Prayer Colossians 1:9-12

During the last few years I have found great fruit in praying the scripture over people and situations. In this season of my life it is becoming a major part of my life. So many times as pastors praying over our congrgations can be so daunting. In scripture you can find a well of help overflowing if you look and drink deeply from it. This section of verses are apart of that they really speak the power of Christ over  every situation that any one of us can have. Take the time to read them and start to pray them over those in your life and circle of influence.


9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

Prepare Yourself

The Lord has been speaking to me about stepping out and blogging prophetic words at times so here we go.

Word from the Lord:
It has been a long hard season where you have not seen a lot of deliverance. But you have been faithful to keep going ahead. Prepare yourselves for the Lord's deliverance. HE is moving His sovereign hand . You will see with your natural eyes what HE has been preparing for you in the supernatural. Prepare yourself and pray that you spend the provision He gives you on what it is sent for.

Why God??????????

In times of distress and hardship it is hard to see God and His plan in those times. Many people want answers so that they can understand what is going on and what is the value in this. Where is the God who says He loves and takes care of us. If we are not careful we will lose our heart in a moment of despair. For years the church has not properly taught how to interact with God in these situations. Nor do I have the answers but in the psalms there are some that are called imprecatory and they are filled with a lot of strong language. Go read Psalm 69. While reading this did you see that the author told God exactly how he felt and was very strong in the emotion of it. I am not telling you to ask God to destroy your enemies (in the New Covenant we are to love our enemies), but if things are rough and out of your control and you can't find God, don't do what this culture does and question God why? Which means we quit praying and ignore Him like He isn't there. But instead do what the psalmist does and gets it all out of your system (God will not be upset HE knows that is how you feel anyway) and then changes to praise of God and decreeing that God is the only one who salvation will come from. In the end only God can deliver us!!! His promises are true and HE will do what HE has promised.

God!!!!

Ec 11:5
      5 As you do not know the path of the wind,
         or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,
         so you cannot understand the work of God,
         the Maker of all things.
There is a lot of teaching out there that distorts the image and understanding of God. As humans we want to understand all things and put things in a file so that when needed we can pull it out. With God we even want Him to be at our command, we use scripture to try and hold God to account for what we want Him to do. Because we say He is our father and that our earthly father would not allow this so why does God. It is true that we understand God best through our relationship with our father. But God is above all of our understandings of Him and we cannot put Him into a formula or a type. The word God is far different than father. We have to come to the understanding that God loves us and that He is far above all things and sees the beginning of our lives and the end of our lives. He sees every other life we will effect and the outcome. If God has a specific plan for us or an area we have to simple allow Him to put everything together. We have to believe that HE is God and He knows what HE is doing. Because we compete with God all the time about who everything is about. Just like a husband and wife compete about who needs should be met when. We play this game with God and think because we did something for Him that HE has to do something for us. I wonder if our theology really understood that HE made us for His glory and to have fellowship with Him that we would finally get it. He does not ask us to do things for no reason and yes sometimes the things HE ask us to do gets us smashed. It is brutal sometimes I know. The thing that drives me forward is that HE IS GOD the ultimate supreme being and HE LOVES ME MORE THAT ANYTHING!!! I have to believe that HE has a purpose and plan and everything is about Him receiving all the glory honor and praise.

Ec 12:13-14     

       13  Fear God and keep his commandments,
         for this is the duty of all mankind.
      14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
         including every hidden thing,
         whether it is good or evil.
All we can do and are responsible for is to keep His commands and believe that HE is a great rewarder for those who do them. Remembering that it may not be in this life we get rewarded but in the one to come where we will spend all eternity and really need the promise. SO push away the idea that HE has to do things your way and simple live for God and rest in the fact that HE will do it.

Continue God is developing HIS Righteousness in You!!

When Christians are going through hard times because retribution theology is so apart of our culture we ask what have we done wrong. The problem is that this is not always the case. The book of Hebrews say that since we are children of God and HE wants to develop more of HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS in US than HE takes us through a hard season to bring this about. This means that we are probably going through a season of beat down and old ways are leaving us so that he can replace the old fruit with the new fruit of Righteousness. For different people the season can look very different. I want to encourage you not to stop but pray that the Lord would give you strength and a new revelation of Him that will empower you trust Him even more. We will not always know why but that's OK because HE is God and we have to trust that HE knows the why.

Dead Fruit

The Holy Spirit says, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works” (Hebrews 6:1), and so on, “But let us go on unto perfection.

Right now I see across the Christian culture those who are having a really hard time, the enemy of our soul is attacking us from every direction. The onslaught is strategic by the Lord to propel us into all HE has for us. If we look at Israel we will see that when they got stuck and started to coast and maybe decline the Lord sent a nation to put pressure on them and rile them up. This would cause them to go back to the Lord and renew their commitment to God. We are stuck in many ways in the church. All of our lectures are about elementary things and we are happy to learn them, but God has called us into deeper things in Him. What I see happening is that the things we have always lived in that are not mature God is attacking with a vengeance to cause us to mature in them. For me at one time it was anger, people would say that I was always angry even though I didn’t feel that way. But the problem was that I had become so comfortable with the way I reacted to events it blinded me to really see what was a angry response. I had to take the scripture to see what God thought of my reaction to things. Boy I found so many things that I did were a result from anger that I didn’t see it. After that God helped to deliver me and I started to change the way I reacted to show more of the fruit of the Spirit. The same is true of manipulation, control, criticality, lust, greed, pride…. We can’t go by what we think, we have to take our life and hold it in the light of scripture and allow the Lord to reveal what our fruit really is. When we are just happy with who we are and just expect others to deal with it and accept us then we are living in elementary teachings and this is dead fruit. It keeps us from growing into maturity. We do not want the true light of Christ to reveal who we are and accept His grace to change it. We are comfortable and do not want to change well without change there is no growth. Growth is necessary in all things and we have to become like Jesus and allow the things that are not Godly to fall off and allow the things that are Godly to grow in us.  We have to allow His grace in our lives and allow the fruit of it to change us.

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Read this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 22nd

The burning heart



Did not our heart burn within us? Luke 24:32.

We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, the fires are kindled, we have wonderful visions; then we have to learn to keep the secret of the burning heart that will go through anything. It is the dull, bald, dreary, commonplace day, with commonplace duties and people, that kills the burning heart unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.
Much of our distress as Christians comes not because of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test as to whether we ought to allow an emotion to have its way is to see what the outcome of the emotion will be. Push it to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something God would condemn, allow it no more way. But if it is an emotion kindled by the Spirit of God and you do not let that emotion have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level. That is the way sentimentalists are made. The higher the emotion is, the deeper the degradation will be if it is not worked out on its proper level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many things inevitable as possible, let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay on the mount of transfiguration, but we must obey the light we received there; we must act it out. When God gives a vision, transact business on that line, no matter what it costs.

‘We cannot kindle when we will
The fire which in the heart resides,
The spirit bloweth and is still,
In mystery our soul abides;
But tasks in hours or insight will’d
Can be through hours of gloom fulfill’d.’


Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year. Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers.

Theology

Many people hate this word. It brings an idea of something old that is not relevant or needed today. Little do they know that they have theology in their minds, heart and actions. Since you show your theology by how you live. We can see what you believe about God and yourself in the way you live. So it is not old thing but something powerful and relevant for today. So do not be afraid to know what you believe and be able to thoughtfully articulate it to someone else. This is the begging of wisdom to know who God is not only in experience but in your intellect also. Because one day you may have to defend your faith.

Justified

By impugning God for His evasiveness, Job had committed the same offense against God that the friends had committed. They justified God at Job’s expense, whereas Job justified himself at God’s expense (40:8).

Bullock, C. H. (1988). An introduction to the Old Testament poetic books (Rev. and expanded.) (109). Chicago: Moody Press.

Are we justifying ourselves like the pharisee's at God's expense? This last year that is the place I have been in and I have put it into my families DNA. It is wrong . We do not need to be justified in why we do things. We need to simple obey the Lord and do what he is telling us to do. Realizing that He has a reason for everything He does. God is our maker and creator how can we hold Him accountable for the things He has promised us. That makes us god and that we are not. It puts us in a place of judgment holding God accountable. It then becomes a lens we read the scripture through. We are justified by faith believing till the end that God will do His part, doubt demands that He does it.

Reset

Is God just your reset button to a quick fix? Do you not understand that he wants to fix your brokenness? He doesn't want to just reset you and wait to hit the button again. God gave His son Jesus to fix the things the world and what we ourselves has broken in us. His plan is to make us just like we would be in the garden of Eden without sin and brokenness. Let Jesus heal your heart, mind and soul.

Contending

Many people believe that now that Jesus has come that we should have peace, prosperity, and fruit. Little do they want to talk about the other things that Jesus said we would have as His disciples, suffering, lack and persecution. We have both instances in our lives in different seasons. As we tackle these times in our lives what is in our hearts and minds. As Christians we should see ourselves as kings and priest. We are over comers in Jesus Christ because of His death on the cross. We are now walking in His authority through the Power of the Holy Spirit to stand and contend. We should be full of joy all seasons of our lives. Why because of Jesus Christ. Job say with his friends and mourned in sack cloth and ash seeking God. I am not being critical of Job but the difference between him and us is we have Jesus Christ in our lives living in us. So as we may go through the same things as Job we can walk in joy. We can stand and contend to accomplish all the things that God has asked us to do. DO NOT GIVE UP CONTEND!!

Growth

    My friend has a new garden concept he has invested in. The idea is that there is no dirt, the plants stick out of a pipe. The roots are inserted into the plant and the nourishment flows over the roots. There are no contaminates just organic nourishment. I wonder what would happen if we pushed away from the contamination's of culture both Christian and Secular. We just got our nourishment straight from the Lord.
    The other part of this new system is that the seeds used were from original stock and had not been manipulated to make them better by man. They had not been changed in any way which changes the nutrient  values of the fruit every time we mess with them. It is kinda like processed food that we have learned has caused our obesity and health issues of today.
    In our culture are we doing the same things, manipulating spiritual truths like processed food and seeds are for instant gratification. We see quick growth and joy in the people but there is no long term value in it. As soon as trials come they cannot stand in the storm and are blown over. Lets get back to personal study of God's word and get a steady diet of un-manipulated spiritual food.

Order your day

Time and money have a lot in common. You only have so much of it and you have a lot to accomplish with it. Like a budget for money to tell it where to go for the optimum effect so we must order our day with God and do things His way so that we can accomplish all we can. There are a lot of things that steal this precious commodity from us and they are not always bad things but they keep us from accomplishing all that we can for God. Have you ordered your day yet?

What are we called to?

I have fought for years to understand who I am. Actually I have been afraid to be who I am suppose to be. As i look at my life in the Navy and since then. I have had to debate with hundreds of people. Many of my work assignments have been to debate and change the thought process of someone else. When I was at NSSF I was put in the creation of the Work Authorization Group and we had to get every Submarine on the water front to change the way they did business. We spent a month during the development of the group debating and interpreting what the manuals said about work control. Then we had to train all of NSSF to change the way they do business. It was 18 months of fighting everyday with someone. Then I went to Electric boat and more debating in STO and then as a tech writer. Now I am through Bible college and I feel God is showing me my true calling and it will be again debating. I hate debating many would not know that. To change someone's mindset I believe is the hardest thing to do. I will have to continue to pray this through. Maybe you are going in circles because you haven't accepted who you are? Maybe there is a place you have been disobedient and until you rectify that, you cannot step into what God has for you. That is where I am at, God is really waiting on me to get some things done. So I have repented and am moving forward to finish it.

God of the smallest detail

God has been revealing Himself to me through His Word. I am reading in Leviticus and Numbers and it is not boring as it has been before. I see the God who is very detailed oriented. Each time He says something it is not vague but very precise. Who is to do, and what they are to do. The church today hates it when the leaders call for detail. We are called religious and control freaks, it is not only in the Old Testament but in the New Testament. Many times God gave direct instructions with great detail. He is the God of the sudden-lies and the wind of His Spirit can take us to something unplanned. We cannot only look for that and not understand that we have to do the everyday detailed work. Lets do whatever God wants to do, the sudden-lies and the details!!!

Don't stop!!!!!!!!!!!

I have seen in my life many times when things got to hard and I had no strength left that if I stopped I would not have received anything. Many today are discouraged and confused, you fill like God and man has abandoned you. God has not and in His silence He has been working behind the scenes preparing you and the circumstances around you to explode with deliverance and His purpose. God always has purpose in the waiting no matter what we may think. Don't Stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What are you eating?

In today's christian society we have become a mirror to secular society in that we believe what we read and the culture tells us is acceptable. As followers of Jesus we must make the scriptures ours through careful prayer and meditation allowing the Lord to feed us. I am not against commentaries or books written by good God fearing people. But the norm is not to study ourselves and become mature. It is to grab whatever teaching tickles our ears. I wonder how many starving christian we have out there eating porridge when if they took the time to study and meditate on the Word of God, HE would give them feasts? Are we weary because of where we are getting our rest and food?

Structure

This week I really had something throw me off track. Since I haven't blogged in three days you can tell. I was screaming at the Lord about it at bluff point and felt better after that. The Lord said are you done and I said yes HE said good and that was that. Then yesterday the Lord came into my prayer time and showed me that I valued man made structures more than I loved Him. You see I have always done different things because my leaders say this is the way to be raised up. But God has shown me that I have never been promoted in any way that is common. He has always forced me into positions to promote me. Years ago at Seaport I was not on Pastor Brad's radar yet to be a cell leader. I wasn't being mentored by a cell leader and that was the structure to get there. I told him my idea for a cell on the base in March and He told me to go spend time with so and so to get mentored. Two weeks before Easter the Lord told me to call the base and talk to the Chaplin about the idea. I did and a Catholic Chaplin jumped right on board telling me to start it the next week. Talk about an open door. I went back and told Pastor Brad and he was like what, Rusty you haven't been mentored, and pastor Debbie said what do you mean you have been mentoring Rusty for years, Pastor Brad looked at us and said Yes. Then He promoted me and we jumped on the opportunity the Lord gave us. There had not been a church sponsored bible study on the base in 32 years. PTL!!!!!!! It is never easy because it always humbles me and cost me dearly. I don't think people understand that when you are a prisoner of the Lord and he wants to stir up something HE will do it. Since HE never waste anything he does it changes all of those through the process. What has God asked you to do that might be out of the box and do you love Him enough to do it?

Where is the seperation

In today's Christian society there really is no separation of the the holy and unholy. We have twisted the teachings of the New Testament where there really is no dividing line. We just say that because of Jesus, nothing is unclean. There is no standard because tolerance has crept into the church and what wrong for you may not be wrong for me. I do not think Paul had this in mind he avidly studied the Old Testament and would not of redrawn the lines of scripture so hazily. We need to read the whole Word of God and understand how the New Testament and Old Testament flow together to tell us about the Covenant God has with man through His Son Jesus Christ. Somethings are gone in the Covenant with Jesus as our sacrificial lamb. I don't think we should throw away concepts central to the Old Testament way of serving the Lord. They were important to God than and I am sure they are just as important to God today.

We are media driven christianity

It is kinda funny how we have gotten behind Tebow but there have been a lot of Christian Players. Kitna got fined every time he came out on the field because he wore the cross on his apparel. I am so sick of the media driving us into being BANDWAGON fans. i honor all of the athletes who go on the field before and after the games to pray and with players from the other team. We cant even get two churches to pray together.

Leaving our tools behind

I left the church last night after prayer and left my laptop in the office. This is why my Blog is going out so late today. When I got home from getting it I had to go to the dump. I have felt like a fish out of water because I didn't have what I needed to start my day. My Logos for bible reading and devotionals and my blog. I haven't gotten any school work done this morning or last night.So I wonder how many of us go out into the mission field unprepared for the day because we left our tools behind. I feel that we need to be more diligent in our preparation for the day and make sure we have everything we need. Don't leave your tools behind because you will need them.

Who are you!!!

The greatest confusion these last few years for me is the question of who am I. Many men have come along and told me that because of the gifting I have this is who I am. So I tried to get those things into my heart and be joyful. I have found that the last few months every time I try to go in a direction for anything that men say is the road God has shut me right down. I am not a Senior Pastor, Church planter, or Youth Pastor. I am a Prophet and I am called to stir up the church in New England. I may be on staff somewhere under someone who loves me and can help me to develop the tools for what I am called to be. I may be there for weeks or months at a time just doing the work to help them and then a suddenly will come and I will go and be who I am. A plower. I may go help with a church plant by praying over the area and have evangelistic meetings for them. But I will be helping them do what is in their heart to do. I have been running after things that just are not me and I am so glad the Lord did not give them to me.

Different types of soil- A key to self revelation

It is interesting that the parable of the sower is in three of the gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke. As I was praying and thinking about what to blog today the Lord gave me this. We as Christians have different types of soil in our lives. The sower is the same the Holy Spirit. He spreads the seeds of self revelation of where our true motives are at so that we can know God better and be more like Jesus. Just like the parable though sometimes it takes and yields a harvest and sometimes depending on our heart condition it bears little or no fruit. Then the Holy Spirit becomes the plower preparing the places of our hearts that are not ready for this revelation to be ready for seed. God uses many things to plow us because I think God cares more about us knowing Him than we think. I believe that the word is the barometer of how well we are walking with Christ. The moment we are no longer being changed is the moment we are becoming a fallow field. Maturity must come to the church and it will only come as we face these hard places in our lives. We can no longer be monolithic in our thinking. We cannot say that I have this ONE great revelation and so I have the right to speak into all areas. I am profitable in ONE area so I have achieved all that is necessary. Then we start to compare ourselves to others and get a air of superiority over them. A little aside I am tired of people misusing the word judging. Judging is done in pride comparing one mans work to another s and feeling it is superior. Knowing someone by their personal fruit because their fruit shows us the attitude of their heart is really different. If someone is talking about others than they are a gossiper, this is not a judgment of them it is a fact that they gossip so they are a gossiper. By their fruit we will know them. Just like I am a sinner because I sin, it is not a judgment it is a fact. I am FAT because I do not exercise or take care of my body, so someone that says Rusty is fat is not judging me they are saying out loud what they see, FAT. Now I am not condoning going around telling people their fruit because the law of love says to pray for them and protect them by not exposing their faults. the Holy Spirit can do that just fine and sometimes He chooses to use us. But we as a culture need to quit playing games with each other and realize that by their fruit you will know them.  So what is your personal fruit what is the real condition of your heart soil. What words are coming from your mouth (Facebook) that is a powerful barometer of your heart. I am attacking the hard soil of my heart because I do not want to have any hardness I want a revelation of Jesus that transforms me. Therefore pride, laziness, hurtful speech, anger, control, luster, temple defiler, and bully have to go from my harvest field more and more so that the good fruit can come in Love, peace, joy, kindness, self control, and honriness.
Galatians 5:13-26 back this up.

Life by the Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.h But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesha;i rather, serve one anotherj humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”b k 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit,l and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.m 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.n They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whateverc you want.o 18 But if you are led by the Spirit,p you are not under the law.q
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality,r impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.s I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.t
22 But the fruitu of the Spirit is love,v joy, peace,w forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.x Against such things there is no law.y 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the fleshz with its passions and desires.a 25 Since we live by the Spirit,b let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited,c provoking and envying each other.
The New International Version. 2011 (Ga 5:13–26). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.  

So where is your heart today and fruit are you really bearing? If you want to live by the Spirit of God than lets make producing good fruit a priority this year.

Holiness- A Key to Character Development

Holiness is a requirement for the Christian today. I don't care what the new fad of the church is, God has always asked the church to be separated unto Himself. We do not live unto ourselves, we have given up our rights to Him. I have found some things that are unholy in my thought life and in my physical life. I am hitting my thought life with prayer and reprogramming it to think differently. My body is a temple unto the Lord and I am going to work very hard to loose my weight and have a strong temple. This body doesn't belong to me anymore and I cannot do what I need to accomplish if I am tired and weary because my flesh can not keep up with all I need to do. Just like my body there are a lot of bad things stealing energy and progress in the church body. We have had awesome moves of God only to have them discredited by the leader falling away because they fell into sin. Their private temple did not maintain the separated life of holiness the Lord requires and the enemy got in there and destroyed all God had done. I believe in this day God is calling us to new positions of holiness and humility so that we can be ready for when He does pour out His Spirit. I believe what we have seen from the Lord is a warning and a raising of the bar, He allows men and women to be raised as grace and those who cant maintain it are examples of why it is so important to develop our character and holiness along with the supernatural gifts. Church leadership has got to quit just looking at the giftedness of the person we must look at their character and hold them accountable. We cannot afford anymore black eyes because we didn't look globally at the whole picture.

Obedience- A Key to Relationship

 And Aram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
 —Genesis 17:3–4
In today's culture the idea of obedience has two understandings of what that means. This is also in the church culture. Some obey God only in His written word and others obey God in His spoken word. The first group hold up the Word of God as their standard and know it. The other group can hear the Lord and move as they see Him move. We have got to bring this together or we only have one part of who God is. Our relationship and understanding of Him will be one sided. I have seen this many times in my own life. I will move and do crazy things the Lord has spoken to me but to do the mundane written things that also make me who I am in Him not so much. I am working in this new year to put the two together. Jesus knew the written word and obeyed it but He also heard His Father and did the spoken things God had for Him. Let us develop both of these two aspects of relationship. It is not religiosity or bondage it is simple living like Jesus did in the wholeness of RELATIONSHIP.

Consecration a key to finishing the race

In today's christian culture the idea of consecration is dead. No one wants to give anything from their old life up anymore. We still want our diversions from life and we don't bring Christ even into that part of our routine. I feel a strong urge from the Holy Spirit to consecrate my life a new to Him for the next seven days. I wonder what would happen if it became a lifetime consecration. If we understood that we do not live for this world but are living for the world to come. I wonder how much confusion, doubt, and tiredness come from where we spend our down time. I know for me I cannot live in the realm of TV, Secular Fantasy Books and Games anymore. These things have caused a divided Rusty and I am so tired sometimes I do not do the things I need to do. So my question is how much do you believe this is a year of Jubilee are you willing to let go of some things so you can have some things. How deep in the Lord Jesus Christ do you want to go? I don't care how much of the Spirit of God you have and how much HE uses you, if your personal devotion is divided you to will never accomplish all the Lord has for you. The gifts work without repentance and many times God uses us because the person we are ministering to needs it so desperately. So don't think that because God uses you powerfully that you have it all, no it should humble you to dig deeper in Him and deal with your personal stuff. I don't know about you but I want to finish the race and win, not just wow some people because I have a fast sprint and then fade away. Are you doing the things to make it to the end of the race?

The New Year

Happy New Year we say and then we try and think of things that we should establish in our lives. For some it feels like a butterfly coming from their cocoon stepping into a new world. As a Christian who has God's mercies new every morning and His Spirit residing within us everyday should be a day of starting something new. Everyday we should be closer to Jesus than ever before because our hearts are filled with more of His love than the day before. I wonder what would happen if we told people who do not know Jesus that the new thing they are looking for is a relationship that will fulfill all their emptiness if they want it. I wonder what would happen if we Christians really lived the gospel we say we live by. I was reading about Elijah today and I want each new day this year be such that I can say I who stand in the presence of God lives.