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Happy New Year
2007
Have you made any resolutions for 2007?
If not, I hope you will soon do so! The beginning of the new year
provides us with an excellent opportunity to consciously engage in
setting the direction of our lives. We have direct influence over the
extent and the way in which we grow in our lives. It would be a mistake
to miss this opportunity to make a positive effort to link this
calendar change to something personally and universally constructive.
As you might have already anticipated, I have a suggestion! After all, I am a pastor!
I hope this year we will grow in love. Not in some selfish sense…such as more for me and mine in 2007, that is the way to spiritual poverty and moral bankruptcy. Instead, love is a commitment of ourselves to the well being of all and we personally are included in the “all.”
What will that mean? I suggest we commit ourselves to love with better quality. Better quality will move us from self-centered behavior to an ever-increasing regard for others. It means, as persons of faith, to commit our will to doing what is right for the betterment of all. It is a call to commit ourselves to courses of behavior that the Scriptures call righteous.
How do we sustain such a commitment? The best way is to follow the ancient Wesleyan admonition to attend to the “means of grace.” The means of grace are those proven ways that keep us sensitive to influences by the Holy Spirit. A few of those proven ways are: attending to private and public worship, regularly receiving the sacrament of communion, Christian conversation (Sunday School, for example), scripture reading, prayer and engaging in ministries of caring. Such practices enable the Holy Spirit to strengthen and direct us. Failures in these practices leave us weak and vulnerable to severe spiritual lapses.
For each of us 2007 provides the occasion to make determinations that improve the quality of our love. It is a secular event that we as Christians can claim for Divine purposes.
So, Happy New Year and let’s grow in love!
Grace and peace,
David
As you might have already anticipated, I have a suggestion! After all, I am a pastor!
I hope this year we will grow in love. Not in some selfish sense…such as more for me and mine in 2007, that is the way to spiritual poverty and moral bankruptcy. Instead, love is a commitment of ourselves to the well being of all and we personally are included in the “all.”
What will that mean? I suggest we commit ourselves to love with better quality. Better quality will move us from self-centered behavior to an ever-increasing regard for others. It means, as persons of faith, to commit our will to doing what is right for the betterment of all. It is a call to commit ourselves to courses of behavior that the Scriptures call righteous.
How do we sustain such a commitment? The best way is to follow the ancient Wesleyan admonition to attend to the “means of grace.” The means of grace are those proven ways that keep us sensitive to influences by the Holy Spirit. A few of those proven ways are: attending to private and public worship, regularly receiving the sacrament of communion, Christian conversation (Sunday School, for example), scripture reading, prayer and engaging in ministries of caring. Such practices enable the Holy Spirit to strengthen and direct us. Failures in these practices leave us weak and vulnerable to severe spiritual lapses.
For each of us 2007 provides the occasion to make determinations that improve the quality of our love. It is a secular event that we as Christians can claim for Divine purposes.
So, Happy New Year and let’s grow in love!
Grace and peace,
David