The New Year

According to the church calendar, tomorrow is the new year - Advent. (Would love to find my Advent Wreath - stored it somewhere special, since I put it out before the Christmas decorations.)The Advent Season is a time to prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord.

The wonderful thing about God is not only do we have a new year, He gives us a new heart, a new mind, we are new creations, the old unsaved person who wallowed in sin is gone.

Remember it's never too late to start over, He gives us a clean slate. We are washed clean by the Blood of Jesus.

The Bible tells us:

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

The busy holiday season is upon us...take some time over the next 4 weeks and celebrate New Year with the Lord...