Year End Journal Entry

Regardless of the title, this isn't anything to do with accounting!  At least not in the financial sense! I do think of taking time to think about Gods Word and what it means to me in my life as a way of being accountable, so in my mind it's kind of like accounting!  For example I am advised in
James 1:22-25 "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.  Anyone who listens  to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it- not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it- they will be blessed in what they do."

There've been many years of my life that right around New Years Eve I would take time to look over the past year and journal the experiences and do some self evaluation.  I would look to see, "am I growing as a Christian or have I  moved further away from God?".  Still to this day, I try to keep that tradition an ongoing thing.  And Simply and Honestly I believe God has  used this time of remembering and evaluating to help me grow in Christ.

I think a big part of why I do this is because on New Years Eve in 1982 I knew I had done some things that did not please God.  Our church was ringing in the New Year with what they called a watch night service.  I remember going forward to accept communion and feeling in my heart that I needed to ask God for forgiveness for the wrong that I'd done.  And THAT night is where I decided to follow Jesus.  Not just because Mom and Dad and my brother were all Chrisitians, but because I felt God calling me to Him.  That is when my Christian journey really began.  That is when I fell in love with Jesus and searched the Bible to see why do I believe what I believe?  How do I know that what I believe is right versus all the other doctrines and religions of the world?

Looking back on it now, that's some pretty deep stuff for a 12, almost 13 year old to think about. That must have been God leading me!  I spent most of my teen years reading in my Bible and honing in on the parts that answered my questions.  There was a new desire in my life to want to do right.  So that is where and when my journey to follow Christ for myself began. I think I was 15 or 16 when I started this year end in review/ journaling.

As far as this past year is concerned, it's been a year that I've experienced some close encounters in which I thought my life was coming to an end!  Never have I faced the things I've experienced this past year. Honestly, I feel God has given me my life back.

Here's a weird perspective on this new lease I have on life: my grandmother is exactly double my age this year.  She still gets around, both she and my grandfather are an inspiration to me of what faithfulness means, even in the face of hardship, they've remained true to God and to each other.  That wasn't the point I was making about my grandmother being exactly twice my age, but I had to share that!  My point is, if I live to be as old as she then I have lived half of my life up to this point.

With that thought in mind, I want to make the second half of my life count for more!  I am looking forward to the year ahead as a year to accomplish great things!  Throughout my life I can see God has  custom fit the events to put me here, now at this time in this place and at this age for a higher purpose than to just live a comfortable life.  I believe this is what you call getting out of your comfort zone!  Regardless may 2015 be a year spent for a higher purpose!
Proverbs 29:18 "When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.
But whoever obeys the law is joyful."

All I Want For Christmas

Just recently I heard on The Message, my Serious XM satellite, go to radio station the following, "It's a sign of old age when someone asks you, "What do you want for Christmas", and you can't think of anything.  Then when you do finally think of something, it's something that can just be picked up at CVS."  That one made me laugh and nod in agreement!

Oh well, I may be getting older but along with that I'm getting wiser!  Wisdom comes with experience and experience comes from making mistakes. Taking the time to learn from those mistakes does indeed give one experience!  And I've surely made my fair share of them, just ask Steve! Uh, on second thought maybe not! :)

With the years of hearing the Christmas story, growing up in the church, hearing it at home, reading it In my alone time with God and then running full circle of teaching it to our son, and bringing him to church, it is easy to just gloss over it. I mean by my age, even if I'd only heard it once a year I've heard the Christmas story at least, 40 + times by now! (Not divulging my exact age in this format!) :)

So how does one make it fresh and new?  Actually it's not my job to make it fresh and new.  Well I do have to put forth the desire, but God is the One who makes it fresh every year! As for this year, God has already given me a new, old truth that I remeber learning around the age of 13 or 14. Michael is fourteen this year and I don't know why, but that is one period of my life that I remember vividly!

I remember learning the meaning of my name, which means Pure, or Pure one, around that time. Learning the meaning of my name put the desire in me to live up to it!  I also remember a fill in Pastor in our church, Rev. Jack Pease talking about the virgin  Mary.  He spoke of how she was probably very young, maybe 15 years old and God had chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah.
She was just a common girl, not of royalty, there was nothing that drew attention to her. And yet in her young innocence she chose to live in such a way, that God would pick her to be the mother to His son.

Rev. Pease challenged us to be that kind of man or woman.  That when God is looking for someone to use for His plan, that He would choose you!  Now, I know, that God uses people who've messed up.  People who were totally not perfect by any stretch of the imagination!  Look at the apostle Paul, he murdered Christians, in the form of what he thought was the right thing to do!Yet God revealed Himself to Paul and he was a different man! He then went on to be one of the first missionaries of the gospel and he wrote nearly 1/2 of the New Testament!  So I know better than to think that God only uses the perfect, the holy, the elite!  And Romans 3:23 makes it very clear that we've all sinned and
have fallen short of God's glory. Also, Isaiah states that, " all of our righteousness is as filthy rags".  (Isaiah 64:6).  Even if we do everything to our best, humanly speaking, it's still not good enough to come into the presence of a holy God!

After having said all of that, even Mary, would have been imperfect and in need of having her sins
forgiven!  Yet God saw her hearts desire! The desire to do what is right and pleasing to God!  There is something to be said of the one whose grown up in the church and has chosen to follow Jesus.  A life that has been spared the the consequences of rebelling and reaping the results of that rebellion.

There are no garuntees that the son we are raising will always choose the "narrow" path.  But I have thrown out this challenge to him that Rev. Pease threw out to our church when I was a teen!  Strive to be that kind of person that when God is looking for someone to use, that He'd choose you!  I pray that Steve and I as parents are faithful to practice what we preach!


Simply and Honestly, the only gift I want, really can't be bought at CVS.  It can only be bought through the life that Jesus gave when He died for our sins and paid the price.  What I want for
Christmas is to know that we've have been faithful to pass the baton onto our son.  To see him to continue to make that choice  and live for God!  No pressure on Steve and I as parents!