Happy New Year!  I can hardly believe that we are in 2009!  What happened to 2008?  This is our first New Year with out our children at home with us during the New Year celebration.  At the dropping of the ball at Times Square, I called our two daughters (one lives in Chicago and the other in San Francisco) to wish them a happy New Year.  I started the conversations with, “This is your Father speaking to you from the future.”  Although this was not our first New Year’s on the East Coast, it was the first year that it occurred to me, we were more than just a time zone differential, but a calendar year differential.  I was in fact speaking to them from the New Year.  Now I had no words of warning like Marty in Back to the Future for my daughters, but I did have words of encouragement for the New Year!  Our youngest has just graduated from College and I spoke to her of the New Year as the beginning of her career as an Art Teacher and to our other daughter and son-in-law my words were of encouragement for the furthering of their career in the advertising and graphic arts industry.

This speaking from the future made me think of the Prophets of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah.  His words of prophesy regarding the coming of the Messiah were truly words spoken of the future.  Words of encouragement given to Isaiah by God for us, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6   Surely those are words that bring us encouragement, that our Savior has come!  Born to bring us peace and restoration of our relationship with God Himself.

As we leave Christmas and enter the New Year, we look forward to new beginnings and fresh starts.  Resolutions have been made and we ponder over the past year and marvel at all that has happened to our country and to our families.  Joys, sorrows, frustrations, unfulfilled expectations and triumphs are all part of the past.  Having shaped us and molded us into who we are today, standing at the beginning of the New Year.  Just as I spoke to my daughters from the future, we have a message from our Heavenly Father regarding the future, our future with Him.  John 3:16 says it all, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The New Year will bring it’s own share of joys, sorrows, frustrations, unfulfilled expectations and triumphs, but one thing we can be assured of, God still reigns, His promises are steadfast and His Son has gone ahead of us to prepare heaven for us all.

May God bless your New Year with His peace!

In His Grip!
Pastor Doug