Like most in the state of Oregon, Carla and I have been watching the newscasts that are ongoing, showing the strength of the winter we are having.

LOTS of snow, we are having more snow than we have had in years and close to all time records. 

Thanks to Rich we have our family pickup back and it sits surrounded by snow in our driveway.  Still, I was concerned that trying to get back down the driveway, today, it might high center and even if it made it down, the chance of it coming back up was minimal the way the driveway was.  Just way too much snow and even though it is a 4X4 it would be pushing snow.

SO, I went out and started shoveling the driveway and getting the snow off the truck.  I didn’t worry, too much, about trying to get the snow down to gravel, just getting the center of the driveway cleared off so it wouldn’t create a problem.

Our 300 foot driveway feels like a 5 mile driveway before we get around the first curve 100 feet out.  Carla came out and helped so the two of us spent all morning shoveling to get out.  Total man hours about 5, but again, not as clear as when Steven and I spent 8 – 10 man hours clearing it.

When it starts snowing I shovel a path from the porch across the grass so I can feed the birds AND Blaze can get out to do his business.

The path went from a two shovel width path, to a shovel width path with two and a half foot walls on either side AND 4 foot hills made of thrown snow behind them.

Came back in, put a round steak in the oven – we treat it as we do pot roasts with potatoes and carrots and sautéed onions and garlic – then laid down for a bit.  Forgot to suggest to Carla to make some of her potato rolls and she also thought about it, but forgot.

So, while it ain’t quite the same, I made some Bisquit biscuits and they complimented the roast very well.

Mathew 8:25-27  And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.

²⁶ And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

²⁷ But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!

Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?

How much are we limiting our God by not believing in Him enough to ask for miracles, and expecting them?

Why do we fear, why do we not accept that God always knows us and our needs and always knows what is needed?

But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!

WE KNOW what manner of man Jesus is.  WE KNOW what He has done in the past and promises to do in the lives of those that accept Him for who He is and trust Him.

So, why do we too, marvel when God does something in our lives – especially when we have asked Him to do it?

Lord, may I have total trust in You, May I never sit back, with disbelief, and overcome with marvel.

You are God.  You have created the universe and everything within it.

You have chosen me.  You have open the gates of heaven, you have given us strength, even in the darkest of times.

You are not only God, you are MY God.

Thank you for your great love and mercy.

Later, Art (-:

In our neck of the woods it is cold, 20*, and snowing, hard.  I can’t see across the road and even the nearest neighbors’ houses are just a blur.  Very pretty, but inconvenient.

We are supposed to have somewhere between 6-10 inches, we have the six up here and it is still coming down; hard. 

Had to have the truck towed to Rich’s – the power steering went out, hopefully he will have it fixed by tomorrow afternoon.  Carla took the Toy into work today, it went down to the road okay, our concern is her coming back UP the driveway, it is steep and full of ice.

Birds are feeding on both the seeds and the hummer’s feeders, our outside/inside cat that much prefers outside, is very restless and frustrated.  She has been sitting on the window sills looking out – several different sills as she works her way around the house.  Offered to let her out, she didn’t get off the porch; and let me know she wanted back in – now that is how bad it is.

Blaze enjoys it more than anything else in his world, it seems.  He is spending more time outside, looking around and sniffing things out far more than he has done since his arrival here.  Still, there comes the time to come in and snuggle with his blanket.

Had two visitors last night, one must have been a raccoon as the cats dishes were on the floor.  Carla heard the crash and investigated but the little burglar was gone.  He hasn’t ventured in for several weeks now; he is probably hungry, but not a good combination for our ‘livestock.’

Then we had a deer come up the driveway and halfway up our sidewalk from the driveway.  To my knowledge they haven’t come in that way before.  Did have one jump the yard fence once, but that was all.  He turned and left – also probably hungry.

It is hard for the wild life to forage for food under these thick blankets of snow and ice.  While I understand that and feel bad for them, I don’t want to encourage their forage here, they do a lot of damage to Carla’s garden; don’t want them to think we really want them here.

Have the last of the bean and ham soup on the stove, heating it up.  It gets better tasting each day, and it is doubly delicious on these kinds of days.

We always cook for leftovers, and the soup was made with a lot of the leftovers from Christmas.  Now it is left over soup.  No sense wasting good food.

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Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Jeremiah 17:13  O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.

John 4:10  Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

John 7:37-38  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

³⁸ He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

John 6:34-35 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

³⁵ And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Revelations 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Verse 16-17   I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

¹⁷ And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

My soul so needs those living waters.

I am so glad and thankful that it comes to me through the blood of Jesus, freely.

It wells up inside me, it lifts me up as if I am on a raft that is secure and free from outside forces.

No matter what rain may befall me, Jesus has provided living waters within.

No matter what drought may befall me, Jesus has provided living waters within.

I am continually refilled as the Holy Spirit deals with me, lifting me above everything; as I float above the fray, on the surface of God’s Grace, I am blessed.

Thank you, Lord.

Later, Art (-:

1000 and it started snowing, 1437, hasn’t let up and is covering the ground, over an inch so far.

Truck got Carla to work, but won’t get her home.  We had it towed to Rich’s and hopefully it will be back on the road Monday afternoon.  I called Deed’s and left a message, will try again shortly, asking if she could swing by on her way to work and get Carla home; hopefully that will happen, we shall see – if not we’ll figure out something.

She is supposed to open tomorrow, but if it continues like this I am not sure she can get down there.  She has already told her boss.

All kinds of warnings for our neck of the woods and this weather is just a start, so far no freezing rain, but it is expected.

They have already closed I-84 to the east of here, and they too are expecting much more weather.  It is one of those times that being careless can cost you more than a bent bumper.

Switching out the humming bird feeders every 25 minutes so they don’t freeze up.  The light helps, but once it gets as low as it is now 18*, it can’t keep the ice from forming.

A friend advised me of a feeder with a built-in heater, I ordered one.  They are backed up, but even if it takes a couple of weeks we will have more of this mess in years to come, if not weeks.

If you are interested here is the web site: 

http://www.hummersheateddelight.com/order.html

You will note it is made in Oregon, Albany to be specific. 

Once I get it and try it I’ll let you know how it does, but from the photos, it looks like it is a good answer to our dilemma, what can we do if we aren’t home, these little guys depend on us.

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“Every person should see to it that he is fully cleansed from all sin, entirely surrendered to the whole will of God and filled with the Holy Spirit. Then he will not be known as what he does, but as what he is. He will be a man of God first and anything else second.”  AW Tozer

Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Every person should see to it that he is fully cleansed from all sin,

Far too many of us leave the work of God to the minister and feel that is sufficient to reach others for Christ.  But, very few people come to Christ by a minister inviting them to church, nor do they just drop into the church to see what is happening.

And while it is true that does happen, if we depended upon that to reach the unsaved, very few would come.

Being a Christian is being close to God.  Being a Christian means sharing your faith with others.  Being a Christian is a full-time job, everything else we do is secondary.

Whatever a person expects of a full-time minister of God, should be every Christian’s expectation of ones self.

While we may not have the education or calling that a Pastor has, we have the same obligation to serve God in the capacity in which He calls us.

People are drawn to God by the observation and testimony of Christians as the Holy Spirit uses us to reach them.  The Holy Spirit guides us, directs us and sometimes chastises us for our failure to live for Him.

It isn’t fun being chastised by God, but if we accept the discipline and turn our eyes, heart and soul over to Him we will find that we are truly finding ways, every day, to serve Him.

“Then he will not be known as what he does, but as what he is. He will be a man of God first and anything else second.”

I want to serve God so faithfully that I don’t have to think twice when He calls upon me.

Later, Art (-: 

Arising at 0700 this morning, Carla had to open the store this morning, so she had to leave by 0800.

Checked the temperature – 1*.  Both in the garden and on the porch.  It remained that way for a couple of hours, now it is slowly rising, 15* in the garden and 8* on the porch.

Air was clear, sky was clear, the mountains were bright under the sun’s rays. 

Birds are fed.  I have three hummingbird feeders that I rotate one outside every 25 minutes or it freezes up – I have to have a marker to tell me which one goes out next....

Nuked three pie plates of bird seed and fill those feeders.  Dog and cats are fed and watered.

Homemade bean with ham soup is simmering on the stove.  We used the prime rib bones last week to make beef noodle soup.  This week we are using the ham bone and lots of left over ham for our ham and bean soup.

The smell is tantalizing.

I will wait until Carla gets home to find out if she wants sandwiches or corn bread with the soup – either will make a rich meal.

As pretty as it is today, we are ready to hunker down in preparations for the weather tomorrow.  It is supposed to be snow of from 6-10 inches followed by freezing rain.

Oregon Dept. of Transportation is already warning people that they will probably have to close the Gorge for a few days.  Due to the high winds, and tall hills above I-84 this highway is treacherous when the bad weather hits.  There is no point in letting people go through only to find them either stuck behind a wreck or involved in one of the many that occur in that weather.

I-84 east of here, past Pendleton, is also going to get some real dangerous weather.  Sheriff Speelmen’s country was down to a minus 23 (officially) last night and they are also supposed to get some winter mix – read snow and freezing rain.

So, we will have our homemade soup, and keep warm with the four legged animals.

Truly thankful for the furnace!

-- Just changed the hummingbird feeders and noted a few tiny snowflakes (at 12*) looked to the west and we have clear skies, looked back to the east and realized clouds are starting to row in.  We shall see what comes.

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“What exactly does it mean to love God? The Greek word for love used in the Gospel of Matthew has more to do with commitment than with feeling. It is to commit oneself, to give oneself over to something, to put something first. The command to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, then, would mean to totally and wholeheartedly commit ourselves to Him as being first in our lives.” – Living His Word, Weekly Devotion

Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  KJV

There are times I wonder if I really am in love with God. 

I love Carla, my kids and grandkids, even pets that I have or have had, I can feel the love within me, I can feel the reciprocation from them.

It is an emotional thing, a physical thing, I have contact with these people and I can see, hear and feel them in my life.

God is a spirit and we must worship Him in the spirit.

John 4:23-24  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

²⁴ God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

This love is truly different.  It comes from deep within us with the realization that God loves us, He loved us so much He sacrificed His only begotten Son.

He expects us to accept Jesus as the Christ, as the Messiah.  He expects us to follow His commands and edicts.  He expects us to love Him.

Oh, we can make that love an emotional thing – and it often is, when we are so close to Him we feel His Spirit and it stirs us to the very bottom of our being, it IS emotional.

But this love is of our will; we either do or don’t love Him.

When we need to be reminded we find ourselves reading scriptures that deal with the difference – and that is not a coincidence, it is one of the ways God speaks to us.

Our love towards Him is shown by and comes from the dedication to do His will, to obey Him.

In the world we would call what God expects of us, a dictatorship; the ruler demands that we comply, or we will suffer serious consequences.

But it isn’t love the dictatorship shows, it is power, it is control over people.  We often see this same method used by bosses who have no desire to listen, only expect immediate obedience.  Employees are just a means to an end and once used up they are cast away.

God’s love is proven by His demonstrated desire to free us from the bondage of sin and to surround us in the arms of His Holy Spirit.  He shows His love for us.  He expects us to show our love for Him, by obeying Him, putting Him first, our neighbors second and the rest of the world will fall into its proper place.

God’s Word is full of examples of how He will help those that come to Him and have Him first in their lives.  Sometimes those people have gone through harsh trials and tribulations, but God has always been with them and in the end they emerge victorious over the world.

Yes there are times I question myself, but when I go to Him, I find that deep love and appreciation for Him is rewarded by the knowledge He is with me, forever.

Later, Art (-:

Wrestling with some ‘stuff’ but still getting around.

Last couple of days have been pretty, sunlit mountains and hills; clear light blue skies; air crisp and clean; but, along with that 3* this morning with a promise of not getting out of the teens today and another cold night tonight.

Roads, for the most part, are cleared, however where they are not we have snow, covered by ice, covered by snow, covered by – you get the picture.  That kind of ice lingers on for a long time and makes driving and even walking difficult.

When it comes to snow, I really do miss Central Oregon, driving, playing and working in it was nowhere near as hazardous as the Gorge area.  It is a much dryer snow and the humidity is not as high as this area and the wind doesn’t blow there, like it does here.  However, this year it doesn’t seem to matter.

Roads are being closed that rarely are close, due to the ensuing weather they are closed, and not just for a couple hours, but for several hours and even days for literally hundreds of miles.

To me it is interesting that people don’t prepare for such conditions.  They don’t stock up with extra food, when they travel they don’t have blankets or food items to hold them in case they get stuck either in traffic or in an accident.  They drive in bad conditions with gas tanks that have just enough fuel to get them to their destination, but don’t plan on long delays or detours.

It doesn’t take a lot to protect ourselves in these situations; we need to take those precautions.

Trust all that are reading this are comfortable, and able to get through the weather – until tomorrow.......

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Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

There is always tomorrow.  We live our life that way, not really thinking about it, but that is how we make a lot of decisions

Sometimes that is all we can do – our day is filled, we have things that keep coming if for us to do, and we can’t possibly get them all done in a day – so tomorrow will have to be sufficient.

Tomorrow is a day that may not come, and doesn’t come for tens of thousands of people each day.

Many know that they may not be there tomorrow, they are elderly at the brink of death, they have an illness that is terminal and has almost run its course, the accident victim who is so badly injured he won’t make it through the night.

These people realize that what is important is what is happening right now.

But many of us put things off, they are not all that important to us, so we don’t act on them; we really do have to prioritize and this job must wait until later; what must be done is distasteful and we don’t want to face it; and many other reasons that we choose to delay our actions, and it may not be a good idea.

We may not have tomorrow.

It is important to let those you love, know you love them.  I send a text out to my family members every day telling them that I do love, miss and pray for them.

Yes, that could be just a rut I am in – or calling is more personal, and that is true, to a degree.  But these people are important to me, and hopefully when they receive that post they know that I am thinking about them and truly do miss them.

We could name a lot of things that need to be done, today, but get put off until tomorrow, or later.

I have investigated and been around many accidents where the person is alive one moment, and literally dead the next.  In the blink of an eye they went from people who thought they had tomorrow, indeed thought they had the rest of the day, to death.

The question this is often asked, sometimes seriously sometimes not so much, is:  “If you knew you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do?”  A lot of times it is followed by a list, other times just left for the reader to fill in.

But it is a serious question, what WOULD you do if you knew that you only had 24 hours to live?

If we have any answer but, do what I normally do on that day of my life, then you really need to ask why haven’t we done that yet?

If it is important, do it.  If it isn’t feasible for financial or health or other legitimate reasons, then let it go.

But don’t wait until the last moment, because it might be the last.

So, what’s on your to do list that needs to be done; today?

Later, Art (-:

We have bird feeders.  Occasionally one of the birds unintentionally feeds one of the cats.  However, I never expected the bird feeders to be the drawing point for a bird feeding on birds.

This morning, sitting here at my computer and looking out at the couple inches of snow on the trees and hills around us – beautiful, by the way – I looked down for a moment to read whatever it was on the screen when bang, a bird hit the window and bounced off.

I looked up just in time to see a large bird swooping in trying to catch one of the sparrows or chickadees.  Not sure if it got any of them, but didn’t see any feathers.

We have bald eagles that nest in large spruce trees, across the road, that grow along Mill Creek.  This bird doesn’t appear to be that size, although it may be a young one.  We have also had a couple of hawks a few hundred feet down the north side of the property, but, haven’t seen them up this way, yet.  So, not sure what it was, it was gone so quickly, but it scattered the birds and it took quite a while for them to come back.

Can’t blame them.

Devotions, shoveling snow off the path, getting the truck cleaned off so Carla can get to work – will still have to brush it before she can leave, but at least the two to three inches are off, everything pretty much done.

Bowl day today, not those wimpy ones, but the classics Rose, Cotton and Sugar. 

So, you know where I will be the rest of the day.

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Daniel 1:8  But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. KJV

Reading this, this morning reminds me that we have choices in this world.  Not all of them will be popular and some will drive people away.  But we have choices.

Far too often Christians shy away from doing what they know God wants them to do out of fear of ridicule, or condemnation, or they will be damaged financially, or any number of what they consider legitimate reasons – they chose not to take that path.

Far too many Christians find themselves in a quandary, they are challenged to do something they know is sin, yet, they do it anyway, knowing it is wrong; they are in dangerous territory.

The consequences to our spiritual life and witness could be devastating.

We need to understand we make the choices, sometimes it does feel like there is no other way, but we still make a decision to either do or not do something.

Even our Savior had to make a choice, live or die a painful and humiliating death.  He knew what was about to happen, He could have gone away, hidden Himself, but he didn’t.

Mathew 26:39 And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Joshua 24:14-16 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.

¹⁵ And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

¹⁶ And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; KJV

It is a choice, one we make every single day of our life.

We know that these people did turn from God, many times.  But our Lord is so merciful when they came back to Him with a heart full of contrition He accepted them.

However, they didn’t have to go through all the pain and suffering before they came back to God, if they had made the right choice in the first place.

We too can be thankful that when we make a decision that is not to the Glory of God, we realize we can come back to Him and be forgiven – but it is much better for us that we make the right decision in the first place, for the same reasons it would have been better for Jews.

nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

May that be my prayer, and response, every day, Lord.

Later, Art :-)

For the last, I don’t know how many years, I have welcomed in the New Year on the first at around 0700 or thereabouts.  This is one holiday that has little meaning to me.

I worked many New Year’s Eves.  Our Crime Prevention Unit, in the mid-70’s, developed a program where people could call a number and one of our volunteers would pick them up and get them safely home.  Usually a Real Estate Office allowed us to use their office and phones.

Now, there is a number of taxi or towing companies that provide that same service all over the country.  Good for them.

The unit also pushed the idea of the one person in the group who didn’t drink to become the dedicated driver for those that did.

In the early 80’s the department had a Driving Under the Influence (DUII) team.  They came to work at 2000 hours and worked until 0400 hours, they worked every night but focused on the weekends.

Bar owners were not happy, but someone, not sure who, convinced them to give free non-alcoholic drinks to designated drivers – and/or provide a driver of their own so they wouldn’t lose business and their customers (not to mention the rest of the community) would be safer.  Some did both.

My first year in office I was asked to come down and talk to the people who put on the Tygh Valley All Indian Rodeo.

This was a fundraiser for the committee and they had scholarships and other positive donations to the community.

The deputies told me that in the days before the rodeo, people would set up across from where our command center and transport vehicles were, so ‘they could watch the show.’  They didn’t even go to the rodeo itself.  (They would set up their chairs in front of their RV’s and watch from early evening until the last drunk was dealt with in the early morning hours.)

The rodeo was known for its drunks and fights – I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, but I wasn’t going to allow a program that was famous for its disorderly conduct to continue that way in our county, wasn’t sure just what I was going to do or say, but this had to stop.

I didn’t want to ‘shut down’ the rodeo, but there was a better way of putting it on.

I was the second person on the agenda, the first was their insurance agent – the cost of insurance for the three day event was raised to over $8000; the group couldn’t believe it, it was a huge hole in their profits.

There was my opening, and I did have some ideas.

After the agent left it was my turn.  I was told, by the chairman, that the group liked the Sheriff’s Office because we didn’t make a lot of arrests and just let them ‘do their thing’ so to speak.

They really hated the Oregon State Police because they were preying on the attendees, they would wait on the highway and arrest them for DUII.  They even brought in several troopers from outside the area to work the weekend.

Now, the reason for that was a couple years earlier there were five fatal traffic accidents in the area – all the drivers came from the rodeo.  That was not acceptable and OSP determined to get the drivers before they could hurt anyone.

Part of the problem was that many of the attendees had their camp set up at the Fair Grounds, a little over a mile away, and when they drove over there they were being picked up by the troopers.

Then of course there were those that tried to drive home farther south, or north towards The Dalles, intoxicated.

Troopers made well in excess of twenty arrests each year for several years.

I listened to their concerns then suggested that they have a van to take the people back and forth to the fair grounds.  I also agreed with the insurance agent that they should get professional servers for the event. 

They were using people from around the area to check id’s and serve drinks, that of course is loaded with the opportunity of those that want to flaunt the law to do so.

These were good people, whose fathers had started the rodeo sometime in the 1950’s as I recall right.  But, times had changed into what was acceptable and they just didn’t understand that – to their credit, they made improvements, got on the All Indian Rodeo circuit and had a better product in their last years.

It was a much quieter Rodeo that year and years after.  Eventually, however, it just became too expensive to operate; people weren’t having ‘fun’ anymore and they stopped the rodeo.

I do have a couple of stories concerning the rodeo I will share at a later date.

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Psalm 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

So, we write out a resolution.  We are going to do better this new year than last year.

We start listing all the things we need to do to improve our health, family, work, hobbies; we are going to do BETTER.

Everyone knows that the fitness centers have an influx of people signing up to go to their gym.  All these people have the highest desire and motivation to lose weight, or get into better shape; this year will be the year it happens.

Come March and even February the best of intentions are interfered with the reality of life, got busy at work, family had to have more of my time, new programs on TV and new movies to see, and the excuses go on and on.

We don’t stay focused on those goals and before we know it, 2018 will come along and we re-pledge ourselves to doing better than we did in 2017.

As Christians we make the same kind of resolutions in our spiritual life.  We are going to read the Bible all the way through THIS year.  We are going to witness more, we are going to be more active in the church or programs that help people; we are going to grow, spiritually.

Too often those resolutions, too, go by the wayside.

There is nothing wrong with setting goals for oneself, desiring to improve our condition and help others on this planet and serving our Lord in a more effective manner.

Unless God speaks to us differently, we need to be realistic with our goals and set them high enough that we can improve – but no so high we give up. 

We can always re-evaluate our goals if we find we have reached them before the end of the year – and then set new ones.

However, no matter what we want to do new or better in the coming year we need to put God at the very top.  We need to talk with Him, find out what HE wants of us – and that is a daily task.

Mathew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

If we start out this “New” (arbitrarily) Year, with putting God first, we will become better than we were.

What is interesting, to me, as I write this, I don’t know anyone that accepted Jesus the Christ as their personal savior on New Year’s Eve or even New Years.

We became NEW creatures at the foot of the cross:

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

We didn’t make goals, we didn’t tell Him all the things we would do for Him.

In the first few weeks (provided we had a good mentor) we learned more about Christ, we learned more about God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

We learned more about the things that He wanted us to do and how we can serve Him.  We started reading His Word and because we were now a child of His, it had more meaning than anything we had read before.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path

We drew closer to Him and started allowing Him to show us the way for our life.

THEN we may have set goals, but, when we came to Jesus all we could see was the light that God had provided for our dark soul and feel the washing of His blood taking hold of us as tears of shame and gratitude took hold of our souls.

We don’t need to start thinking about turning over a new leaf in the latter part of December.  We can change, with the help and grace of God, any day of the year.

We don’t have to wait until this time of year to re-focus our life for Him, we need to do it daily.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path

It is a very bright light that keeps our soul and heart illuminated by Him.

We gained that light the moment we accepted God’s Son into our heart.  That light, God’s Holy Spirit, was within us and started shining so much that the whole world could see it. 

We came from a very dark place, not realizing how dark it was, into God’s light.  And I for one, didn’t wait until New Year’s Day to accept it – My new creation in Christ, that light that lit up the darkness of my soul, was in April 52 years ago.

Mathew 5:22-23 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

²³ But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Make your goals for the New Year, but make sure daily conversations with God is at the very top of it; unlike the others that may go by the wayside, cling to that one and never let it go.

Having said all that:  Happy New Year and may our Lord truly bless you throughout 2017!

Later, Art (-: