2015 Year End

Christmas

Thanksgiving

“He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of

our Lord Jesus Christ.  God, who has called you into fellowship with

His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”  1 Corinthians1:8-9

These verses sum-up God’s faithfulness to me this year. It hasn’t been easy on a number of fronts, but God remains unchanging, constant, and encouragement to me as I rely on the promises of His Word.  I anticipated a revision to my right ankle that was replaced in 2008.  A new ankle prosthetic was supposed to be approved and ready a year ago in December 2014.  Since FDA didn’t approve it, the surgery was rescheduled for March and then May 2015, and now it is off the calendar until 2016.  Thankfully, the ankle pain has only increased recently that I began to take anti-inflammatory medication in October.

Recently I have been experiencing pain behind my left knee.  It’s a result of how I’ve been walking.  At times the pain has almost been unbearable.  The deep, dull pain in my leg reminds me of Christ’s sufferings and what He endured on the cross for your and my sins. Second Corinthians 1:5 comes to mind, “For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” 

At church we experienced a major transition of people moving on.  Some have left the church due job relocation, retirement, and others have left because of personal issues.  This has been hard as I have known these people for many years.  I will miss them including two dear brothers, Dave, our former associate pastor who took a senior pastor position in Wisconsin, and Byron, a lay elder who will move with his sweet wife to AZ.

I have been battling some discouragement/depression.  A lot of this is a result of how I view the circumstances around me.  I’ve been looking in, a self-focus, rather than looking out to love God and love others.   The Lord teaches and reminds me that my ultimate joy doesn’t come in what I have or how things are going, but who I am in Christ.  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

So as I think about 2015 I see the Lord keeping me strong and He will do it until I see him face-to-face in heaven.  Through the righteousness I have through Christ the Lord will also keep me blameless.  Praising and thankful to my Heavenly Father that He is faithful!

Momentary

This morning I started with signing this hymn, Day by Day, And with Each Passing Moment. This hymn was written by Lina Sandell Berg after the tragic death of her father, a Lutheran pastor, who fell off a ship in Sweden in 1832.  Berg went on to write many more hymns that encouraged Swedish Christians and others, like me, to remember each day is a passing moment in light of eternity spent in heaven worshipping my heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ.

The Spirit laid on my heart these verses from 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 

Day by day, And with Each Passing Moment

Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,
I've no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best--
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Ev'ry day the Lord Himself is near me
With a special mercy for each hour;
All my cares He fain would bear, and cheer me,
He whose name is Counselor and Pow'r.
The protection of His child and treasure
Is a charge that on Himself He laid;
"As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,"
This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then in eve'ry tribulation
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith's sweet consolation
Offered me within Thy holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
E'er to take, as from a father's hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till I reach the promised land.

Goals

What are your goals for 2015?  As I reflect this week and yesterday on goals for this year, there a number of things I hope to accomplish, change in my life, and become more like Jesus Christ.  These verses focus on "a goal" that fuels the fire for what I want to be.

Live to Please the Lord.  "So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are home in the body or away from it" (2 Corinthians 5:9).

Love with Integrity. "The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Timothy 1:5). 

Finish Well.  "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus"  (Philippians 3:14).

Love God.  Love Neighbor.  Jesus replied:  "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of you mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.  All of the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:37-40). 

For these verses to be a reality in my life in 2015, I daily need God's abundant grace to guide and sustain me for apart from Him I can do nothing (John 15:1-5). So as we embark on new year, I am excited to see what God will do in and through me for His glory.    

The Dawning of Indestructible Joy

I-n-d-e-s-t-r-u-c-t-i-b-l-e  J-o-y -- That is Awesome!  How can we get it?  The title of this post comes from the advent book, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy, written by John Piper and published this year by Crossway.  Each day in December Piper focuses on a concise, chewable nugget of gospel truth related to the coming birth of Jesus Christ.  The book has been a blessing for me during the month of December as I prepare my heart for Christmas and celebrate Jesus' birth who is the Word who became flesh and made His dwelling among us (John 1:14). 

In one of the daily readings, I was reminded that advent means "coming." You see, Jesus came on a rescue mission to save you and me from our sins. "The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost" (Luke 19:10).  Our sins deserve God's wrath and eternal punishment that is to come.  Check out these verses in Romans 2:4-11; Romans 5:8.

Here is the good news. God loves you.  His Son, Jesus, came not only to live, but to die on a cross for you and for me. "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

I am thankful for advent and "the coming" of a Savior who became to save you and me from our sins.  With this we have much hope, purpose to live for His glory, and joy that is indestructible.  "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:8-10).  

Do you have indestructible joy? 

November Notes