but they are all temporary. What about the legacy that our children will follow us into an eternal paradise, which is Heaven, because we have shown them that the way there is through Jesus Christ, and Him alone. That’s the everlasting legacy into which we should invest.

Now, start building your legacy.

Quotes You Can Use

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. – Melody Beattie

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. – John F. Kennedy

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. Edmund Hillary

How many lives have been shattered— all because of the tongue? Dan Shock

When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude. – Gilbert K. Chesterton

Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. – Henry Ward Beecher

Naturally we are sinners in search for a savior.

Some problems will never be solved because there are people who simply do not want them to be.

Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Our natural tendency is to be led by the desires of the flesh, which only leads to sin and death. Resist the flesh. The fruit of the Spirit is the work of the Spirit that we bear as we walk by the Spirit. Walk by the Spirit. Edgar Aponte

It’s hard to see one’s generosity when our grip on the checkbook is so tight that our closed fists prevent our best intentions of ever being expressed. Dwight Short

Society allowed intolerant people to gain control through our tolerance. It’s time to fight back.

Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for. Zig Ziglar

God will continue to remove the imperfections within us until He can look at us and see His reflection.

Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse. – Henry Van Dyke

Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind. – Lionel Hampton

Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty. – Doris Day

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