It’s a new year! Congratulations for making it through 2022, and we’re excited to tell you that 2023 is going to be the best year yet! This is not because of what is going to happen to you in the year, but because of what is going to happen through you in the year. It’s time to renew your youthful vigor for a bright and hopeful year. It’s time to rekindle your dreams and aspirations that have laid dormant for too long. Kill the cynic inside of you and choose to let hope bubble to the surface. God is too good, too loving, too caring, and too powerful for us to act as if anything that this world or the devil can throw on us can compare to Him.
Follow The Apostle Paul’s lead on this:
I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.
Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I’ve warned you of them many times; sadly, I’m having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ’s Cross. But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites.
But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.
—The Apostle Paul
Philippians 3:12–21 MSG
The Christian life is not a passive one of survival and desperation waiting for a savior to come. The Christian life is the life of a child of God whose Savior has already come. It is a life full of glorious expectations of a bright future filled with Christ. It is a life filled with daily purposeful actions of faith. We use our words to uplift, inspire, praise, worship, create, effect change, and to release the hope, faith, and love that has been bestowed and perpetuated in us by Christ. So like Paul, press on towards the goal. Keep your eyes fixed on God. If anything comes to distract, discourage, or preach a different message besides faith, hope, or love, then reject it and go on with God. Have a blessed New Year.
—Jake and Keith
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