New year, new beginnings

It's a new year.  A chance for new choices, a fresh start.  A time to look ahead and change what was wrong, to plant a new crop for the new year.

It's a chance for new beginnings.  What will you do with the next year?  It's all in your hands to live each day with the excitement of a child as they open each Christmas gift.  What will you find in the days ahead?

We always begin a new year with hopes and dreams of better things, but soon find that the same problems, same choices, and same people are still the same!  But don't let the sameness around you keep you from planting new crops in your life, from doing something different, from new adventures.  Make the choice to do one new thing this year that you have always wanted to do.  

Plant a new kind of seed in your life.  Become a student of a new interest, learn something new that has always interested you, go somewhere you have always wanted to go.  God is a God of adventure in our lives with him and in his desires for us personally.  He smiles when we thrive.  So, this year, with a new year beginning what new things will you do?   What adventures will you go on in your walk with God?  

We are in the last days.  The Lord is coming soon.  There has never been a time like this when God's people can be part of such an amazing time.  Love people.  Get to know God more deeply.  And consider the new year ahead the greatest adventure you will ever embark upon.  It will be exciting!

Happy New Year!

A new year begins.  I hope you have a great new year.  

Trust God, love people, enjoy every moment.  

Precious

Sweet granddaughter, J. 

I'll be back soon...

I will be back with you and sharing my thoughts after the new year. Thank you for your comments and frequent stops at this site. It's been an amazing year. I look forward to 2013 and what God will do in the new year.

Most read post of 2012

The most read post of 2012 on this site was "War of the Worlds".  Here it is one more time as we end this amazing year. 

War of the Worlds

We are in a war, but it's not the war we are trying to fight.

It's not a war between Republicans and Democrats.

It's not a war between conservatives and liberals.

It's not a war between Christians and Muslims.

It's not a war between gay and straight.

It's not a war between "us" and "them".

These are the wars we are fighting in the Christian world I live in, but they are the wrong wars, the wrong battlefields, attacks against the wrong enemies.  

We are taking blows at symptoms, not at the real enemies.  We find ourselves boxing shadows and completely missing the real enemies among us.  It is a war of the worlds, but not the one we fight now.  Here's the real battlefield, here's the real enemy,

"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places."  -Ephesians 6

I'm sure our real enemies are thrilled with the shadow boxing we are doing....swinging at what is not the real enemy at all...and all the while our unseen enemy continues the fight.  

The real battlefield is spiritual.  

The real enemy is the devil and his angels.  

The real war is fought in prayer and with love for others.  

The Christian world I live in has chosen to fight the wrong war, focus on what is not the enemy,  oppose what isn't the real problem at all....and all the while the real enemy prospers and smiles at our foolishness.  He has masterfully misdirected our attention at the wrong things. We are in a war of the worlds....I pray we realize who the real enemy is and focus our attacks in the right way, with the right weapons at the real enemy.  

Our battle is never with people, let me repeat that....our battle is never with people...it's always spiritual and with an enemy unseen.   

If the enemy can get us to focus our attention on the wrong battle, the wrong enemy, the wrong battlefield all the better for him.  

In this war of the worlds I pray we see what the real war is about, who the real enemy really is and how we are to respond.  The real war is for the souls of men, the real enemy is the devil, and the proper response for us is love and prayer.  Those are the "weapons" that will change the culture around us and deal a death blow to the enemy's plans.

What I'm reading

On this snowy Christmas evening in Texas with the fireplace going and the headphones on I finally was able to finish Paul Young's latest book, Crossroads. What a fascinating and strange book. It's the story of a man's fears, failures, regrets and redemption written in a very unique way. Young has a great way of making you deal with much bigger issues than those in the story. It will challenge my thinking for quite a while. It is different and uncomfortable in places, but it will make you think.

Calm before the storm

It's Christmas eve.  In a few hours our family  will descend on our house for food, time together and of course gifts.  It's a great family time each year, but it seems so short.

It's calm right now, but within hours there will noise in our home for the rest of the day!  Great noise...children laughing, giggling, squealing with glee.  And then it's over.  A flurry of gift paper flying in all directions, everyone watching, anxiously waiting their turn to open a gift.  I can't wait to watch the chaos!

But it's calm right now....in this calm I say "thank you" to God for providing family, food, gifts, smiles, and laughter.  I know it's not that way in every home, in every family.  In the calm before the storm I thankful for the chaos that is soon to erupt from our little home with family and friends celebrating the birth of the savior of the world.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Without Jesus....

This morning, as I'm reading, thinking and finding some moments of silence I have been thinking...what would our world be like if Jesus had never been born?  Here are a few of the things I have come up with.  Feel free to add to my list.

Without Jesus.....

....we would never know the extent of God's love

....we wouldn't know what God is like

....we would have no idea what awaits us after death

....we would have no hope

....we would have no model of how life is to be lived

....we wouldn't know that God has emotions, feelings

....we wouldn't know that this is not the way it's supposed to be

....we would never understand God's heart

There is so much more to be listed here, but as I was thinking about it this morning I wanted to list just a few that came to mind. 

I'm thankful that Jesus was born and has revealed God to us.  I'm thankful that he is Lord of heaven and earth and will come again to rule and reign.  I'm thankful that Jesus was born and made all the difference for our little blue planet.

What would you add to my list?

The story of Christmas

The story of Christmas is the story of God's love. 

It's expressed best by Jesus himself as he spoke to Nicodemus.  In that late night visit with a Jewish leader Jesus captures the essence of the story of Christmas with these words,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

In just a few words Jesus tells us about God's heart, his care for us, our problem and its solution.  It's a solution that only God could provide.  On our own we have no way of reaching God, of pleasing him and so God acted, out of love, and resolved our problem.  Jesus is the answer to our problem of sin.  He's the answer to everything really.  In him the love of God is seen and demonstrated.  In him the Father is revealed.  In him we have life and in him we live each moment.  He is our hope of glory, our promise of life, or soon coming king.

Jesus is the story of Christmas.  I pray you know him and know that you have eternal life.  

Send me a note if you want to know more.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas holiday.

Merry Christmas!

December 21

Posted via DraftCraft app

Holiday fun

Lunch today with our kids and their son, Vaughn.  Great fun.

Quote of the day

‎"The enemy is destined to misunderstand God's ultimate purpose. His own darkness is so pervasive he will continually misinterpret events and miss the point of what God is doing. If he had known the purpose of Christ in redemption, he would have chopped down every tree in Israel!"  
-Graham Cooke

Incarnate

Christmas is nearly here. What an amazing time of year. In my country there is the ongoing debate about what it's all about, but at the core this is a time when the Christian world remembers the incarnation, the birth of God the son on planet earth. It's a big deal to us because we believe that in this birth more than 2,000 years ago God demonstrated his love for us by becoming one of us. God became man.

In the short 33 years that followed that event, whether it actually happened at Christmas or another date, God revealed himself through Jesus' life. He spoke, he smiled, he loved, he cared and then finally he died. But the death wasn't the end....it was only the beginning.

From this breach in time, when God entered human history, nothing has been the same. In Jesus' life and death we find out that God loves us, that he really cares about us. We see and know what God is like because Jesus IS God. He reveals the heart of God to us.

Why is the incarnation (Christmas) so important to us? Because in this remeberance of the birth of a baby in a remote part of Israel more than 2,000 years ago we all discover the God who made us. We discover his love. We see in Jesus the answer to all our questions.

In this amazing event of the birth of Jesus we hear God declaring to the world, "I love you and I want you to know me." I hope you do.

The beginning is near....

© 2012  Shavawn M. Berry  All rights reserved

I love the imagery of this picture.  It communicates the very heart of the gospel message!  We are on the cusp of eternity and only beginning our lives.  Most people only see the wall.  They think the wall (death) is the end.  It isn't.  Death is only the beginning!  For the Christian this life is not all there is...it's only the first breath of eternity with forever yet to come!  

The beginning is near....