Thinking 2025 and then some

28 Dec Thinking 2025 and then some

Happy New Year Y’all!

Or…happy new year’s eve eve…How’s that?

It struck me while I was recovering from a magnificent Christmas worship series and equally magnificent Christmas Day lunch…The week after Christmas is a strange time. Our normal schedules are often upended. But then January 1^st, or the first few days of January depending on the flow of the calendar arrive…and one of two things happen:

1. We go right back to the same old same old…it’s like the new number at the end of the year matters none at all…it’s just another day ending in “y”… OR
2. We go mad trying to force “new” into the new year. Plans, resolutions, promises, schedules, programs, commitments…And this happens all within a week.

I have an idea…Maybe instead of either of those…trying to fight off the passing of time & the necessity of facing new challenges or opportunities in the new year or trying to remake our world by force of will maybe we should spend more time right now thinking about the kind of person, with God’s help, God wants us to be. Maybe we’d be better off in these days where perhaps we have a quieter moment taking time to ask God His plans for 2025. Maybe we can simply offer to God the year ahead for his use in our lives as he sees fit.

To that end…join us next Saturday, 4^th January @ 10:00 a.m. at our home for a time of prayer to thank God for his blessings in 2024, to express our gratitude for his strength in the challenges, and to open our hearts to his leading in 2025, ready that the Father may lay down a challenge for which he expects our willing obedience.

Maybe our prayer going into the new year could be like this edited version from Bible scholar Matthew Henry:

“This new-year’s day I have solemnly renewed the resignation and surrender of my whole self to God, as my God, deliberately, and upon good considerations. I have renounced the world and the flesh as knowing they cannot make me happy; and have devoted my whole self to the blessed Spirit, to be enlightened, and sanctified…I likewise devote myself, through the Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ, as my Advocate with the Father, and my way to him; by him to be recommended to the grace and favour of God the Father, relying upon Christ’s righteousness alone; for, without him, I am less than nothing, worse than nothing. I likewise devote myself, through the Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father, as my chief good and highest end; as the author of my being, to whom I am obliged in duty; and the joy of my being, to whom I am obliged in devotion. O Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am thy servant; may I ever be free in thy service, and never desire to be free from it. Nail my ear to the doorposts, and let me serve thee forever.”

(A note…that “nail my ear to the doorpost” was how a slave in Biblical times renounced his upcoming freedom & pledged himself to his master for life. It assumed the master was gracious & good and treated his servants with kindness & compassion allowing them a full share in his bounty.)

Also…a couple of reminders…

1. Zoom Bible Study Catch-up (we resume our studies based on the previous Sunday’s worship texts)
   Friday 17^th January 2025  @ 1:00 p.m.
   Join Zoom Meeting  —  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81166125179  —  Meeting ID: 811 6612 5179
2. You’re going to get sick of me plugging this one but I want you to grab a friend or family member who isn’t yet an active member of the Church and bring them!

UnEarthed: Uncovering stories of Faith in Australia – Thursday 27^th February 2025 – This citywide multi-church evangelism event will be a FREE event for you, your families, and friends held at the Range Function Centre. Please note that date! It’s going to include Karl Faase, Colin Buchanan (and his adult country repertoire) and special guests from the Faith Runs Deep documentary interview series. All-Australian stories of faith in Christ from the length & breadth of this sunburnt country…the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit.

3. Speaking of the Bible & Stories of Faith…Leonie has been extremely diligent in finding & creating some very do-able and some very stretching Bible Reading Plans for us. There are at least 4 you can choose from available at the Hall. There are dozens of other options available on-line that can be accessed directly from your phone…we can help. If there’s one “new” thing I would hope you embrace this year, it’s a plan to read a growing section of the Scriptures every day…really stretch yourself in experiencing God’s word for you. Let me encourage you to pick up something different this year than what you may have done last year.

I finished the year reading the book of Revelation…I don’t know when we’ll get to see it in full, but I know it’s going to look like this, and I’m working as hard as I can to see that a whole bunch more folks get to enjoy it…Let’s commit to that together in 2025…Here’s the opening verses of chapter 22

Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.  No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.  And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.

See you Sunday!

John