With this hol­i­day sea­son comes an oppor­tu­nity to start a new. Mil­lions of new years res­o­lu­tions will hastily be made this week­end, and fol­lowed up with a mediocre lack lus­ter effort to see it through.  We all can use a “fresh start”, but what we do with it when we get one is what mat­ters. Do we take it and fum­ble the oppor­tu­nity we have been given and con­tinue in our same old ways? If so, it should not be like that, In the Bible, Jesus talks about being born again, and if we are born again we are now part of the body of Christ and are not sub­ject to the rule of this world.

“What shall we say then? Shall we con­tinue in sin, that grace may abound? God for­bid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were bap­tized into Jesus Christ were bap­tized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by bap­tism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in new­ness of life. For if we have been planted together in the like­ness of his death, we shall be also [in the like­ness] of [his] resurrection:Knowing this, that our old man is cru­ci­fied with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that hence­forth we should not serve sin, For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more domin­ion over him.” Romans 6:1–9 (KJV)

What this pas­sage is say­ing, is that if we die out to the sin of this world, and are bap­tized with Christ, then we are made new in Him and no longer sub­ject to the ruler of this world. This trans­for­ma­tion gives us power over sin and to be an over-comer! So in this new year, don’t seek out another cliché res­o­lu­tion, but desire to have a rela­tion­ship with Jesus. He is and ever­last­ing friend that will not leave you nor for­sake you. His grace will always be sufficient.

This Tues­day night, dur­ing his mes­sage Pas­tor Jones made the state­ment, “The best life you will live is one that is lived for the Lord!” Oh, how true is this state­ment, and in what­ever you set out to do for God, he will be there for you and make up the dif­fer­ence in what you lack.

We are so thank­ful for what God has done this past year for us and are grate­ful for all his bless­ings. Our church has taken leaps-and-bounds in mov­ing for­ward for the work of his king­dom. Our out­reach is steadily and con­stantly pro­duc­tive. The church beau­ti­fi­ca­tion project, although not com­plete, has tremen­dously improved the phys­i­cal appear­ance of our building. We have had mile­stone revival ser­vices and mem­o­rable moves of the Holy Ghost. Never tak­ing for granted the heart stir­ring pres­ence of God we feel in our ser­vices, we our thank­ful for every touch.

With that said, the future is brighter than ever! I really believe this too, as cliché as this may sound, we sin­cerely believe that the revival God has for us will come to fruition this year. He have con­stantly sowed , and now we are expect­ing a great har­vest. Men of God have come to our church count­less times and told us that God has a spe­cial revival for us and we are anx­iously await­ing, and doing what we know to do. By the grace of God, we are mov­ing forward!