Loading...Dear Friends in Christ,
Happy New Year!!! I truly hope this new year will be a joy and blessing to you. Whatever ails you now, I pray will end or at least decrease enough that life will be good. The best advice I can give is the best advice I have ever received: Take one day at a time and thank God for it. God does not promise us a rose garden, but he does promise to help us through the thorns. There was a movement in the latter part of the last century called ‘Praise the Lord.’ It taught us to Praise God in all things. There were some television evangelists who used the theme to get rich and abuse the trust people put in them. In Jesus’ words about the Pharisees in his day, “they didn’t do what they preached.” But that doesn’t mean the habit of praising God in all things isn’t good advice. It is.
The psalmist told us that in the 23rd Psalm: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” Thou art with me. Those are the most comforting words ever spoken. God is with me, with you, no matter how far away He seems to be. This is where we come in as Christians.
Some of you have heard the story of when I was at the School of Theology in Sewanee, TN. There was a group of young people from Mississippi on a retreat at a nearby state park. One young man had difficulties in a swimming hole. Another teenager tried to help him. Both drowned. The remaining group was so distressed. They were brought to the seminary campus awaiting for loved ones from home to arrive. Members of the faculty and students tended to their needs, trying to comfort them the best they could. An observer commented, “See what is happening. Whenever God seems far away, God’s people are there to help and love.” That is what it means to be a Christian. Again I will say it, and I will always remind you and myself, we have to be the hands and feet and heart of God. That is how God works. Through us. You and me.
I pray that we will make this new year one that we not only talk about being a Christian, but one where we show others what Christians do. We are to love others, forgive others, not judge others, to serve others. Jesus said it best, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these,* you did it to me.”
My resolution for this year and every year God gives me is to love more, forgive more, and serve more. Won’t you join me? 37 In Christ’s Love,
Father Russ
