Wednesday, January 19, 2011

January Thanksgiving

"They were also to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD. They were to do the same in the evening" (1 Chronicles 23:30 NIV). Last week every woman at a Bible study I attend shared a praise or thanks for something or someone in 2010. Choosing just one thing presented the challenge. All present had had her share of trouble and challenge and heartbreak in 2010, but we chose to focus on the good and lay aside the bad and the ugly. One dear friend said she was thankful for the gospel. When the Levitical priests stood to thank and praise God morning and night, the gospel was yet future. Unlike us, they couldn't look back to the cross and know that there Christ dealt with every sin and heartache we or they would ever know. He dealt death its death blow. How much more should we "stand every morning to to thank and praise the LORD...(and) do the same in the evening." How did you start or end your day today?
Photograph by Jim Roetzel, 2010.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR?

By truer reckoning, it's 28 Tevet and the year is 5771. There's no doubt in my mind that the Jewish calendar is more accurate, but some of us have enough trouble with a leap year coming along every four years. To deal with Adar II and then other changes every 19th year would push us over the edge. So, my fellow blogsters, Happy New Year! Or Happy Current Year! Did you make any New Year's resolutions? Me neither. I find few uses of the word "resolve" and its derivatives in the NIV translation of the Bible, but two stand out. When the apostle Paul went to the early Christian church in Corinth, he said, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). Everything pales in comparison to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ made a resolution once. "As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51, emphasis added). What Paul resolved to know, Jesus resolved to do. If I make any resolution for this year I want it to echo Paul's--whatever 2011 or the rest of 5771 brings. Soli Deo Gloria.