“I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”
John 14: 6
12 “Look, I AM coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22: 12-13
Pastors Noreen & Henry Kevern
New Beginnings
"Now fear the LORD and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:14,15
A new beginning, a new year, and a new life in the Lord. We have spent the last few weeks in preparing for Christmas and the second coming of the Lord. We have focused on making sure that our lives are ready for the Lord to come again. We want to be ready and find ourselves acceptable to the Lord. Hopefully we desire to walk with the Lord and to follow the way that the Lord has given us.
Now is the time to look into our lives and to see where we need to change. The New Year is always about change, about new beginnings. We change the way we eat, we give up smoking, and make resolutions for changing the way that we live. This year in making resolutions, focus on the Way of the Lord and find your path in Him. Now is the time to change, to become acceptable to the Lord in the way we lead our lives. We have heard the Word of the Lord and we have been told which Way to go. We have heard the truth and need to now focus our lives on living in the Lord. No more waffling on the fence, trying to decide if we should continue to live the way that we have been living. It is the appropriate time to change our lives and the way that we live, to make ourselves right before God. In Revelations 3:3, we read: Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent.
Obey and repent. How can I do this in my life? What steps must I take in order to obey the Lord and repent of my sins? What must I do to become a righteous person? Jesus has come and died and rose from the dead to give us eternal life in Heaven. We must take responsibility for ourselves and follow the Way of the Lord. We must come before the Lord daily and work on the changes that we need to make so that we can follow the path that Jesus wants us to follow. The path is Jesus. We know this, but our lives reflect areas where Satan has control. Search the Gospels and learn the Good News, stop ignoring the Lord and make yourself one with the Lord. Look closely at yourself, be brutally honest, and stop denying the Lord. Stop being afraid to look into yourself and make the necessary corrections to change the way that you live. Stop blaming God and others around you for the way that your life is. Accept the things that happen and look for ways that you can change yourself, so that your circumstances can change also. But always remember that the Lord is with you through all that you go through. Accept Him and receive His strength to get you through all that is happening in your life.
There are many things in each of our lives that we must change. Open the gift that the Lord God has given you and accept God’s love and forgiveness. Don’t allow yourself to forget the Lord. We all have areas in our lives when we forget that the Lord is watching. We deny the Lord when we forget that the Lord’s Spirit lives within us. The Lord knows all that is in our hearts and He sent His only Son down to earth to become a sacrifice for our sins. God has not denied us His love. The gift of Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, that is reason for Christmas, is a true reflection of God’s love. He followed His Own law and made Himself an acceptable sacrifice to fulfill His Own laws. Is it not time for you to put aside your doubts, your lack of commitment, your unbelief, and turn your life over to God? Is it not time to stop listening to the father of lies and to listen to the voice of God that lives within our very beings? Throw away the false gods that you serve, the gods of sexual perversion, of lies, of stealing, of wanting what others have, and turn to the Lord God Who is love. Love one another as God loves you. Stop the hurt and pain towards one another.
Jesus tells us in Luke 17:20: “The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the Kingdom of God is within you.” We are the kingdom of God, for His Spirit lives within us. Jesus reminds us of what to avoid in order to have eternal life. We read in Luke 18:20: You know the commandments; ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.” Jesus further warns us about the end times, in Matthew 24:36-40,42-44, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, not the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.”
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day the Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had know at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.”
So many have let the thief in. They have let Satan tell them lies about God. But God is waiting for you to return to Him. Deny Satan your eternal life living with him in hell and accept the Lord into your life. Don’t be fooled by the evil one, God loves you, always and forever. God has already won the victory over Satan. Make this day, this year, a new beginning in the Lord. Walk daily with Him and learn to follow His ways. We are all God’s children, and His love is the very gift that He wants us to accept and live in our lives. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16
I wish you a very Blessed Christmastime and a Happy New Year. May this New Year be filled with the desire to follow the Lord in our lives and to be strong in our faith in the Lord. May we grow in our knowledge of the Lord and commit our way to Him. May the Lord bless you in this coming year in His unfailing and forgiving love.
Help Me To Believe In Beginnings
(author unknown)
God of history and of my heart, so much has happened to me
during these whirlwind days:
I've known death and birth;
I've been brave and scared;
I've hurt, I've helped;
I've been honest, I've lied;
I've destroyed, I've created;
I've been with people, I've been lonely;
I've been loyal, I've betrayed;
I've decided, I've waffled;
I've laughed, and I've cried.
You know my frail heart and my frayed history--
and now another day begins.
O God, help me believe in beginnings
and in my beginning again,
no matter how often I've failed before.
Help me to make beginnings:
to begin going out of my weary mind
into fresh dreams,
daring to make my own bold tracks
in the land of now.
Help me to believe in beginnings,
to make a beginning,
to be a beginning,
so that I may not just grow old,
but grow new
each day of this wild, amazing life
you call me to live
with the passion of Jesus Christ.