January 2011

During the closing moments of 2010, you’ll find many people singing that familiar old Scot poem originally written by Robert Burns in 1788. On December 31^st, the New Year will be ushered in with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne”. Almost everyone knows those lyrics by heart, but few people know what those words mean. Plainly defined, the title refers to “times gone past”. At the stroke of midnight on Saturday morning, January 1^st, 2011, the calendar year of 2010 officially becomes the “good old days”. Oh, well… no time to reminisce, huh? Time marches ahead! Out with the old, in with the new! A new year has arrived… and with it, new hopes, new dreams and new challenges set before us.

What changed for you in this past year? Some of you rejoiced in the marriage of a child or grandchild.  The past year greeted the arrival of golden wedding anniversaries for many of our couples. Newborn additions were welcomed into a number of families. Many of our farmers will remember this year as a time of abundant harvest. In looking back upon 2010, it would appear that this year gone by provided many of us with many reasons to celebrate. Some of you wouldn’t change a thing, would you?

Sadly, there are those among us who may have found it difficult to share in the joy of others. Many will recall the year 2010 as a time marked by melancholy and sorrow. Some of you had received an unwelcome diagnosis from your physician. There were those beloved family members who had departed to be with the Lord, leaving you without the comfort of their love and encouragement for this present time. Once valued relationships had been strained, damaged or completely shattered. Some of you found yourselves unemployed. Others had fallen victim to financial loss. Things had changed in the last year… but not always for the better.    

Because of those changes that took place in our lives, some of you may be motivated to make resolutions for this coming year. Perhaps you are determined to work even harder than you had in 2010. You’ll take better care of yourself; you’ll exercise; you’ll eat healthier foods. You’ll devote yourself to being a better spouse and parent. You’ll set a better example. You’ll attend church regularly. Why, you’ll even get up earlier and make it to Bible Study! You’re going to start doing those things that you always knew you should do. Are you really? I really hope so!

And, of course, you’ll try … that’s your heartfelt desire…. to do better… to make changes. The Apostle Paul once spoke of that heartfelt desire to do better when He wrote, “For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18-19).  Paul speaks for all of us when he writes of the sin that dwells within us. The situations and circumstances of this earthly life do indeed change, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, but that old sinful nature remains a sad constant for all of us. It is there to remind us of our own wretchedness, and it leads us to cry out with the Apostle, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

That’s when we can all gratefully declare, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25). Jesus’ death upon the cross would change all of that for all of us! When you were marked in the waters of baptism as one redeemed by Christ the crucified, He personally changed you from a child of wrath to a child of God. As a new year now dawns upon us, consider first the gift of eternal life that God has given to you in Christ. In Christ, you can clearly see that God continues to make His great love known to you… in all of life’s finest and most frail moments. Whatever changes await you in this New Year, welcome 2011 with the confidence that God’s love for you remains unchanged.  In Christ, you have been a given a Hope will not change. “For I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6).

“O God, our help in ages past, Our Hope for years to come, Be Thou our guard while troubles last and our eternal home!”

Pastor Bruce